POLAND: ZAKOPANE

June 24, 2019

One of the great things about Krakow is that there are so many nearby places that make good day trips.  One such destination is Zakopane, a resort town sometimes called "the winter capital of Poland" that lies about 70 miles south of Krakow on the Slovakian border.

The drive there was at least as fun and interesting as Zakopane itself. 

Our first stop was Chochołów, a 16th-century village of wooden cottages built by the highlanders living in the region. The homes are still occupied today.

And some of the high points are occupied by storks.

DOOR PENINSULA, WISCONSIN: CAVE POINT COUNTY PARK

Before I get into this last post in my Wisconsin series, I have to say a few words about Wisconsin cheese: There's a lot of it.

Wisconsin produces more cheese than any other state in the Union. In 2014, it produced 2.9 billion pounds of cheese, or just over 25% of all the cheese produced in the United States. In a 2006 article, the New York Times noted, "Cheese is the state's history, its pride, its self-deprecating, sometimes goofy, cheesehead approach to life." On our way north to the nethermost regions of Wisconsin, we stopped at a remarkable cheese shop with so many delicious options that it made my head hurt:

Player Shaped Cheese, Football Shaped Cheese, State Shaped Cheese, Cow Shaped Cheese (in both black & white and yellow)--they have cheese I never knew I wanted but did as soon as I saw them (never mind the lack of hyphens in the names):

They have more kinds of cheese than Germany has brats or France has breads:

What does a bear have to do with cheese? I have no idea, but he is cute, isn't he?