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Discover Poland

June 2021
Life is slowly getting back to "normal" and countries start to open their borders again. So for us, it's time to pack our bikes and go cycling :) During our 3 weeks leave, we are going to explore the beauties of our neighbouring country Poland. Read more
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  • Discover Poland
    Day 1

    Getting the bikes ready

    June 4, 2021 in Germany ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C

    Stage 0: We drove to Herbert's parents in Niesky where we want to start our bike trip through Poland. While I set up my mobile workplace in the garden, Herbert spent most of the day packing the bikes. We reduced our luggage significantly compared to the last trip, so we also had to adjust the packing and strap system.
    At lunch time, we cycled to the local test centre to get an antigene test which we need to cross the border to Poland.
    Later in the afternoon, more family arrived to celebrate Herbert's mum's birthday with lots of food. Good for us, so we could fill up on calories before the trip.    Read more

  • Discover Poland
    Day 2

    Warm up at the "Riesengebirge"

    June 5, 2021 in Poland ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C

    Finally, our trip starts. Almost exactly one year ago, we took off from Niesky in order to go East as far as possible in Corona times. We made it to Turkey. This time, we only have one country on the target list: Poland. And after only 22km, we already crossed the border in Görlitz. Border crossing was easy, no checks, no border patrol seen anywhere, no one asking for our negative test result.
    The first challenge was to get Polish money. But ATMs were either broke or charged a hell lot of fees. After one hour cycling and searching, we got money from Santander bank without any problems or fees. So we could continue.
    We headed South to "Riesengebirge" and passed countless villages on the way. Most of the time, we could cycle on really small roads with basically no traffic. However, when we had to go on a bigger road, we were annoyed by the Polish drivers. They just don't keep distance at all to cyclists.
    Today's stage was quite slow. Winds came mainly from Eastern directions, so we faced side or headwinds. Plus, coming closer to the mountains, the road was rolling which is exhausting after a while. In the end, we decided to stay at a campground to be able to enjoy a shower 😉    Read more

  • Discover Poland
    Day 3

    On gravel roads to Breslau

    June 6, 2021 in Poland ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

    In the morning, a new challenge waited for us: find food. On Sundays, most of the supermarkets and shops are closed (which we expected). However, in the next town, we hoped to at least find a café or something similar to have breakfast. After a lot of searching, we found a gas station which sold coffee. They also had ONE toast left which we then had to share. Luckily, we had some cookies and a couple of apples left from the day before.
    The first part of the trip led us through the foothills of the "Riesengebirge". It's very green, beautiful nature and a mekka for mountainbikers and hikers. Cycling was kind of tough as most of our route was on gravel. For lunch, we stopped at a fancy restaurant at a lake as this was the only food option with an ok detour. Afterwards, we continued our trip to Wroclaw mainly on gravel roads where we could stay with our warmshowers hosts Martyna and Michal and their dog Tina.    Read more

  • Discover Poland
    2
    Day 4

    Exploring Breslau

    June 7, 2021 in Poland ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C

    We had a coffee with Michal and Martyna and got a lot of recommendations about where to go and what to see and eat in Poland. That's what we enjoy about the warmshowers network: you really get to meet the locals ❤️
    First on our list for today was a visit of Wroclaw centre. Quite some impressive buildings everywhere. And all the water and islands and bridges and beachbars and restaurants and cafés make it a really nice place to be. We bought some breakfast at the bakery, sat down at the main square and watched the people.
    Afterwards, it was time to move. The way out of the city was nice as we could cycle along the River Odra, mainly on gravel, on a dam and through forests. After some 40km, we had to go on roads, some remote, some pretty busy. The area here is flat, so not much to see. The villages reminded us of rural Romania, maybe with a slightly younger crowd, but generally not much going on.
    Our challenge in Poland is to find water. Whereas in Turkey, there were water sources every x km to fill up our bottles, there is nothing comparable here. So we ended up in a gas station again.
    Shortly before the end of the day, we passed a lake and jumped into the chilly water. Fresh and clean, we cooked dinner and cycled a little bit more until we found a cosy spot for our tent on a hidden field.    Read more

  • Discover Poland
    Day 5

    Detouring industrial area

    June 8, 2021 in Poland ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    The area between Wroclaw and Krakow is quite busy, city after city, factory after factory. We are trying to avoid most of it by cycling a detour South of the straight route between those two cities.
    Most of the time, we are lucky and find some remote streets or even awesome forest roads. Thus, we can see some wildlife such as rabbits, storchs (even with babies already) or, like today, a wild pig. In Poland, there's churches everywhere, and their architecture differs: some look like the ones in Germany, some are wooden like the ones in Romania, some are of communist style, some look quite modern.
    At the end of the day, we found a nice lake again and went for a swim. There were toilet facilities including running water. We cooked our dinner on one of the park benches and headed to the woods before it got dark. The mosquitoes tried to kill us, so we had to hide in the tent very early.    Read more

  • Discover Poland
    Day 6

    Kraków - great place to live

    June 9, 2021 in Poland ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    An early start and breakfast at a petrol station = business as usual. Afterwards, we visited the concentration camp of Ausschwitz - Birkenau and thought about cruel humans can be. What a dark side of history! The site itself was closed, so we could only visit from the outside.
    From here, we had planned a route to Kraków on komoot. But when we discovered there is Eurovelo 4, we just turned off the navigation system and followed the signs instead. It was a pleasant ride along river Weichsel, quite easy, especially with tailwinds.
    In Kraków, we checked into a hostel and took off to explore the city. We walked around the centre and the castle. But what we liked most was the Jewish quarter Kazimierz. It's full of bars and cafés, little shops and a totally mixed crowd of people. We spent quite some time walking around, having drinks and dinner. What a cool city!    Read more

  • Discover Poland
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    1
    Day 7

    Riding along river Weichsel

    June 10, 2021 in Poland ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C

    Our next goal is to reach the Green Velo along the Eastern boarder of Poland. We considered two options: a Southern route along the Carpathan Mountains or the inland and shorter round along the Weichsel. In the end, we decided to take the shorter route along the Weichsel as it will pass Poland's wine region.
    It was an easy ride: a nicely paved bike path and all flat. Only the wind wasn't too much in our favor. We saw many animals on the way, storchs, deer, rabbits, birds. The further East we got, the less people we saw. In Zalepie, houses are colored with flowers, so we had a stop to look around. Once, we also had to cross a river by ferry which was also interesting. For the night, we pitched our tent next to the river hidden in the high grass.    Read more

  • Discover Poland
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    Day 8

    Historical Sandomierz

    June 11, 2021 in Poland ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C

    During the night, we heard a male deer barking close to our tent which sounded quite funny. The advantage of sleeping in the tent is that you hear all those animals out there. The disadvantage of pitching the tent in high grass is all the insects, worms and snails you can find in the morning all over your stuff. But who cares, nothing that kills us 😉
    Our route today took us to many tiny villages. There's heaps of agriculture near the river. Until today, mainly crops, potatoes, etc. Today, we also passed many orchards (pears, apples, plums), at one point our path led through the middle of two rows of apple trees.
    In addition to churches, you can find all kind of Jesus and Virgin Mary statues and sanctuaries in the gardens and along the roads. We stopped counting...
    After another ferry crossing, we arrived in the historical town of Sandomierz in the afternoon. First, it started to rain, so we had to hide for a while. Then, we could visit the old town with its cobble stone roads, churches and other historical buildings. The area here is also the center for Polish vineyards. However, when we tried to find a regional wine in the supermarket, we were unsuccessful, so I reckon they are not too good.
    At the end of the day, we stayed at a hotel at night as we had to wash our cloths.    Read more

  • Discover Poland
    Day 9

    Cycling on the green velo

    June 12, 2021 in Poland ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

    This morning, we started cycling on the Green Velo. First, we followed the signs to Ulanow. The bike path on this stretch was quite disappointing as it was basically a bike lane next to a secondary road leading through many look-alike villages.
    We missed a turn and decided to navigate ourselves to get to a point of the velo further East. And straight away, roads became more of an adventure :) The soil here is super dry, basically all sand, so it's kind of difficult to cycle off road. However, it's definitely more fun!
    In Bilgoraj, Herbert finally bought the smallest amount of strawberries he could get: 500 grams. He had been longing for this all trip so far. From here, the Green Velo became more interesting, going on remote roads through the forest, all away from the main traffic. When we arrived at Rostoczanski National Park, we saw some nice-looking farm accommodation and decided to not go on and wildcamp but take a room instead. The strong rain predicted for the night was an additional reason 😉    Read more

  • Discover Poland
    Day 10

    A rainy day

    June 13, 2021 in Poland ⋅ 🌧 14 °C

    Our day started with a huge breakfast at our guesthouse. Even Herbert didn't manage to try everything. However, we were well prepared for a tough day against the wind and through the rain.
    Most of the bus stops here provide good shelter against bad weather here, so they were our friends. In the end, we had to put on our rain gear and were still pretty soaked by the time we arrived in Chelm where we were happy to stay with Klaudia and her family in their dry house.Read more

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