22. Riding through rural Poland: Warsaw to Krakow – 366km

By Dennis

The temperature has been consistently hot at 32 degrees for the last 4 days and promises to be the same for the next leg of our journey from Warsaw to Krakow via the Pilica River “bike path”. The route is a network of what was until a couple of years ago, sandy and small stony country roads, but has now apparently been newly paved with the smooth asphalt roads and minimal traffic. We shall see…

Warsaw to Warka – 64km Avg 15.3 km/hr

Getting out of Warsaw was a breeze, with the 20km of paved bike paths a joy to ride on. I could not help thinking of Victoria’s biking infrastructure, especially Pandora and Fort streets with a bike lane separate from the sidewalks and streets. Why did they not save themselves a lot of money and just make the sidewalks 2 metres wider? Oh no you might say, not pedestrians and cyclists on the same path, someone could get killed! But after riding through the city of Warsaw for 3 days and not seeing a single incident between cyclists and pedestrians and cars, I do not believe it would be an issue in Victoria to have shared paths through the metropolitan areas.

Once out of greater Warsaw, it was a pleasant ride through forests and small villages, despite a few kilometres of unpaved surfaces.

Warka to Drzewiczka – 79km Avg 20.0 km/hr

Today’s ride was a mix of paved and unpaved roads in 30 degrees, but no headwinds. The route followed the scenic Pilica river which starts just north of Krakow and flows into the Vistula river just south of Warsaw.

We booked an Airbnb in Drzewiczka and it turned out to be so new that some of the furniture still had wrapping on it. As usual, we were the only guests. We found out later that the Polish government offers subsidies to build tourist accommodations and these Airbnb places can be found everywhere. Sort of “if you build it they will come” philosophy but I don’t think they have it quite right yet – our accomodation has 9 small rooms and 1 shared bathroom and a small communal kitchen. I can’t imagine what it would be like if all 9 rooms were full. However, it was the only accomodation in town, and at $40 who is to complain?

Drzewiczka to Krzetow – 92km Avg 19.5 km/hr

Sunday morning and we were woken up at 6:00am by the sound of church bells from the church across the street. It called for another hot day so we were underway at 7:15 but within an hour were sweating. This was a great ride through rural Poland with lots of small farms growing produce, cows, sheep and very little traffic. It they could just turn the temperature down a bit…

It sounded good on Booking.com “Farm stay resort on the Pilica river” and there wasn’t much choice so we booked it….

When we rolled in, the place looked deserted with no one around, but after a few minutes a women came out and asked in perfect English if we were the ones who made the reservation. It turns out, Ursula and her husband Jan had lived in Vancouver for 15 years then moved back to Poland where they bought a 200 year old stone building and turned it into a farm stay. The place we had booked was an in area they had developed for kayakers and campers to stay and not in this lovely old building.

Jan and Ursula invited us up for a beer and plate of homemade smoked cheese. Jan is a keen cyclist and Ursula was a ski instructor so we had lots in common and enjoyed an afternoon of conversation. Even though all the weekend guests in the farm stay building had left, they kept the cook on to make us dinner, as there were no restaurants in the nearby village and the local small food store was closed on Sundays.

Krzetow to Wolbrom – 81km Avg 18.4 km/hr

Much cooler today around 19 with rain in the forecast. We have not seen any rain since Estonia, and the cooler temperature is a pleasant relief from the heat. Today was another ride through quiet country roads, but the terrain is getting hillier. Many of the crops have been harvested already leaving barren fields of dirt.

Wolbrom to Krakow – 45km Avg 17.6 km/hr

Last nights accomodation was a generic hotel suited for business people and could have been anywhere in Canada. It had an excellent restaurant though, with plentiful portions.

It rained all night but was just a drizzle when we pushed off for Krakow, 45km south through the rolling hills. Once again Komoot took us off road where we did not want to be, necessitating us walking the bikes for some stretches. Still, better than being on a busy road.