On the doorstep For the first few days you hardly need the car: a cave, a spa park and a rocky lookout are all next door. Radochów and Radochów Cave on foot, or 3 km Behind Cierniak, the hill crowned by a pilgrimage chapel and Stations of the Cross, hides Jaskinia Radochowska – one of the earliest-known caves in the Sudetes. With helmet and headlamp you spend about 40 minutes in passages where cave bears once hibernated. Open in the warmer months; it is around 9 °C inside. Lądek-Zdrój about 5 km One of Poland’s oldest spas: people were bathing in its warm, sulphurous springs in the Middle Ages. Its centrepiece is the domed Wojciech bathhouse with a circular marble pool – you can still step into the thermal water today and taste the mineral water in the pump room. Goethe stayed here, and later the American envoy and future president John Quincy Adams. In town, look for the market square, the stone St John’s Bridge of 1565 and the hillside arboretum. 1 Trojak and Borówkowa Two viewpoints for half a day. Trojak (766 m), a cluster of crags above the spa quarter, is under an hour’s climb from the park. On Borówkowa (900 m) a lookout tower stands right on the border; the shortest ascent starts at the Lądecka Pass beyond Lutynia. Złoty Stok about 18 km Gold was mined here for more than seven centuries. In the Gold Mine (Kopalnia Złota) you ride an underground tram, stand before an underground waterfall and finish by panning for gold yourself. For children it is the highlight of the area – all the more so in the rain. 2 Festival in the valley Every September Lądek-Zdrój becomes the capital of mountain people: the Andrzej Zawada Mountain Festival brings films, talks and climbers from around the world. If you plan to come then, book early. For your first evening A stroll through the spa park, a cup of mineral water, coffee on the promenade – arrival day needs nothing more. 4 Kłodzko Land, a compact travel guide
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