Poland: A New Cycling Adventure for Tired, Old Legs
Prompted by 85 year old Des, I thought an adventure in Poland would be good – promising miles of easy cycling, sunshine and an interesting history. Choosing TomTom and Asif as companions (we had many miles of cycling and an easy friendship between us) planning started in earnest. Krakow was the start and end point of an anticlockwise circuit with the River Vistula taking us west and southwards and the River Dunajec bringing us back across the border from Slovakia. Bearing in mind Des’ age, Asif’s diabetes, TomTom’s lung issues and my heart problems the route was expected to be gentle (well I didn’t want to frighten anyone by mentioning a few days of 50 miles hilly sections).
After looking at the logistics of taking our own bikes on a flight from Gatwick to Krakow, we decided as a group to hire bikes in Krakow instead. The company we chose after a brief search was https://biketrip.pl/ based in Krakow. We didn’t need need the luxury of a tour company planning routes and carrying our luggage , just some bikes to hang our own panniers on. The chosen hire company do have electrike bikes for hire but I decided that the mileages would be too high for these machines in the terrain I had in mind.
Asif had been cycling through the year and was fairly fit. I wasn’t as fit as I would like to be (too many cruise buffets!). TomTom had not ridden for many months due to hospital appointments and breathing issues but I organised a few days of rides around Surrey to get him up to doing 40 miles in a day. Des, although seeming indestructible, realised that his knees were causing him too much grief at his venerable age and sadly pulled out of the trip leaving just us 3 crocks to make the journey.
We flew with Easyjet each of us checking in one pannier and carrying a lighter pannier as hand luggage at a cost of roughly £200 each. All accomodation was pre-booked with booking.com. For reference, this is what I took with me…
Although not strictly necessary, I usually carry a proper, heavy, gold rated D-Lock with me on tour. There is a fair amount of medicine that I have to take with me these days – well it keeps me alive so I shouldn’t complain. Apart from what you see, I wore hiking trousers, light fleece, rain jacket and Merrell walking shoes for the flight. These are all reasonable for off the bike moments like the hikes, dinners etc – but no use for a fancy restaurant or the opera.
One last minute problem arose which was getting entrance tickets to Auschwitz. I hadn’t realised that official tour tickets need booking months in advance and were now fully sold out. I did, however, manage to get tickets through Viator. These were very pricey because they included return coach tickets from Krakow which we obviously did not need. Thankfully, our small gang accepted another cost hit of £70 each and I arranged by email to meet the tour group with our bikes at Auschwitz instead of in Krakow.
Arrival Day, Krakow
No problems with the flight from Gatwick to Krakow other than the usual issue of 3 old men trying to check our luggage in on a self service system. Getting to the bike hire place in Krakow from the airport proved quite easy – just a straight bus ride took us right there. Payment for buses is a straightforward 4 polish zloty around 80 British pennies for 1 hour on the local, public transport.
Once we got to the bike shop, we realised the bikes were not exactly ideal. TomTom likes to keep both feet on the ground when stationary and the only bike they had was a step through “ladies” frame. The bikes were quite heavy but seemed robust and we were promised that they would be cleaned and “serviced” for us to collect the next morning. During the long walk to our hotel, we realised two things:
- Panniers are awkward things to carry around town and a pair of 6 kg bags are painful to lug for 1 mile.
- We should have brought cash to change at the many exchange booths as withdrawing cash from a machine came with a hefty 10% commission.
In the end we took the financial hit, finding the one kantor that would accept debit cards. We exchanged enough cash to get us through most of the journey. The Hotel Regency was basic but centrally located and we spent the rest of the day walking around beautiful Krakow before a lovely dinner in a Vietnamese restaurant – it turned out to be our favourite restaurant during the whole trip!
Day 1 – Krakow to Oświęcim
The day started off badly as I realised my Garmin did not have a map of Poland and there was no means of loading it via my mobile phone. You need a computer with Garmin Express and a USB cable to do this.
Fortunately, Asif had a map working on his Garmin so between that and my mobile phone we found our route along the river and set off towards Tyniec Abbey arriving in time for an early lunch at a riverside cafe next to a small ferry. Zapiekanka is a Polish fast food and for vegetarians it has lots of cheese and onion toppings – the full flavoured taste of unhealthy food.
We arrived at our overnight stop “Old Tree Villa” just about in time for dinner which seemed is ridiculously early. Be warned that in the countryside, many restaurant kitchens close at 8pm!
Day 2 – Auschwitz and Bestwina
Oświęcim is the Polish name for the town where the Nazis built their extermination camp and as we did the short ride to the Auschwitz 1, it was very surreal to see an amusement park with a roller coaster in the near distance. I guess people just carry on living in the darkest shadows of history. After some confusion with the tour company about how to get into the camp, tickets were WhatsApped to me and we were in after a heavy security check. Many people with Israeli flags but there were also many other people from all over the world. More confusion as our guide didn’t appear but another phone call directed us to a waiting area and we joined an English speaking tour. I don’t think this was the private tour we should have been with but the Official guide let us join without any fuss.
My advice is do your research because it gets very hot even in September and there is no shade and pretty much nowhere to sit either. Take water!
Auschwitz 1 is every bit as awful as you imagine from the moment you walk under the infamous sign “Arbeit Macht Frei” and as you walk around the buildings which have been restored for visitors. The first gas chambers are here where diesel engines were used to kill people with carbon monoxide.
After a couple of hours in Auschwitz 1 we got on a bus to Auschwitz Birkenau or Aushchwitz 2. Here is where you find see the scale of the industrialised extermination that was going on. Starting from the train line it was turn left to go to the work camp or turn right to go straight to a gas chamber. The only part of the wooden huts are the chimneys – after the war, any timber was taken by locals for firewood or reused elsewhere.
These drawings in the prisoner hut were created by a later German POW and one of them features St Michael’s Kirk in Hamburg which I know well having lived in the city. It was one of the few buildings not flattened by the allies during “Bomber” Harris campaign.
We finally left Auschwitz around 4.30pm and started our 10 mile ride to Bestwina where we stopped for the night in a lovely Hotel/Pizzaria. One of the most moving days of our lives simply ended with pizza and beer.
Day 3 – Bestwina to Wisła
If you look carefully at the spelling, there is a strange letter ł which looks like an “l” but is actually pronounced w. Of course w is pronouced as a v. This is one of the many reasons we didn’t have a clue how to ask for directions to anywhere. Thank goodness for Garmin – well actually, as I didn’t have a Garmin map of Poland, I was now relying on the Komoot “app” which is available on my Garmin Edge Touring 2. This provides a Komoot map on your Garmin via a bluetooth connection to your mobile phone. Although it is free for the first week, it soon becomes pretty expensive at £4.99 per week! Another downside is that the app crashes when your phone connected loses signal, blowing up your route planning as well as the journey you have recorded so far.
The ride to Wisła started of very flat as we cycled past many carp ponds on quiet roads – some of them gravel but the heavy bikes made light work of the gravell tracks. By now though, I had started to have problems with my chain. It had a couple of very tight links and although I have two chain tools, neither of them were quite the right size for the 7 speed, heavy chains on the tour bike. I did my best but the chain cntinued to give me trouble for several days.
Once we rejoined the River Vistula we continued upstream into the mountains. Wisła is a low level ski resort town with many of the fit locals whizzing around a circuit on roller skis.
Inevitably, our accomodation was half a mile up a steep hill! On the plus side we had a sauna and a swimming pool which I thoroughly enjoyed. Dinner however, was back in town at the bottom of the hill.
Day 4 – Into the Mountains and Námestovo, Oravny Lake in Slovakia
This was a tough day’s cycling. I haven’t mentioned, until now, each day started with a visit to a local supermarket to stock up on snacks (peanuts or snickers) and something for lunch, usually bread or croissants and some fruit. Asif also had to buy bottles of sugar loaded orange juice because of his diabetes. Well, it was all needed as we headed into proper mountain territory with a steady climb along a stream and a forest road up into Slovakia.
Each big climb was followed by a big descent and then another big climb. Just as well Des decided not to come I thought. No one complained much though I did hear some dastardly muttering as we walked up the steepest parts of the quiet roads. Eventually we arrived at our destination on a pretty lake, Namestovo in Slovakia. A tough ride but we ended up with a good meal and a nice accomodation.
Day 5 – Námestovo to Zakopane, Poland
As expected, this turned out to be the toughest day of our trip. A lot of climbing to get to Zakopane but from there we would be following the River Dunajec downstream. Before all that we stopped at the local Lidl for our daily top up of food supplies. Here I spent 30 minutes wresting with the chain before finally achieving some success with the help of TomTom holding onto my chaintool with a set of pliers while I eased the rivet.
Fereling pleased that my chain was no longer jumping and I had more than two gears to choose from, we followed the lake out of town before the climbing started.
We skirted around Trstena where we caught a 7 mile long, tarmaced, cycle path which took us over the border back into Poland. Along the way, we found a picnic spot with a water fountain where we had a snack. TomTom decided to share his with a cat!
Eventually we arrived at the famous “wooden” town of Chockolow where all the buildings are made of timber. We were in serious need of a cup of tea but were thwarted by the promising lloking cafe – CLOSED.
We did eventually find somewhere in town to sit and enjoy some of the famous pierogi (Polish dumplings). Very nice they are too but not something I’d fancy for every meal! Once we left the town the climbing started in earnest as we headed up into the mountain ski resort of Zakopane. TomTom and Asif were less than delighted when I managed to find a route that would test a mountain biker!
Once through the “rough” forest track, the route continued ever higher until we got to Kościelisko, high up above Zakopane where more of the amazing wooden architecture stood out.
As we stood by an old, wooden church, TomTom looked bleakly at me and asked the dreaded question, “Are we nearly there yet?”. I pointed down the hill and said Zakopane is at the bottom of this hill so we should be ok now. The doubtful look he gave me was priceless. However, the long descent into Zakopane was not the end of the day’s drama.
Good old booking.com had given me an address to pick up the key to our apartment Za Strugiem 41. After finding the key safe and following the instructions to open it, the key just had Apartment 2, 41B printed on it. I tried every apartment in the block and the key wouldn’t work. We went outside for a look and a helpful neighbour told us 41B was up the driveway. Saw a building 41 B and tried every apartment in there and the key still wouldn’t work. Went back to 41 and started to worry that someone would call the police. Eventually, the helpful neighbour’s wife came out and showed us the correct building.
Much later, we realised that if we had used the car park, we would have seen that Za Strugiem 41 was actually two buildings with A and B signs on them. A very stressful 45 minutes added to our day after such a hard ride seemed a bit even by my usual luck!
Day 6 – Zakopane and the Tatras
It’s a good idea to have a day off the bike at the half way stage and our chosen day comprised a 10 mile hike in the Tatra Mountains. The entrance to the park was a very short distance from our apartment through luck more than careful planning on my part. However, during the previous evening, I received an Emergency SMS message from the Polish Mountain service warning of heavy thunder storms and to avoid the mountains. We contacted Ewa, originally from Poland and club member who happened to be in Poland at the time. Ewa, somewhat unhelpfully said,”They send these messages a lot and they aren’t always right. It’s up to you. you can always buy some second hand mountain clothes in townand throw them away afterwards.”
All very good advice I expect but in the morning, at 8am, the weather looked fine. After a brief discussion, we chose to take a risk, walk to the park and see what the situation was before making a final decision. Wise choice because we saw many Polish visitors and their families, even with young babies so we decided to carry on into the mountains. Just in case, I had a shorter route down the mountain should the weather change suddenly.
After the climb to Sarnia Skała, we continued mostly down to the bottom from where the Kasprowy Wierch Cable Car took us up to the top of the 1,987 meter mountain – on the border with Slovakia. We had a picnic lunch at the top and the sun came our briefly. This is a popular spot to take photos of brides and grooms and we saw a two couples struggling to the peak in the wedding finery. Freezing too as the brides were just wearing white wedding dresses!
We made our way back down to Zakopane by cable car and a private minibus. A walk through the touristy heart of town and we were home again in time for showers and dinner. Not a drop of rain thank you for your help Ewa!
Day 7 – Zakopane to Lake Czorsztyn
Finally, we were on our way downstream and at least on average we must have been heading downhill. The Velo Czorsztyn starts just outside Zakopane and follows the River Dunajec taking us much of the way to our penultimate destination at Tarnow. We were only doing a short 32 mile ride to Niedzica Zamek on the southern bank of Lake Czorsztyn on this day so could relax and enjoy the scenery. It seemed that the Tatra mountains were following us and the views were just magnificent.
As we cycled through a short section in a forest, we were accompanied by a friendly Polish man who told us that he had taken photos of us as he was putting together the publicity for cycling around the Malopolska Region which srurrounds Krakow etc – basically, where we had been. After telling us that we may be made famous by his article, he left us to visit a local bike pannier company and we continued on towards a lunch stop. Nothing promising appeared until, in the end, we just stopped at a Zabka Cafe – essentially a takeaway food counter in a mini-market. Hot coffee and a panini seemed like good value even though the nutritional benefits were dubious.
When we reached the lake we thought we had it made but the cycling trail around the lake is very hilly. After a gruelling hour, we got to Niedzica Zamek but of course, our hotel was at the top of yet another hill.
Accomodation was very basic but it was convenient for our “rest day” rafting though the Dunajec Gorge. During dinner, a brief discussion led us to book a taxi for the morning’s journey to the rafting starting point. The alternative involved 10 miles with a big climb each way!
Day 8 – Rafting through the Dunajec Gorge
The Dunajec River marks the border with Slovakia in this area and as we paddled downstream with our new rafting buddies, we crisscrossed the border several times. At Červený Kláštor in Slovakia, we all disembarked and went into the Red Monastery for a much needed break. The Monastery ceased being a religious building in 1782 and is now a museum with a cafe and restaurant where a lot of rafting visitors stop for refreshments. While Asif enjoyed a cup of coffee, TomTom and I tried the beer that the Monastery is now famous for. Very nice indeed but quite intoxicating after being tossed around on the raft! There were several big rafts on the river, filled with Slovak tourists who were singing folk songs and cracking jokes with the Poles on our boat. We just enjoyed the scenery and the sound of laughter but had no idea what the jokes were.
Day 9 – Lake Czorsztyn to Stary Sącz
Warning change of weather! The day started with us cycling through the Dunajec Gorge along the same 14 miles we had rafted the the day before. However, it was raining heavily throughout! After some early photos at the two dams at the end of the lake, we continued along the Velo Czorsztyn. This is a good tarmac cycling route through forest alongside the river.
The stop at the Red Monastery came at a good time but as we were cold and wet, opted against beer today! A look around the small museum gave us a bit of respite from the weather and we each had two cups of coffee to warm up. Combination of the cold, wet weather triggered an angina attack for me so we had to stay longer than planned while I recovered.
Eventually the rain eased off and we could enjoy the ride into the medieval town of Stary Sącz (pronounced as Starry Sonch).
We were caught out by the early closing of every restaurant in Stary Sącz so a look through Google maps guided us to a McDonalds which was a good 4 mile ride each way. Ghastly choice really but a cheap meal!
Day 10 – Stary Sącz to Czechow
When I went to pay for our accomodation, a huge man came out of the office to chat and I recognised him from all the banners with his face on them. The chat was very brief as he didn’t speak any English but he smiled and gave us some lovely souvenir pens. What a nice man I thought as we made our way into town.
The route today had a couple of big lumps in it but first we had a look around Stary Sącz. The evening before, we had arrived quite late and it was getting pretty dark so we were surprised to see what a very attractive town it was. “Stary” apparently means old so there were a lot of old buildings to look at including the Church of St Elizabeth of Poland.
When Pope John Paul II canonized Blessed Kinga in 1999, half a million people came here. It is still a place of pilgrimage. She became Princess when her husband ascended the throne as High Duke of Poland. Despite marriage, the devout couple took up a vow of chastity. During her reign Kinga got involved in charitable works such as visiting the poor and helping the lepers. When her husband died in 1279, she sold all her material possessions and gave the money to the poor. She decided to become a Poor Clare nun in the monastery at Sandec (Stary Sącz).She would spend the rest of her life in contemplative prayer and did not allow anyone to refer to her past role as Grand Duchess of Poland. She died on 24 July 1292, aged 68. More about St Kinga later when we visit the salt mine in Bochnia.
After leaving Stary Sącz we were soon back on the River Dunajec but now enjoying a day of glorious sunshine. The scenery remained beautiful for a while before we ended up cycling alongside a very busy road. We all tried the portaloo at the side of the road and it was pretty eye waterinh in terms of sights and smells. Sadly, we had no option to avoid it for 5 miles before our turning to a local road. We negotiated some the hills and found a Zapka mini market at the top of a remote hill where we were pleased to get a bit of lunch.
The route now had us crossing the river three times – one bridge, one ferry and one dam. The bridge was very wobbly and quite rusty.
The ferry was at a narrow part of the lake and we as an added bonus our crossing was free! We had dinner at a hotel before heading across the dam to our room for the night. The reason why we had dinner before checking in, was that there was a bloody great big hill for 1 mile and our rooms were at the top of it.
The road up to Agroturystyka Nad jeziorem-Osada Indiańska Szalony Koń (phew, what a mouthful) was too steep to ride so we walked up most of it. Thankfully, the beer and pizza sustained us through this tough walk. When I spoke to her, the owner did not speak a word of English but fortunately we could communicate as we both spoke a bit of German. Very rustic rooms in a barn conversion, furniture made from reclaimed pallets but the shower was great and the view from our room was spectacular.
Day 11 – Czechow to Tarnow
This was a short day’s ride and the countryside was pretty flat most of the way. There were some fortifications in the hills but all was fine until we came away from the river.
Diverting from the planned route we cycled across some fields and into a forest before making way into town. As we made our way through the woods we saw this huge statue. We had stumbled across the Buczyna Forest in Zbylitowska Góra near Tarnów – a place where, during World War II, the German occupiers murdered about 10,000 people of Jewish, Polish and Roma nationality. Their bodies are placed in mass graves, designated in the post-war times.
In the early part of the invasion, the Nazis brought thousands of people here at night and shot them. Later on the remaining Jews in Tarnow were sent to extermination camps elsewhere.
Although we got to our overnight accomodation without difficulty, it was only with real difficulty that we could get in. Unable to find the keysafe that matched the photos I was given, I tried calling the agency but this time the woman on the line just said “No speak English” and just hung up. Fortunately a family in the garden noticed me trying to break into their room (well I was trying every door as usual) and showed me the building where we were staying. Once we had the keys, it was still not obvious because the keys just said Room 1 and Room 2.
After trying several apartment doors in the building, it was not until we reached the very top floor that we realised our rooms were part of a separate apartment here. Even here it was not obvious where the bathrooms were until TomTom spotted keys in our rooms which led me to two separate, locked doors for bathroom 1 and bathroom 2. I didn’t want to have a series of puzzles to solve in order to find my bed but once we were in, the rooms were luxurious.
Relaxing with a cup of tea we had time to have fun in the very odd dining room lined with many strange curios.
That evening we had time to explore Tarnow, another medieval town with lots to look at. Asif led us on a walk to the mausoleum of General Belem. He was a Polish general, writer, engineer, serviceman strategist and a political figure. His leader qualities were appreciated not only in Poland, but also in France, Hungary and Turkey, where he is considered a hero.
Finally, this was my favourite statue in Tarnow. Outside an Indian restaurant where we had dinner as a relief from pizza and dumplings…
Day 12 – Tarnow to Bochnia
This day mostly consisted of a long ride on a cycle route running alongside the westbound motorway. It was very wet and uneventful and we made good speed because of very flat terrain. Once we left the cycle path it was a bit of a climb into the salt mining town of Bochnia. We had a proper, posh hotel this time, Hotel Zalesie and the manageress put our dirty bikes inside a store room inside the hotel. I had fully expected to be told that they needed to be left outside. It was a relief to get out of our wet things and relax with a pizza from next door.
Thankfully Asif had the energy to take a few photos during what was a fairly grim ride.
Day 13 – Bochnia to Krakow
Our last day of cycling began with a paced ride to the Wieliska Salt Mine where we had a booking for 2pm. The tour is quite long at 2 hours but we reckoned to have enough time to return the bikes to the shop in Krakow before it closed at 7.30pm. The visit to the mine was something that Asif was very keen on doing and we arrived in good time for our entrance.
Salt was worth a lot of money in the old days. A kilo of salt could get you a good sized house and was mostly valuable for preserving meat and fish. Bochnia salt was highly prized indeed.
As to the origins of salt mining in Poland? That goes back to the Saint Kinga who threw away her engagement ring which was found some time later in a salt mine which she asked to be dug. Well that is one story of course – even our guide seemed sceptical about it. The other is that people just dug for it once the supplies at the surface were used up.
The scale of the mine is very hard to grasp with 278 kilometers of of tunnels. The tourist route takes you through just 3.5 kilometers and is 1,073 feet at its deepest. Most of the tunnels are lined with pine logs and countless trees were taken undergroung to prevent collapse. The floors are of course made of salt which although highly soluble, is as hard as marble.
The final leg back into Krakow was not pretty. For much of it, we rode on a cycle lane, alongside a dual carriageway, all the way into town before returning the bikes on time. Once more we trekked with our luggage back to our Hotel Regency, in the centre of the old town. We were weary now but we did enjoy dinner at our favourite Vietnamese restaurantonce again.
Day 14 – Krakow and the Holocaust trail
I normally plan a spare day on any tour in case of problems. We spent our spare day taking in the Jewish trail through the streets of Krakow.
Before the war, Poland had the second largest number of Jews outside the United States. A huge number fled or were sent to extermination camps and Krakow saw some of the worst atrocities. It is the city of Schindler’s List where the factory of Oskar Schindler saved many lives. Unfortunately we could not go inside the factory as it is sold out months in advance but we did follow the walking tour through the Jewish Quarter, to the ghetto, outside Schindler’s factory.
We ended our tour of Krakow just visiting a couple of churches.
After another Vietnamese meal and a peaceful night’s sleep we caught the tram and bus back to the airport and headed home to Gatwick thanks to Easyjet once again.