As opposed to all the other borders we have crossed so far the one from Germany to Poland marked an immediate and stark contrast between the two countries. It was also the start of our Eastern European leg of the journey and while excited we also felt a little nervous as we left the comforts of Western Europe behind.
The first noticeable difference for us was the fact the cycle paths became non-existent and the state of the roads declined considerably. A particular favourite road of ours, that unfortunately we came across way too often in rural Poland, is the cobbled street that has sand running down either side of it. Therefore you can either shake your bones till they hurt on the cobbles or take your chances on the sand – I once managed to slip on the sand and fall straight onto the cobbles, luckily no harm was done other than a grazed knee! The other differences we noticed pretty quickly is that not many people seem to speak English anymore, and as our Polish is not so hot we are having to quickly get good at miming – we have ‘can we camp in your garden?’ perfected! Also every household seems to own a scary German Shepard/Alsatian, they are usually behind a gate or chained up but some dogs seem to be left to roam free and after Andre’s dog bite incident in Germany we are more than a little anxious.
On a more positive note, Polish people seem far more interested in our trip than in Western Europe. Everyone and their grandmother seems to have cycled to Japan in Germany, but in Poland we are curiosities and people have treated us very kindly. On our first day a guy named Jacek and his sister invited us into their home to escape the storm and made us tea and fed us home-made soup – they were lovely. In addition a little old lady also stopped us in the street to chat and then on hearing where we were going gave us a carton of pineapple juice from her shopping bag! This kindness of strangers was a regular feature during our stay in Poland and something that continued to surprise and delight us especially when we were feeling particularly low.
Our first destination in Poland was Gryfino, which is where Andre’s dad Andrew was born and raised. We visited the exact street where Andrew lived (we think) however we suspect the house has since been demolished and rebuilt. It was nice to visit somewhere that has a personal significance for Andre. Whilst in Gryfino we also visited the Crooked Forest which is a small forest which has a number of odd shaped trees with a 90 degree bend at their base. Although there are a number of theories (Aliens, strange gravitational forces, WW2 tanks), no one is entirely sure why they have grown this way. It is likely however that the most boring explanation is the true one! It is thought that local farmers manipulated the trees to use for construction materials in particular for shipbuilding.
After leaving Gryfino we continued to cycle south through rural Poland and the weather became hotter and hotter, we desperately started seeking out lakes to cool off. We made it to a town called Lipki Wielki where a very kind man took us to the local Yacht Club where he is a member so we could go for a swim from their dock – it was great! In the evening we stayed with our first Polish Warm Shower host Agnieszka and her family, they were all lovely and made us feel very much at home. Agnieszka even sent Andre’s swimming shorts to Krakow after he left them in her bathroom!
Armed with knowledge on local attractions we cycled to visit the East Wall Nazi bunker the next day and learn something of the history of the area. We took a tour down into the bunker and it was pretty incredible what they built, it has an underground railway, 30km of tunnels, flame throwers and outside they built miles of concrete dragon teeth to stop tanks from approaching! Unfortunately the soldiers manning the bunker were a little unprepared and inexperienced and the Red Army conquered the bunker in a mere three days!
The bike ride to Zielona Gora from the East Wall bunker was very enjoyable and scenic along lakes and small country roads until we reached…. The sand road from hell! This road was awful, beyond awful, it started as a normal road but soon became deep sand with thick forest on either side meaning there was no way of escaping the sand. We soon had to get off the bikes and push them for the entire 5 kms of sand road in the baking heat. In addition because it was through a thick forest there were thousands of mosquitos and horse flies desperate for our blood, we got eaten alive. And to top off the afternoon while pushing my bike through the sand a branch managed to get caught in my derailleur and crack and break the derailleur – perfect! We emerged from the forest looking like we had been lost in there for weeks; we were filthy, exhausted and covered in sweat, sand and bites. It was by far the worst part of the trip to date for me. We arrived at Yatzick’s (Warm Showers host) home very late in the evening and discovered his apartment was 16 floors up an old soviet –style building surrounded by other soviet-style blocks of flats, it was a strange place and something neither of us have experienced before. Luckily there was a lift even if it was a bit of an old, rickety, scary lift! Yatzick was great, a tough-as-old-leather-boots Polish guy, he fed us traditional Polish food including cow stomach soup for breakfast with a beer if we fancied (we declined the beer). He also helped me to source a new derailleur and helped Andre to replace it, which I really appreciated!
Cycling through Poland we have noticed that the country is brimming with fruit trees; plums, pears and apples everywhere ripe for the scrumping! The apples so far have been a little on the sour side but we will keep trying them! Our favourite polish food however is Zurek (sour) soup we have had this on numerous occasions and really love it! It is cheap, filling and very delicious. It often comes in a bread bowl (but we prefer it when it doesn’t as you get more soup and it seems more authentic and less kitschy) and it has a subtle sour taste which apparently comes from fermented rye flour and bread crumbs and it always has a boiled egg and sausage in it – mmmm tasty!
A strange thing that has occurred a few times whilst cycling through this country is what we have termed the ‘hop-on’ phenomenon! Every now and again a Polish guy (usually slightly older) will decide to join André and I for a few kilometers or a few hours! Often they don’t speak English but will just either cycle with us in silence which can be a little awkward or mime things to us which is pretty amusing!
A couple of times along the way we have knocked on a stranger’s door and asked if we could pitch our tent in their garden. This is always a little nerve-wracking but both times it was a fantastic experience, once we were very tired and couldn’t find anywhere to camp and the second time we were caught in an awful storm. On both occasions (after some confusion) we were treated to a hot shower, offered a bed inside and fed delicious food for both dinner and the next morning for breakfast too. The kindness of these strangers was amazing. We love these encounters because we get to chat to people in their homes and learn what it’s like to live in Poland these days. We also get to sample home-made wine and watch crazy Polish TV shows!
Our route towards Krakow took us via a beautiful castle with spectacular views in Sweibodice which was worth the 6km uphill climb, and two UNESCO heritage timber-framed churches. Both of these churches were called the Church of Peace, one was in Jawor but the slightly more impressive one was in Swidnica. We got to go inside this one and it really was very beautiful and ornate and made entirely from wood! After a rest in a campsite in Swidnica we cycled to Opole to stay with a young professional couple Agnieszka (popular name in Poland) a psychologist and Maciek, a doctor, they took us out to the first trendy place we have been in Poland a bar filled with hipsters and we had a great evening. I tried two very strange beers one was grapefruit flavoured and one was banana flavoured – interesting but not sure I would have the banana one again!
A combination of running out of time because we booked an apartment in Krakow and being told the route to Katowice was uninspiring and very industrial meant we took our third train of the trip so far! The train was pretty cheap and a great idea as the weather was bad too. The final leg of the journey into Krakow we cycled and it was a beautiful ride on a cycle path along the river which ran straight into the city.
We spent three days in Krakow and really loved the city, we were staying in Kazimerz (the Jewish district) and it was a vibrant and interesting place to stay. The first thing we had to do after lunch and according to André the most important task was to find some moustache wax! André’s moustache has got so long that instead of trimming it like any sane 30 something year old he has decided to twirl it up and around like an old Bavarian man – and needs wax to keep it in place and stop it getting in his food as he eats!
After grabbing some wax to make André look more dapper than he already is, yes it is possible, we stopped into a bar for a drink and after less than 2 hours it was as if we were had not travelled across Europe on a bicycle. It’s strange how quickly you become civilized again, a shower, a change of clothes and snap, right back into the normal swing of things. Now I mention this because when you are on a bicycle, sleeping in a tent, and missing out on having a shower for a day or two it feels like you are not civilized and you won’t be anytime soon, you are a traveller, an adventurer (without sounding too up our own ass). The next day was spent doing some big time self-guided tourism. We saw the city on foot, which is novel! No bikes which was liberating, nothing to worry about but getting blisters, we walked the entire Jewish district, the old town and up to Wawel Castle, and if you haven’t been to Krakow, go. It is beautiful, people are friendly, the food is amazing, and it’s all pretty cheap. We made it to the main square to find that the Tour de Pologne had a time trial circuit in the city that day! The town was a-buzz, people everywhere, and lycra clad cyclists were wizzing past here and there, it was a great atmosphere. We actually ended up following the Tour de Pologne route over the Tatra mountains and into Slovakia (albeit at a slightly slower pace!). We treated ourselves to lunch out! Which is a big deal, as we try to keep to the salami and cheese sandwich regime as much as possible. Massive portions of fresh salad were eaten by all, and for about £2-3. So watch out Sainsbury’s meal deal, you don’t stand a chance against this place.
Sunday, our final day in Krakow was spent in the Wieliczka Salt Mines. Now this is one place that we had been looking forward to going to visit since entering Poland, and actually one of the places we were most looking forward to seeing on the trip. The salt mines have been being mined for generations and was one of the original 12 UNESCO World Heritage Sites which really does signify how special it really is. The Wieliczka salt mines was also a bit of a change of pace for us, we have been ‘tourists’ since we set off from London, but generally don’t do big touristy activities and are more often than not, ‘off the beaten track’. The salt mine was tourism on steroids, there were thousands of people at the mines and they have millions of visitors each year, that being said they are organized. You are guided by a short-range radio clad guide who swiftly takes you around part of the mine in about 2.5 hours. There is an army of guides for all number of languages who take an 8 month course to learn about the mine and prep to become a guide! The tour is amazing! After descending 52 flights of stairs you are brought to all the hot spots of the mine which are mainly the chapels, underground lakes, and large caverns which have been excavated. Nearly everything underground is wooden; from the structures retaining the ‘earth’ (It’s actually salt) to the scaffolding, stairs, everything really. This is because salt preserves wood – smart or what! There were a number of chapels and one Cathedral in the mine all of which were created by the miners themselves, who undertook the task of making the carvings and chapels during their own time after work. You quickly forget that you are several hundred meters underground when you are in some of the spaces. This mine is anything but claustrophobic; it is spacious, from the corridors to the open caverns. The truly impressive parts were the carvings in the cathedrals, the salt deposits seem to act as the perfect canvas for sculpture, and do not seem to deteriorate (apart from if water gets to them). The carvings of the last supper, Pope Jean Paul II and the Kings of Old in Poland were amazing. Even the floors were carved to perfection from salt, with a smooth polished sheen you would think were tiles if you were not told otherwise. It’s an amazingly beautiful place and one which really is a testament to the ingenuity and industriousness of people. After walking for a few hours and descending deep into the mine, the tour is over much faster than when it started as you are zipped back up to the surface by a ‘cosy’ elevator (only claustrophobic part of the trip) that takes a few seconds, it almost doesn’t seem fair after all the work that you had done to get where you were! If you can, visit the mines at some point in your life, you won’t regret it. What’s that? You were wondering about the other 11 original UNESCO sites? Here there are, http://h2g2.com/edited_entry/A30652544, note that there 2 in Canada. Canada is awesome (This section is written by Andre).
We ended up leaving late from Krakow, for those of you religiously following our posts this is a regular theme, we are always leaving everywhere late! We went to do a little bit of last minute exploring and really wanted to visit the large Jewish cemetery to pay our respects and also to see a cemetery like no other we have seen. The place is huge and is completely packed with gravestones and memorials, they stick out of the ground at all kinds of angles it is really quite a sight to see. The cemetery was destroyed by the Nazis during WWII and rebuilt afterwards, so some of the graves that were too badly damaged were used to build a wall around the cemetery which is really interesting to see a wall made up like a jigsaw of different headstones. The place is very peaceful but also has a very sad air to it, you might think that all cemeteries have a sad air to them, but I usually don’t feel that way. Here though there were too many young people buried and too many people killed unnaturally by the holocaust – it was an interesting place to visit but not somewhere to linger too long.
The ride into the mountains took us a day and a half and was pretty exhausting, by the time we reached Bukowina Tatrzanska we were both shattered. One particular hill was a 20% incline for 2 km, it almost killed us! The next day Andre was not well, having had a fever during the night, sweating and aching all over we felt it was for the best to stay put in the B&B, which turned out to be a good decision as Andre slept the entire day! Whilst Andre was sleeping I went exploring and also managed to successfully talk the fancy thermal spa into letting us visit them for free! I explained we had cycled here from London on our way to Japan and they decided we could do with some pampering! So the evening was spent soaking in the numerous outdoor hot baths and enjoying the saunas and plunge pools! It was much needed relaxation and our muscles felt 100% better afterwards.
Our cycle ride through Poland has been incredible, great scenery, great food but most of all it was the friendly and kind Polish people that made it so enjoyable. Next stop is Slovakia – hopefully the worst of the Tatra mountains are done and we can roll downhill the rest of the way!
For more photos of our time in Poland click HERE
From Poland we crossed into Slovakia where our ride towards Japan continues!
I am so envious of your experiences xxx
epic blog clairey bear, awesome ! keep them rolling love pa xxx
Great piece of writing, poland sound awesome, very jealous! Can’t wait to see you in Istanbul. Xx