In this post, I’ll look back at a three-day hiking trip from early May. One that was beautiful through variety.

A damp beginning

The first day was planned to be spent in the hills overlooking the Slovakian town Nitra, where we were to stay for two nights. At home, it was a bit gloomy wake-up, with clouds obscuring the sunrise. That changed little during the journey – of which, a significant part was following the main Slovakian highway. We took a stop above the town Trenčín, giving us a view of the castle looming above the town, which we visited on the third day – for now, the gray clouds made for poor photos.

After dealing with traffic in Nitra, we were dropped off in the upper portion of the town. From there, it was right up the peak overlooking the town. Getting my bus-stiff legs to move had an unexpected help – sounds of drums from the stadium down in the town.

I stopped at a place with some exposed rocks, which also provided a nice view of the town below. The skies turned gray, and it was a lot of wondering whether we’ll manage to avoid rain. The morning also wasn’t exactly warm, so I set off at my own pace to stay warm, turning it into a solo hike for most of the day.

The low elevation and thus warmer climate (despite the day’s weather) made for a scenery full of blooming flowers and woods I could describe as “airy” – with more space between the trees, underbrush of varied shrubs and flowers, and fields with low (almost steppe-like) grasslands. Soon, rain showers arrived. Quite weak, fortunately for me, but maybe three or four of them passed in an hour or so.

At the edge of the above-pictured field, I met a hiker going in the opposite direction, who told me there are wild boars in the area. Having a comfortable lead to finish the hike in time, I slowed down, alert for any suspicious sound, and googled what to do, just in case. Slowing down also let me rest a bit, but I was lucky and the only major wildlife I found was a deer hiding in the grass.

I continued to wander around, doing a wide loop through the area before heading back towards the town. By 14:00, the clouds began to disperse, and I could get a taste of the warm, grassy parts.

Following the trail, I took a wide path around the hill shown above, the trail leading me to the next point of interest. The first convent stood there from the 9th to the 15th century. The next convent existed from 1697 to 1782. At some point, the former convent grounds were used to build a sanatorium, which occupies most of the place now.

After descending to the town, having ice cream in the park, and leaving my backpack at the hotel, I walked to the castle above the town. However, as the main season starts only in summer, only the tower lookout and the relatively small courtyard were open to the public.

A warm day

The second day started with bright, sunny weather – and that lasted. Even if the morning was colder, the temperature rose fast and promised a warm day.

After an hour-long bus ride, we were dropped off in a village. I, eventually, decided to alter my original plan to include a ruin above the village, though there wasn’t much left of the former castle.

From there on, we ascended towards the peaks and followed the main trail to the highest point of this area, which was also a location of a castle before, but the harsher weather left no traces of it whatsoever. The peak was quite crowded, though, and the surrounding vegetation provided little space for landscape photos.

From this peak, it was a sharp descent towards the village, but it wasn’t yet over for me – there was one more trail just above the village I wanted to do – a loop maybe 6km long that led to one of the largest ruins in this area. And the ruin beckoned powerfully, dominating the landscape even from below…

The warm Sunday had brought a lot of people there, not just the 40 or so people from our hiking club. I can’t blame them.

Some parts are undergoing some light work to stabilize the remaining walls to preserve the site, especially the outer walls (as seen by the scaffolding present in the photo above).

I spent a while walking around the ruin, taking photos and enjoying the nice day.

But there was one last place for me to see, so I left the ruin and went to search for it. The trail was marked well, so that was the easy part. Supposedly, the last was once the place of another fort or a watchtower (named “cold castle” by the signpost) but all I could see were rock outcroppings with a breathtaking view. This one had to be abandoned very long ago as well and, on the exposed rocks, succumbed to the ravages of time.

The upper castle in the background made for a nice touch.

Farewell with a castle

The third day with spent in the town of Trenčín and its surroundings. The castle dominating the town is much more preserved than what we’ve seen in the first two days, and even the exteriors are a magnificent sight. The unguided admission for 8€ included even some limited interior access as well as side expositions in the town (the hangman’s house and the town’s museum).

I had to deal with a detour right at the start – the access to the main gate was closed for repairs, so I had to circle around the castle to the backside entrance. Which provides an imposing view of the castle’s defenses.

Despite the clear skies, the weather wasn’t all nice due to the wind that wasn’t exactly warm (though I wouldn’t say it was as cold as some people made it to be).

That didn’t stop me from going to the tower and admiring the surroundings from above. The castle defenses truly stood out.

After leaving the castle grounds, I walked a bit from the town, to enjoy the landscape, before circling back. With some time left before departure, I returned to the square below the castle, had tasty ice cream, and stopped in the hangman’s house, then at a café with a small collection of old cars.

From there, it was a short walk to the town’s swimming pool, where our bus was parked, which also provided one more nice view of the castle (though with the railroad in the way).

With that, all that remained was the journey home. For early May, the weather was unexpectedly favorable, which definitely made this an enjoyable trip.

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So, that’s one of my May hiking retrospectives. Another is coming sooner or later, focused on the one-day hikes.