Poland (all)

Il ciclismo è sofferenza. Il premio è la cima di una montagna o una città a 2000km da casa. Se questo premio vi sembra adeguato allora la domanda ``ma chi te lo fa fare'' ha già una risposta. Se non vi sembra abbastanza, semplicemente non potete capire chi pedala.

Cycling is suffering. The prize is the top of a mountain or a city 2000km far from home. If this prize seems you enough, then the question ``why do you do that'' already has an answer. If you don't find it enough, you just simply cannot understand cyclists.

This blog (still ongoing) describes our experiences, both good and bad, of cycle touring around Europe. It was a long planned trip - about 15 years before coming to fruition - and we decided that as we were between jobs and countries (from Dubai on the way back to NZ) we would explore some of the places we had always wanted to visit and get a culture fix too!

We took the train ``City-Night-Line'' from Zurich (21.00h) to Berlin (10.00h. With some delay, ca.2 hours, due to railway personnel strikes, we arrived, alert in Berlin. In the sunshine we found the way out of the city at once. When we got to the border of Poland at Schwedt, it began to rain for two days with interruption. Fortunately we had tail wind until Masuren. We cycled via Stettin, the Baltic Sea coast along to Danzig, via Elblag and Olstyn to the Masuri sea-plateau until Gizycko. From there through central Poland via Bydgoszcz and Frankfurt/Oder back to Berlin. On the way back we fought against strong head wind. Because we cycled through so many forests, the heat (35ºC) in Masuren and wind on the way back, were not too big an obstacle.

Journey from south UK to northern Poland on a bike and a recumbent trike. We stayed in Poland for a few weeks and then travelled home via Denmark.

We left our jobs and sold our house to go on this trip - part of the reason for going was to explore whether we'd like to live in another country. The other reason was to satisfy my craving for long distance touring.

We are performing a 2 years (theoretically) trip around Eurasia. During the trip, we are performing a photo documentation for ICOMOS, an expert organization of UNESCO about cultural heritage. The database created will be available on the website.

We wish with this project to perform some challenging cycling, linking with useful actions.

Our website relates our diary and we are putting plenty of photos and comments (and lots of other fields are going to come, such as advices, technical data...).

During the summer of 2006, I traveled with only a bicycle from Lviv, Ukraine down to Napoli, Italy, then north to Calais, France. From Calais I ferried to Dover, then rode to London to complete the voyage. I visited eleven countries and saw a variety of landscapes and weather. I had encounters with many people and most of these were positive. I also used this experience to draw attention to a little orphanage in eastern Ukraine, the Makiivka HIV / AIDS orphanage.

A trip planned in 2007 to cycle across Eurasia. Follow along as Mike discovers Russia by bicycle. Departure from Amsterdam at end of March. Plan is to ride the first month to St Petersburg and then for five months cycling across Russia including the new section of road across Siberia.

So viele Nachrichten von der erweiterten EU lassen uns nicht kalt. Unsere Neugier treibt uns - wir buchen die Fähre von Rostock nach Tallinn und starten auf eine Baltikum-Radreise mit offenem Ende. Vieles ist neu und abenteuerlich, die Russisch- und Polnischsprachkenntnissen von meinem Mann - ein Rest aus seiner Schulzeit - erweisen sich als sehr nützlich. Tallinn, Riga, Vilnius und Danzig liegen auf unserem Weg, sowie unzählige spannende Erlebnisse.

This webpage is intended to provide information for cycle tourists who may be considering tours in the countries I've visited. For more information, journals and pictures leave a message in my guestbook or send me an email.

`` Yes, it's hot. But we've seen worse haven't we my friend. There was that day east of Warnambol when the chip seal melted and the chips stuck to the tires. A few revolutions later we had flats front and rear. So we pushed for a mile seeking shade to repair the punctures. And the flies Ah! And there was that time in Zamorah. Ah! But not now.''

In the summer of 1999 I cycled a little over 7000km across Europe, from Nordkapp, at the northern end of Norway, to Calabria, the southernmost region of Italy. It was the best bicycle ride and adventure of my life so far. This is my attempt to share what I saw and felt.

``The Great Heart Travelers'' promote the blood donation riding around the world. They made a Europe tour of 5400 km in 2004, and a tour in New Zealand in 2005. (Follow the archive link at the bottom of the page to go to the European tour.)

In 2001 vanuit Nederland vertrokken en nu okt 2005 meer dan 65.000 km en al meer dan 40 landen doorgefietst.

Within nine days including the train to the area where I am cycling and back a lot can be done. Relatively soon the decision had been made not to go to Scandinavia and so this came out to be an opportunity to see some of the eastern parts of Central Europe, for example Hungary, the Czech Republic, Poland or the Baltic states. Off course I was especially interested in seeing East Prussia and its southern (Polish) parts, where my ancestors had lived. It seemed possible to combine this with a visit to Lithuania. Off course East Prussia had been known for its extremely cold winters and it is known that Lithuania is even further to the north and east, so probably at least not warmer. And November is already belonging to the winter in these areas. On the other hand I had done quite a few bicycle tours during the winter in Germany. And the real winter months in East Prussia are more like December, January and February, while November is more like the kind of winter that I know from areas further to the south and to the west. Off course it is a good idea to have a thermos can in the luggage and to fill it with hot tea or coffee. On the other hand I did took neither a tent nor a sleeping bag, but traveled with rather light luggage.

[On June 20 2003] I did a tour along the Moldavian painted monasteries [in Romania], starting with a not too difficult pass. Sucevita monastery was even more beautiful. From there I continued east to a bigger town, Radauti, to find a bank machine for a few millions of cash. Via Solca I reached Gura Humorului. Met a group of German cycle tourists. Near the Sucevita monastery I found a nice place to camp at a B&B farm. I insisted to pay for this and for the use of the sanitary facilities and the host accepted my offer of 5 euros, which is a crazy amount for a simple camping spot. For this amount he invited me to sleep in a bedroom inside, but I refused politely and opted for my tent with nice views on the village road. My host spoke good English, teaching American sailors in Brasov and staying at his parents farm during the holiday season. [The next day I took] a small detour to visit the Voronet monastery.

I did a tour along the Moldavian painted monasteries [in Romania], starting with a not too difficult pass. Sucevita monastery was even more beautiful. From there I continued east to a bigger town, Radauti, to find a bank machine for a few millions of cash. Via Solca I reached Gura Humorului. Met a group of German cycle tourists. Near the Sucevita monastery I found a nice place to camp at a B&B farm. I insisted to pay for this and for the use of the sanitary facilities and the host accepted my offer of 5 euros, which is a crazy amount for a simple camping spot. For this amount he invited me to sleep in a bedroom inside, but I refused politely and opted for my tent with nice views on the village road. My host spoke good English, teaching American sailors in Brasov and staying at his parents farm during the holiday season. [The next day I took] a small detour to visit the Voronet monastery.

Poland and the Baltic states have not yet been discovered as a tourism destination, so we decided to discover the place for ourselves before the inevitable hordes of German package tourists do. We read up a lot on it, primarily from the Lonely Planet guides (not very helpful except for Gdansk and Riga) and the web. We also brought ``Polen per Rad'', volume 1, ISBN 3-932546-11-3, a German-language bicycle guide for Poland that proved essential to find all the sleepy and very scenic and quiet side roads in Poland. Recommended if you understand German - or even if you don't, just for the route maps!

A journey through Sweden, Germany, Czech Republic, Austria and Poland, by Karl Andersson. I am Karl Andersson from Sweden. This website is about the 2700 kilometers (1688 miles) that I biked from Stockholm to Kraków in the summer of 2002. You won't find the usual gear and packlist pages on this site. Instead, I've decided to share with you the diary I wrote every evening, slightly edited. A travelogue from the road. It's all there: The hellish days in former East Germany, the rain and wind that threatened to make me quit. Why would anyone do such a biketour, and that alone? My answer to this very frequent question among my couchpotato friends is: Why not? But OK, there's more to it...

Ja, hebben jullie het al gezien, we zijn meer dan 4 jaar onderweg. Wat een tijd en toch.... we genieten er nog elke dag van. Nu zijn we in Jujuy, noord Argentinië. Via Chili gaan we binnenkort naar Bolivia, waar we een tijdlang niet zullen kunnen internetten. We zullen op grote hoogte gaan fietsen, hoogtes waar we nog niet eerder waren. Of dat prettig is.. jullie zullen het later lezen.

Le strade sono in buone condizioni in Polonia, Slovacchia e Ungheria. Per quanto riguarda la Romania la situazione varia dall'importanza della strada che si sta percorrendo. Quelle indicate nella mappa del Touring col colore bianco sotto la dicitura di ``altra strade'' sono spesso con un fondo stradale dissestato con buche o rattoppi che rendono la strada molto irregolare. Tutto questo in un ottica automobilistica, ma in un contesto cicloturistico ciò non comporta grossi problemi. Unica avvertenza non andare sparati in discesa se volete evitare spiacevoli imprevisti.

Notevole è però l'impegno rumeno per migliorare lo stato delle cose; strada facendo abbiamo incontrato spesso lavori stradali di risistemazione o rifacimento del manto stradale, quindi la situazione è possibile che migliori di anno in anno. Il traffico è abbondante a Bucarest e in direzione nord fino a Brasov; la statale 1 o E60 che parte da Bucarest fino a Ploiesti è vietata al traffico ciclistico. Conviene evitare, come del resto abbiamo fatto salvo poche eccezioni, le strade rosse di grande comunicazione. Ricordatevi che in Romania non esistono praticamente autostrade, quindi tutto il traffico si scarica sulle statali. Posso aggiungere che nelle strade alternative scelte, percorse e qui descritte abbiamo trovato quasi sempre un traffico scarso o tollerabile. La viabilità alle biciclette è consentita su quasi tutte le strade percorse. Abbiamo trovato qualche limitazione in Ungheria, apparentemente immotivata, che abbiamo risolto o con percorsi alternativi o, in un solo caso, infischiandocene del divieto.

La pedalata è adatta ad un cicloturista allenato. La lunga distanza e i dislivelli da percorrere non devono fare però paura. Il paesaggio carpatico è simile all'appennino tosco-emiliano, montagne quasi mai aspre, passi intorno ai 1.000 - 1.500 s.l.m.; ma anche dolci colline e pianure.

Kilometerlange, schnurgerade und von mächtigen Bäumen mit ihren Blätterdächern gesäumte Alleen, unbekannte Vogelstimmen, Storchen-geklapper, endlose Felder und dichte Wälder - wo gibt es das alles noch?
Zum Glück gibt es auch in Europa noch solche Gegenden, wie wir bei einer Radtour in Polen feststellen konnten. Das ehemalige Pommern (Pomorze) ist unser Ziel, genauer gesagt das pommersche Binnenland - wegen seiner 1800 Seen auch Pommersche Seenplatte genannt (Pojezierce Pomorskie). Charakteristisch für dieses Gebiet sind Moränenhügel, Rinnen- und Gletscherseen, ausgedehnte Waldgebiete und dünne Besiedlung.

My name is Louis Tousignant, a Canadian in his mid fifties, living in Nova Scotia on the Atlantic shore. Having cycled Copenhagen to Rome in 1998, and the U.K. in the mid 80's, it seemed a good idea to try Eastern Europe. As an eager amateur photographer, I particularly wanted to see Krakow, Prague and Budapest. Having had a grand time in Italy the year before, I also wanted to see Venice, a must... before one dies... Ergo this trip which I enjoyed tremendously.

This 52 day trip included 33 days of touring (3003 km for a 91 km/day average) and 19 days of travel and tourism. The load, minus water, was 20 kg, distributed in 4 saddle bags and one camera bag on the rear rack.

After four Tatra-tour I knew that I wouldn?t be satisfied with visiting only Zakopane; our goal was to cycle to Krakkow and than back to Hungary. I didn?t know that a guy from the team punctured, so when I cycled back, I found nobody. I had to continue my tour alone, but I hoped we would meet until the evening. In Zdiar during eating I was just thinking that I would have to get used to cycling alone, when my teammates apperared on the road. At the wooden house in the forest at the top of the first climb of Poland we turned not left as in 1997 or 1995, but turned right to north, to the Glodowka meadow. In my fifth Tatra-tour, with about 7-8 years of experiences in cycling I could discuss with the guys that if they don?t join me I could visit the famous wooden church of Debno 15 kms from there.

26 days from 26-6 to 21-7-1998 - Distance 4830 km. - Average speed 21,3 km.t.

In the fall of 1998 I set off on a long journey by bike. It covered more than 15000 kilometers and 14 countries. During this trip I was hit by rocks and cars, I was baked, soaked, and deep frozen by the weather gods. Mostly, however, I had a superb opportunity to see some of the most beautiful scenery in the world, meet wonderful people and enjoy the culture of widely differing lands. This site is about my bike trip from Sweden to South-East Asia via Eastern Europe, The Middle East, Pakistan, China, and Tibet. It also contains general information and links on bicycle touring and travelling in general.

I cycled around the Baltic Sea from mid-June to mid-July 1996, starting in Stockholm and going clockwise, finishing in Stockholm a month later. It was a great trip!

I cycled around the Baltic Sea from mid-June to mid-July 1996, starting in Stockholm and going clockwise, finishing in Stockholm a month later. It was a great trip!

The report of a 37 days (from July 21, 1994 to August 26, 1994), 4240km tour of the Baltic See along the route: Hamburg - Schleswig/Holstein - Denmark (Border-Frederikshavn) - Norway (Moss-Ostby) - Sweden (Sorsjoern-Grisslehamn) - Aland-Island (Eckeroe-Mariehamn) - Finland (Naantali-Helsinki) - Estonia (Tallinn-Valga) - Latvia (Valka-Bauska) - Lithuania (Salociai-Lazdijai) - Poland (Sejny-Kostrzyn) - Brandenburg - Berlin - Magdeburg - Hannover - Paderborn

The report of a 37 days (from July 21, 1994 to August 26, 1994), 4240km tour of the Baltic See along the route: Hamburg - Schleswig/Holstein - Denmark (Border-Frederikshavn) - Norway (Moss-Ostby) - Sweden (Sorsjoern-Grisslehamn) - Aland-Island (Eckeroe-Mariehamn) - Finland (Naantali-Helsinki) - Estonia (Tallinn-Valga) - Latvia (Valka-Bauska) - Lithuania (Salociai-Lazdijai) - Poland (Sejny-Kostrzyn) - Brandenburg - Berlin - Magdeburg - Hannover - Paderborn.

A family goes cyclo-camping and brings back valuable experience, great stories and beautiful pictures:

• Poland and Lithuania 1994
• Lithuania and Latvia 1995
• Finland and Estonia 1996

A family goes cyclo-camping and brings back valuable experience, great stories and beautiful pictures.

An extremely well-organized and informative report, with historical notes, a bibliography, useful links, in one word, The Works!
Onze route voerde door de noordelijke helft van Polen, globaal: Poznan - Torun - Kazubie Gdansk - Mazurische meren - Bialystok - Warschau (1400 km in drie weken).

This is the story of Marcus Endicott's solo bicycle journey from Yugoslavia to the Soviet Union in 1990. The adventure really began the year before, in 1989, but really hasn't ended yet today; though, there have been perhaps more than a few bumps in the road along the way...

This is a travel journal, and was originally intended to become a book. But, two great historical events occurred virtually one after another and changed the course of not only my personal history but that of the world as well; the first was what became known as the ``Gulf War'' and the second was the ``August Coup'', essentially the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Cycle touring is an excellent way to see the world. It's fast enough to cover great distances, yet slow enough to take everything in. This years ride aims to raise money for UK registered charity Motivation.

A family goes cyclo-camping and brings back valuable experience, great stories and beautiful pictures.

An enormous collection of bicycle tours all over the world.
Eine enorme Sammlung von Fahrradtouren in der ganzen Welt.

A large list of cycle tours, 30 at the last count. Most are in Germany, but others go all over central and northern Europe. See the overview page. English translations are available for all pages.