When I walked the Camino de Santiago for the second time, several years ago, the last part seemed more like a parade than a nice quiet hike. I decided to look for other long distance trails to walk for a few days or weeks. Italy offered that opportunity with a 400k section of the Via Francigena through Tuscany. Then I learned about the Rota Vicentina, a trail network in south western Portugal that was fairly new (2012) and not so crowded yet.
Slow Train to Slovakia
How do you get to Slovakia? We were already so close, in Switzerland. But we discovered that to get to Bratislava, we’d have to spend a fortune and fly via Dubai…. So we ended up flying to Vienna instead, which was cheap and easy. I’ve always wanted to see Vienna but , unfortunately, there was no time. From Vienna, we took a bus to Bratislava, we walked the countryside and ate traditional food.