John's Pilgrimage to Poland

Lounging in Levkas

2011-10-11T01:04:00.000-07:00

The end of the last blog was written from the top of the mountains in Durmitor, Montenegro. At that stage I had resting due to a tummy bug rather than the cycling. So it was with great relief that Ken and I set off one cool morning very early to cycle down to Niksic. This picture was taken after a 100 metre climb and at a point when the tummy cramps had just ceased and the going got really good - a new beautifully engineered road!!!

No pictures of Niksic, which is a pity as it really is a lovely town, home of the Montenegran Niksic brewery. But, Podgorica, the capital beckoned and it was DOWNHILL!

Unfortunately when we got there poor Ken was feeling poorly, so we headed for the first hotel on the GPS - the amazing main city hotel built in 1953 at the height of the communist optimism. Despite feeling rough, Ken still managed to irk them by cycling into the foyer across their red carpet. Here's a picture from our balcony with the usual end of ride laundry drying.

Podgorica is strange. Given that it's a capital of a country og about 3/4 million people and itself has only 150,000 people it's not surprising that it's so quiet. The main square hots up in tyhe evening when folk go walking with their best clobber on, but otherwise everything I tried to see was closed - Natural History Museum (which is alongside this tower from the days of Turkish rule), Museum of Modern Art (which is in a lovely cool park alongside the river running through town). So. it was rather boring waiting as ken recuperated.

But, here he is as we left the hotel at 7.30 am bound for the main border with Albania about 15 miles away. That's the hotel behind - lovely innit!

The road to the border started well, but soon deteriorated to a windy dirt road. That's because after many years of closure it is being reinstated. But it's tough on cyclists and took ages to negotiate. Crossing was easy, after which we really felt like we were in bandit country.
Here's our first sight of Albania - Lake Shkroder in the early morning mists.

There's also a railway crossing the border, but it hasn't been used in years - so now it's made best use of by sheep and goats see below!

There then followed two days of hot cycling on roads that really did improve after Shkroder. People there are so intent on progressing, hence all the new roads and helpful welcoming folk, like the guy who escorted us on this scooter all the way through Shkroder so that we could get on the right road. Or the girls in the Red Bull mini who accosted us and plyed us with cold drinks and took photograhs as we enterd another very hot town.

Our route was via Shkroder, Durressi, Fier to Vlora where we left the plains and started to head for the mountains in the south. This picture is at the end of the coastal plains and shows the only rolling stock we saw on any of the miles of railway that still exists. It was two carriages and a diesel going at walking pace!

Here's Vlora, a lovely resort town now frequented by many hard up Italians keen on getting a cheap holiday, there are direct ferries to Italy from here.

As we hit the mountains the weather really changed, with massive thunderstorms and torrential rain. We spent two days climbing and descending the most amazing roads I have ever seen. On the first day we climbed from sea level to 1045 metres in 24 kms and took 4 hours doing it. I was forced to push the bike over much of the last 4kms as it was too steep even for my gearing. Another memory of that day is sheltering from the rain in a honey seller's abandoned shelter thatched with bracken as the storm raged around. Getting good pictures was hard because of the swirling mists and rain, but here's one of our descent to the coast.

After a night in Hamare we headed south through gradually easier terrain bound for Saranda where we were aiming to get the 1.00pm ferry for Corfu. We managed to lose each other, and by text message found each other at the ferry office 10 mins before the ferry was due to sail at 12.45 pm!!! Gulp, but we managed it and had a great trip by aging hydrofoil to Kerkira, drinking the beer that Ken had purchased with the last of our Albanian Leks as we went. It was two happy guys who landed in Greece that afternoon. Here's the port with strom clouds still looming.

The following day we took the ferry for Igoumenitsa and cycled south for two days bound for Levkas. There's little to remark on apart from Ken's broken spoke (and the wonderful scenery of course), here he is repairing it at the top of another climb, but with a good view of Levkas for us in the distance.

So, we got to Levkada at 4.00pm on 10 October and here's the proof, with me by Simmare. Later today we are off to Sivota at the southern end of the island to leave my bike at Martin and Sue's house, ready for another adventure somewhere, who knows where, in 2012 or 2013.

I am very please to have completed this journey so successfully though and to have discovered so much wonderful country and such friendly Balkan people. I am sure I'll be back!

Best wishes to all my readers (both of you!)

John

PS - basic stats :-

35 days on the road 6 September to 10 October
27 days riding
1288 miles or 2060 kms
47.7 miles per cycling day
36.8 miles per day including the 8 rest days.
Seven countries, loadsa hills!!!

Meandering in Mountainous Montenegro

2011-09-30T06:10:00.000-07:00

This blog is written in a high mountainous ski resort in central Montenegro. It has been 9 days since the last blog and since then Ken has turned up in Belgrade and we have cycled up into the mountains out of Serbia and into Crna Gorna, Montenegro to us. It has been hard work so we decided to take a couple of days to rest our tired old bones!

Belgrade was OK, but not particularly inspiring. You will see what I mean from these two pictures - me on the castle ramparts and Ken outside our Hotel.

Actually the Terazie was not as bad as it looks and it was very central. But we were pleased to head out to our next place which went by the wonderful name of Ub. It was just a way stop and we were really heading for the first mountains at Divcibare a Serbian Ski resort at about 1050 metres. That was probably the hardest climb as the road was not graded for anything but local traffic, so was very steep in places. The next three pictures show the roads as they got steeper and a typical farm, this one with a still if you look closely.

The next two pictures were taken last Saturday as Ken and I whizzed away downhill from our small ski hotel out on to the rolling hills that rise gradually towards the Serbian border. There were lots of very traditional farms with hay stooks ready for the winter and everywhere people getting in their huge supplies of logs to see them through the snow that is not far away now.

We stopped at a town called Uzice, probably one of the most uninspiring places, but we had little alternative given the lack of choice of any other roads to take us up and to the border. The hotel was the worst of all. It must have been built in communist times and is now semi derelict. It had my great big Serbian wedding going on in the restaurant as we arrived. We were sent up to the 4th floor to a really tatty room where most things did not work and were falling apart. The next morning the lift was broken so we had to walk down to the ground floor - it was then we realised that the bottom three floors were like building sites as the rooms there had been taken out of use, probably to re-use the bits on the floor above. We also reckoned it was designed to look like a space rocket or the tower out of Close Encounters, which was a popular film when the hotel was built. Here it is. Ugh.
The following day we climbed hard amongst all the traffic to get up to Zlatibor where the scenery changes to high Alpine. It was lovely leaving our ski chalet the next morning bound for our last stop in Serbia before the border. At least the cycling made up for the next hotel we got to. This was much like the last, but even more rundown. Here it is below. It was probably built at a time when the middle class communists were told where to go on holiday, so they built places like this up in the mountains. But, the kitchen did manage to rustle up one of the best steaks ever for only 3 pounds! Here it is with me leaving for the border on a very cool misty morning.

Frankly, I was pleased to leave Serbia. We met some lovely people, like the old lady who found us eating lunch sitting on her wood pile and promptly brought us nuts, plums and apples to eat, or the couple who invited us in for coffee and were keen to talk about Serbia and its past problems and how those affect it now - bad reputation, lack of tourists etc.. But getting to the border was good and as we did the weather brightened, cloud lifted and we were in sunshine for a wonderful ride to Prijelo Polje the nearest big town. Here is Ken sorting his stuff out and the following picture is of the view back to the border.

Suddenly things seemed brighter with people seemingly smiling more and more of a holiday atmosphere. That day took us to Mojkovac, which is not too impressive apart from the fact that it sits on the Tara River. Ken also tells me that we did a continual ascent for about 45 miles that day! Here is me just about to descend to the River plain and the next picture shows Mojkovac with the plain.

Now, at ti stage we could have carried on over the hills in the distance direct to Podgarice, the capital, but we had heard from some German cyclists we had met that the Tara River Gorge, which is a Unesco World Heritage site must not be missed, so that is why we have meandered up here, adding about 4 days to our journey but going through the most magnificent scenery I have ever biked through.

This next picture shows is taken looking back up the valley towards Mojkovac. Huge steep sides with little flat areas of farmed land wherever possible.
Then you get to the deep gorge, which at this time has a small river running and is enclosed by massive steep walls. These pictures do not do it justice - there could have been more of them, but we were enjoying the whizzing down so much that the pictures just did not get taken. But the vast bridge at the end, where we turned off to climb up the mountains where we now are gives some idea of the scale of things.

Whizzing down is fine, but it does mean a climb up. In this case it was a 10 km climb rising to 1385 metres. We had to pace ourselves on that one! Here is a picture of what greeted us when we had done the climb. The last is a view from the chalet where we are staying.

So, tomorrow we set off across more mountains before descending into the river valley that will ultimately take us down to Podgarice two days from now. Then it is into Albania on Monday and hopefully into Greece by the weekend of 8 and 9 October. All going well the last blog will be done from Levkas sometime around then.

That is it for the moment, next blog in about 10 days. Love to all who read this.

John

Biking in the Balkans

2011-09-20T01:31:00.000-07:00

Hello those of you who have been wondering where I am after a break of almost 16 months since the last update. Well now it's a BALKANS RIDE!!!!!

I am writing this sitting in an internet bookshop in Belgrade having yesterday completed the first 592 miles from Domacyny in Poland via the Carpathians in south Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and northern Serbia. It's been very hot and dry with temps in the upper 20's or 30's every day apart from the mountainous bit. But my cycling friend Ken, who is due to join me later day when he arrives from England has brought the rain and cold with him - it's pouring outside and the temperature has dropped by about 10 degrees.

So, a few reflections on the journey thus far :-

Poland - brilliant, welcomed by Marek in Krakow, looked after by family in Domacyny and best of all - reacquainted with my bike! I even managed to find a great bike shop in Mielec and cycled through Agnieska's village where Liz and I will be going to her wedding with Gresziek next year. And the country has come on in leaps and bounds sine we first visited as a family 20 years ago.
Slovakia - not so brilliant, it looked little different from the then Czechoslovakia that we passed through in 1991. So, making use of the incline towards the Hungarian plain and noting that as I was going south it must have been downhill, I sped through in less than two days with only one overnight stop in a non-existent campsite.
Hungary - why don't more people visit this fascinating country. As I arrived there I felt I emerging back into western Europe - there's far more of a pride about the place than Slovakia, it's clean and apart from the vast fields with no farms anywhere to be seen (a throwback to the past collectivisation of agriculture - as in Slovakia, but not Poland which is still a country of small farmers) you could be in Western Europe. The people were lovely,the only problem being the weird language they speak - apparently related to Finnish, a group came into this area from Asia many centuries ago (as did the Slavs, Huns, Celts etc.) and land pressure forced some north with the Magyars remaining here.
Serbia - such a friendly bunch of people with no apparent grudge against we NATO types who bombed them only 12 years ago. So far here it's been very flat cycling by the Tisza as it flowed into Serbia and now by the Danube, although some hills are starting to appear and I know Ken and I have some hard work ahead!

Now how about some pictures.

These are of Kasia, Andrej's wife, Adam, her parents and Leszek, my deceased cousin Christina's husband. We'd just had a Sunday afternoon meal on the farm. The next is of Darek and Katerina with their two sons Jacub and Kaspar - they were just about to drive back to England after a month at home renovating their lovely old farmhouse - what a change in since I stayed there in 2005.

This shows typical farming country in southern Poland - here workers are harvesting spuds.
And this proves that I did indeed visit Agnieszka's village

Now into Slovakia, this was taken at the highest point of the Carpathian crossing - not very high really!
I then took a small side road to get off the main drag - through tiny villages that have been systematically depopulated through war, famine and ethnic cleansing - the people who lived here practised a Greco-Catholic religion, all that remains of them are their beautiful wooden churches.

That night was rather grim, with nowhere to stay, but the next morning the landscape made up for it as the suN emerged and warmed us all. The a speedy ride to Hungary - that's it in the distance in the second picture, with vineyards staring to appear on the slopes.
So, into Hungary and to a lovely unpronounceable place called SATORALJAUJEHELY! Here's the border crossing followed by a picture of the cared for pristine town square.

Not that everything in Hungary is up to date - here's my first horse and cart up till then, many since though.
But really Hungary is very civilised how about this for a bus shelter. I took the picture because it was here that the local police almost impounded my bike as I left it unattended when nipping into the cafe next door - now, would you get that level of service in England?
My next destination was Tokaj ,where I had my first day of rest. It's famous for the sweet wine of the region used as a dessert wine normally. A lovely place where eastern Hungary's two main rivers meet the Tisza (it's massive) and the Bogrud (I think). I took this at the join of the rivers.
There then followed 3 days of pretty hard riding averaging 70plus miles everyday as I crossed the almost totally flat plain towards the border with Serbia in the south and the meeting of the Tisza, which I followed on mostly good bike routes, with the Danube close to Szeged. Everyonce in a while there's a ferry crossing, normally a wire restrained wooden vessel powered by a puttering diesel or an outboard attached to a small boat roped alongside - all very basic, but worth it given the small amount of traffic and the width of the river.
I camped a couple of times, but on one occasion I arrived tired at 6.00pm to find no campsite "es ist Kaputt" in the words of a local (they speak a lot of German down there - something to do with the Austro-Hungarian Empire or war I imagine). I asked a second opinion from a lady out running she said the same, but said wait a minute. Not knowing what to expect when she said come with me I then found myself being offered a night in a cabin in a closed down children's camp, so here's my abode!
And so to Szeged a small city of elegant churches ceremonial halls and theatres and parks lying by the Tisza River, on which it depends for its affluence and which has also destroyed it at least three times. The first photo is of a statue of the the town's water engineer in the 19th century, the plauques at its base (bottom left show the high water level in 1997 and 2006 - and this park is well above river level now!) The second picture is a statue depicting the people in 1956 attempting to support the butterfly of freedom that was trying to fly at that time.
Now, there's no picture of me crossing the Serbian border. It's much more formal and the crossing involved me having illegally (??) to cycle down the motorway for about 10 miles, so pictures weren't uppermost - border guards and police are mostly full of their own importance and it's not worth trying it on with them. Soon, however I got to Palic, a small resort town close to the border that Liz and I stayed in in 2009. This picture will prove to Liz that I went there - it's not the two of us!
Next stop was Subotica. It's renowned for its Art Nouveau architecture - is this that??
Then on through hot steamy Serbia to Novi Sad. Another ex-communist country, its people are now thoroughly westernised, but its social infrastructure has a lot to be desired - here a picture from a bar (lots of Cokes drunk) showing a typical town street with the usual rather grim blocks behind - it must look drab in the cold snowy winter.
Novi Sad, where I spent a couple of nights is known for hosting one of the biggest music festivals in Europe - Exit. It's held within the walls of its Citadel which overlooks the Danube. The first picture shows the city square - note that elegant brick church (it looks better at night) alongside the drab communist era block. But its full of life and both evenings there was local folk dancing in the square and a real festival atmosphere.
I made a visit to the Citadel, it has the most amazing fortifications, all bastions and star layouts allowing the best chance to get at the invaders. Here's a picture taken from the bridge whose predecessor we blew up in 1999. The memorial records the death of a young civilian - "collateral damage".
...................and finally, you're never very far from home - this reminded me of Dorchester South Street. Can it be the same shop?

That's all for now. I hope it hasn't been too tedious. If you've got this far - well done!! I'll make sure not to do another for some time. In fact cannot imagine when that might be. But I'm sure I'll complete with the next leg at some stage, probably after Ken and I have done south Serbia, Montenegro, Albania and are in Greece.

Love to all!!
POLISH JOHN

Dozing in Domacyny

2010-05-27T03:34:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone,

Finally I am here! I arrived at my father's home in a very rural part of south east Poland near the, currently very flooded, River Wisła at 6.40 pm on 26 May. Here are the stats :-

8 weeks in all

41 days cycling

total distance on the road 2322 miles, of which 2224 going place to place.

Daily average excluding rest days 54.24 miles

Overall average distance per day 41.46 miles

6 flat tyres, one worn out tyre and one broken pannier fixing

I reckoned on a daily average of 45 miles or 35 miles including rest days assuming a distance of about 1800 miles, so I managed to do over 400 miles more (not surprising given the way you have to "pick your way" on a bike, so increasing the averages. But no matter, I only found it a strain a few times, mainly in France where both the hills and prevailing wind were against me.

Covering the last few miles was a problem given the state of the river, with many roads impassable and only one bridge for about 50 miles being open, so even on my last day I managed to do an extra 15 miles. But it is great to have managed it, to be here with family, albeit that they can't understand most of what I am trying to say in the few words of Polish I possess, and to have done it unscathed, with both me and the bike intact. There's a picture included of a typical roadsign I encountered which together with the traffic in some places could have served to damage me, the bike or both.

So now a commentary on the last week or so. The first picture above was of Plock. I ended the last blog with Ken and I marooned in Wloclawek as we waited a day for it to stop raining. We made a bolt for it to Plock the following day, but got a real drenching and that didn't help the repair of the two flats that Ken had on the way. But Plock turned out to be very gracious, a bit like Bath, see picture of its skyline by the River Wisla. The hotel was fun though, being an ex Orbis, with Olga Kleb still on reception.

The following pictures show the grey and flooded Wisla as we left Plock - its state of flood was to affect the last days of the journey, but for then it brightened into a wonderful sunny day proving that Ken does not just bring bad weather with him. We had a splended day cycling through sunny meadows past storks on nests, which became an increasingly common sight, there are two huge nests in Domacyny.

These last few road pics also show the decorated crosses that continued everywhere and the dodgy roads with loads of bumps and potholes. Overall though Poland has been a lot better than I expected, generally no worse than Britain, so a good preparation for coming home!

We had another night in Socharzew before cycling into Warsaw on the day Ken was due to leave by train. What a pleasant surprise the city is after all I had read about concrete communist blocks. True there are lots of those, but they are no worse than many I have seen in UK and the city is very green. The next pictures are from Marek, my cousin's son's flat near the centre and he and me in one the many lovely city centre gardens

Marek is a great guide and knows his Polish history intimately. It really is a sad story of a nation fighting for its existence separate from Germans, Austro Hungarians, various other marauding mobs long ago and most recently and in the 19th century, the Russians. The next few pictures show some heavy Russian architecture resplendent with statues of heroic workers and thinkers. The huge tall Palace of Culture was a gift from the Russian people to the Poles and was designed and transported stone by stone from Russia to Warsaw; it houses many theatres, conference halls, opera halls and cinemas and was once the tallest building in the city.

Of course, Poland is most famous as the birthplace of Frederic Chopin. He exiled himself in Paris away from the Russians who controlled Poland in the 19 and 20th centuries until they were booted out by Marshal Pilsudski in 1920. The pics are of Chopin's statue in a huge park where free concerts are given throughout the summer (there's clip of the recital we spent an hour at at the end of this blog), the church enshrines his heart and I am standing in front of the statue of Copernicus, with spinning planets in the ground all around.

Before Pilsudski Polish rebels, many of them from the emerging left were either imprisoned for many years, executed or sent off to Siberia in the wagons that now sit outside the fort built by the Russians to dominate the Poles in the 19th century.

Hving got back control of their nation the Polish again lost it in 1939. The pictures that follow show a young fighter in the Warsaw uprising of 1944 and a monument showing the fighters who went into the sewers to hide in the grim last days as Stalin held his forces across the Wisla away from helping so that the beaten Poles could be "freed" by the Russians in 1945.

We also found the site of the Jewish ghetto wall that surrounded the jews in 19423-43 until many were transported away to their deaths by the Nazis

Bu now Warsaw is really vibrant. It's a party atmosphere on a weekend and we also found some lovely buildings that echoed Warsaw's pre war past. Although 85% is said to have been destroyed by the Russians and Germans, there are elegant tenements and both Warsaw University and Marek's university where he got his doctorate are splendid (that's its central hall in the final Warsaw pics below).

The final days of my journey turned out to be more of a pilgrimage than I had expected. The journey to Radom was fine, but the least said about Radom the city the better, very functional and grey, with huge heating pipes going from the central energy factory to the north to supply the city - a bit like those screen savers we used to use. See below

My last night before getting here was at Nowa Slupia. It is set in rolling hills which form one of the few Polish uplands away from the Carpathian mountains which bound the country to the south. Wooded and undulating the area is mostly national park with a huge monastery on one of the highest points. It is said to contain relics of the holy cross transported here to be accepted by King Boleslav (really). It has been a a place of pilgrimage for centuries. I was guided around by Macek the novice monk, who gets his good English from reading The Lord of the Rings - I think he found me a welcome break from the hoards of school children who seemed to be the only pilgrims in evidence when I was there!

Here's me with a carved pilgrim paid for out of EEC grant!

At last I got to the crossing of the Wisla, about 500 metres wide here, only a few miles from my Dad's village. Everywhere here is very flooded after the worst rains for years, with frogs croaking in all the sodden meadows and everyone complaining that their potatoes are rotting in the ground. There are still many farmers around with plots of only 5 hectares or so. I have seen only one horse drawn wagon, but there are still many small milk churns outside farms and labourers using scythes on their small strip fields. All you can hear is the croak of frogs, a few barking dogs, lowing cows and birdcall. I am sure my Dad would recognise what I am seeing as i cycle around this delightful area. Only the people are different......and most have cars now, often more than one.

I have been welcomed by everyone. I am surethey think I am mad cycling all this way. But there have been lots of hugs and kisses and last night I spent the evening supping vodka and was even given milk freshly tugged from the family cow. The picture below is of my cousin Christina's son Andrej and his wife Katerina (on the right) along with her sister in law and their young babies.

So, this is the last blog. Thanks to you for following it and to those of you who have posted comments. I hope it has not been too sad or boring. I'll look forward to seeing many of you soon and to discussing the possible next stage to Greece via Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Serbia and Macedonia.

Now, here's some Chopin from Warsaw to finish off with!

Bye all!!

Wandering to Warsaw

2010-05-17T04:59:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone from Rainy Poland!!

Ken and I are holed up in Wloclawek about 100 miles from Warsaw. Big floods in the south so we have decided to stay on a day in this hotel which is very plush, was a salt mill and is a complete contrast to the other places we have stayed.

The picture above is of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, which we left a week ago. We had a fine time there, although I found much of what I saw profoundly sad. Below is the Reichstag which Hitler defied and ignored as he built up his Third Reich. Below that is the Holocaust monument next to the Gate, which is built of huge concrete blocks resembling tombstones which you sink down into as you walk through. It is vast and is built on land which I believe was occupied by the Wall and nomansland before reunification. Behind are the blocks of buildings which comprised East Berlin and still mark a virtual divide between the more salubrious west and the crowded tenements you find all over the former Eastern Bloc, even outside small country villages.

We took a walking tour with a Dutch American guide who was full of anecdotes. The plaque in the ground commerorates the book burning that took place in the square in the next picture which has Humboldt University behind. The Nazis denounced socialist, Jewish, slav etc writers - how sad, George Orwell might not have done too well, but what of Zola or Dickens?

Another scene of great sadness is, of course, the Berlin Wall. Much of it has gone, including Checkpoint Charlie, but there follow two pics, the first near the centre is preserved (you cannot hack bits off as souvenirs any more - in fact they reckon the souvenir sellers have already sold far more wall than ever existed!) and the second we saw on our way out. It serves as a vast art gallery - Banksy would have been at home.

Before leaving though we had great fun visiting an unsad part of the communist legacy - the famous TV Tower which the East Germans built ostensibly to broadcast from, but which has a very god view to the west.....................! I had been put onto it by Wolfram LIbermeister a lecturer form Humboldt Uni I met in Amsterdam. He met us there after Ken and I had been up for the view and to celebrate his 65th birthday - that's him with the cake.

We had two more days in Germany before crossing the Oder into Poland. Here's me before crossing its vast floodplain. Wonderful ox bow lakes, but I'll not bore you with more Geography now. We crossed into Poland on an overcast evening passing the deserted guard posts before arriving at The Bastion Hotel in Kostrzyn where we learnt about the Polish love for piped pop music. But the people have been so lovely and friendly. The roads have been another matter, but more of them later.

A couple of days travelling in warmer conditions than we had had as we left Germany got us to Poznan. That's its old market square in the picture following. All the cities and towns I have visited have had these and they are a mark of the vast trade flows that there were across northern Europe in the 1300 - 1700s, a kind of silk road European style, with evidence of many craft guilds in places like Poznan.

We stayed in a backpackers hostel close to the centre, quite a seedy place run by a guy who smoked electric cigarettes (really), But at least I got my washing done (to quote R. Daltrey). But our recent hostels have been a great experience. Favourite was Munchehof, the last in Germany and in a little village of about 25 houses where we sat with the warden to eat the meal his wife cooked up for us. That's it with the white walls. It is followed by a picture of Ken cycling away from Konin hostel, our last port of call. We envisioned a hostel by a lovely set of lakes. Well, they are, but not when you are loking out of our bedroom window at the aluminium smelter across the water! Also you'll note the huge pipes going to the hostel. We guessed these were part of the vast communal heating systems put in to serve public buildings in areas like this. Last point here, note lack of sun in most of last pictures - boy has it been cold, if not wet until today.

Now, about hthese roads. When they are good they are great, but when not, as like as not they will be dirt or not even exist. Ken did a great job before leaving home of plotting all our routes on cycle GPS. But we have found some routes impassable - we even did 10 mile on cobbles through fields the other day, but that's what I came here for and it's what cycle touring is all about. Even where the road runs out a you have to carry your bike - see pic of Ken!

We have yet too see lots of Poland and we are sure it will be very attractive, but in the meantime, a very attractive feature right now is the decorated crosses and other icons dotted around in every village we pass, presumably this is because of the recent passing of Mayday. In fact some individual houses, however small, have their own. And the churches proliferate, many of them with wooden walls and wood shingled roofs.

So, now it's a couple or three days to Warsaw where I meet my cousin's son, Marek and stay for a couple of days before finally cycling on to my Dad's home village about 100 miles further south. Ken sadly leaves for home by train on Thursday, so I'll heve to learn to survive again without GPS to find the hotels and hostels. Will I manage?? Watch this blog space for the next exciting and probably final instalment of Surowiec's saunterings!!!

Love to all.

Bouncing to Berlin

2010-05-11T04:31:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone!

I am now in Berlin close to where the wall was. I last wrote from Lubeck which was right on the border in the West Germany. Since then Ken and I have mostly been on the Copenhagen to Berlin cycle route. It is 400 miles long and that’s me by the sign board near Krakow am See. It is lovely undulating country all formed by ice depositing rock eroded from Norway and Sweden in the ice ages. Here endeth the geography lesson, but most of what follows is about much futile history of the 20^th century.

Lubek was heavily bombed and its massive St Nicolas cathedral bears witness to this with the huge bell still lying where it fell in 1944, that’s it burning in the photograph with the bell below.

We knew we had got into the east when we saw our first cobbled streets (hence the bouncing to Berlin) through villages and the Trabant convertible – what would a young East German have given for one 30 years ago! Our route took us to Wismar, which was as prosperous as Lubeck in the Hanseatic League. It became a Swedish city for 200 years and so has lots of houses like that in the picture. Being on the Baltic, I also had to take a paddle on what was the last sunny day for a week, with lots of cold wet stuff following.

But the scenery going south from Wismar has made up for the weather. Mostly through small villages in lovely farming country, the route has passed many lakes, most of them in a series of nature parks, (as in the sign board) and some splendid local churches mostly made of massive boulders topped with brick or half timbered.

We have stayed in one hotel; in Wismar, it was right out of the old east with lots of kitsch, such as the revolving mirror ball to eat breakfast by; and German youth hostels. These have been great, apart from the last two before Berlin. The first was in Furstenberg and the second in Oranienberg. Innocuous names until you get there and see the full names of the hostels, Ravensbruck and Sachsenhausen respectively. We found it very unsettling, especially the first where we were staying in one of the eight female warders’ blocks. At the last we were in the house built for Heinrich Eich, who with Himmler was responsible for the whole of the concentration camp system. There were pictures of the Eich family Christmas 1942, with a tree with a Swastika and not a fairy on top which reminded me of the ‘Boy in the Striped Pyjamas’. It was a very creepy place to stay which we were glad to leave on Saturday to cycle into Berlin.

The camp area at Ravenbruck
Eich with Himmler
Eichs House, now the hostel.
The Hearth Room where the kids had their Christmas tree - see following, it is now the dining room

This is where I was sure Ken had got his GPS wrong and had landed us up in Shanghai!!

So, it is now late on Sunday and we leave in the morning to cycle to our last hostel in Germany before we go into Poland. That’s Ken in the picture as we entered the old West Berlin from East Germany before the Wall came down. Berlin has been fantastically interesting. For me seeing those historic places such as Checkpoint Charlie and bits of the actual Wall has been most moving, although one cannot fail to be impressed by the Brandenburg Gate, Tiergarten and Unter den Linden. It’s been Ken’s 65^th today so we celebrated with a meal at the top of the East Berlin TV Tower – it revolves, is the second tallest structure in Europe after the Moscow Tower and serves up a jolly good lamb stew! Next blog will be from Poland, so it’s anybody’s guess what we will be eating by then!

PS slight delay in publication until Tuesday as a result of computer problems. So now writing in Seelow on the Polish border. I thought I would add the below which I missed off the last blog.

PPS, hope the weather is better for you, at least the countries we are in have a government.

Love to all!!!

John

Lurching to Luebek

2010-05-01T02:44:00.000-07:00

Greetings all! Now in Lubek with Ken Reed from Weymouth. It´s Labour Day here 1 May, so everything is closed and very peaceful. I have yet to find out about this city, so I´ll start with Amsterdam, which I do know a little about. That is where the picture above was taken. So glad to have had the cycle there - it is such a wonderfully planned city with a network of canals radiating and encircling the city, so unlike so many places where your bearings are buildings and roads, in typical Dutch fashion, your bearings here are water. Brown cafes (sorry, not more of Brown), wonderful Rijk´s Museum with the rembrandts and vermeers, and wonderfully friendly people. In fact it is such a friendly place that even the bed bugs at the Zeeburg Hostel seemed to take to me and seem to have remained ever since!

Leaving Amsterdam on a sunny but cool wind day was splendid as, with cycle you can be in the countryside in 20 mins. the pictures that follow show the wildlife again and the lovely canals to be found within 10 miles of the centre.

Also, I have passed a lot of reed cutting areas alongside the canals. The thatched roofs in Holland are mostly huge. Big barns with the farmhouse incorporated. In Germany I have found that they cover such houses in solar panels, whereas the Dutch seem to be sticking to thatch. The boat below was delivering reed and had just come through one of those small hand operated lifting bridges.

I was due to camp for three nights after Amsterdam, but decided that if the routes were good I would try to collapse the ride into two days and go extra fast. There followed lots of below sea level polder lands, much of it in Flevoland, which was created in the 1960s and has Llelystad as its principal town. You can see it in the distance in the next picture, with the Zuider Zee alongside. One visit confirmed that camping here would be uninspiring, so on for another 30 miles to a beautiful site in a forest. As I got closer, at last I saw the fabled tulip fields!

The following day was on to Emmen, which dad´s regiment helped free. I thought it would be rather lovely, but it was very new and I suspect had been much rebuilt after the war. So no photograph. But the following day, my last, sadly, in the netherlands was lovely and took me past a small town called Ter Apel. It looked boring, grid iron on the map, but on getting there was charming, with everything planned around a set of canals and with some very gracious 1900s houses. I got to talikng to a couple who owned one much like that in the picture below. They were old enough to recall the war and knew the poles had freed their town. Apparently, every 4 May they observe a minute´s silence in thanks for their freedom and on 5 May they celebrate the end of the war on that day in 1945.

So, I left Holland headed for Leer youth hostel. Thats it in the picture below with Mark the Frenchman who was cycling to the 'Nord Cap' of sweden before heading off to St Petersburg on his World Tour. His bike weighed a ton, not to mention the trailer. German Hostels are massive and mostly empty at this time. There were only 3 of us staying with a personal room each. The effort to save a day and not camp was worthwhile as it gave me a day to get to know Leer, which is charming and has it's own ship museum - see below. While there though I ruminated on why I liked Holland so much, yet had never visited before. A few reasons:-

Roads with no potholes - some of the German roads are even worse than ours. Cycle paths too which are smooth and go anywhere you could want to go
Bakerij - for the daily supply of luscious cakes that all cyclists need to go fast and far
water, water everwhere, and so well used and maintained, if you see what I mean
a gentility about all the people I met. seeing folks of all ages going around on their sit up and beg bikes took me back to my 1950s childhood where all my friends' parents and mine used their cycles, going to the shops, delivering kids to school etc. Somehow life seemed slower and more relaxed, the way it used to be when I was young. I'll not pontificate now about the return to cycling that we could do with in Britain, fuel prices will get us back there in due course!

Now, I have to say that the first thing that happened to me in Germany was to be given a free beer at a restaurant on the border. Since then Germany too has been a delight, apart from the motorist who stopped me and told me that I had by law to use the cycle way supplied, even though it had a dreadful surface and I was trying to do over 80 miles that day and had already had a flat tyre. We agreed that I'd wait until the Police stopped me before I got off the road. I had to complete 82 miles that day largely because I was heading for a lovely hostel in the middle of a forest yet had mistakenly thought I could take a tunnel below the River Weser (of Pied Piper fame), but found only cars and lorries could use it. So I had to divert 25 miles in all to get across by ferry. There are two ferry photographs (very boring) but they show how you have to be careful here to check how to get places by cycle - the second is crossing the River Elbe.

That took me to Gluckstad on the Elbe, below, which has a pretty harbour frontage and its own ship museum, with one ship - this one built south of Hull for use on the Wash and along the east coast of UK

Finally yesterday I did the last 65 miles to Lubeck to meet Ken. It's an impressive city on a river island giving onto the Baltic Sea, where Ken and I head tomorrow. The weather has been more changeable of late, but the change of wind direction from NE to SW has been wonderful and has made me realise how tough the first 2 or 3 weeks were. I had trouble cycling more than 10mph on the flat often in Holland, yet yesterday I managed almost twice that speed for most of the day with the wind behind me.

So, the first part of my Pilgrimage is now done, with my arrival in Wilhelmshaven where dad ended the war on Tuesday. But it wasn't the most picturesque of places so no photograph. Now it's on to Dad's birthplace via the Baltic, Berlin, Poznan and Warsaw.

Distance so far is 1270 miles when I reckoned on only 1050 to get me here. Partly that's my mistakes en route, but a lot is down to cycle path as opposed to road distances. But Ken has his trusty GPS with all the routes loaded onto it, so from nowe on I can sit back and relax!!!

All the best to you all!! Have a good pre-election week and may the best bigot win!

John

P. S. sorry about the alliterative titles, it's only done to annoy Mark who says they are cheesey!

Ambling to Amsterdam

2010-04-21T10:58:00.000-07:00

Hi all you blog watchers!

First whole day in Amsterdam, the global village, today. What a wonderful place for cycling the Netherlands is, it even beats Belgium, which is saying something. Although battling 25mph wind most of yesterday, cycling these wonderful cycleways still seemed like gliding along on a bike travelator compared to some of the roads I have been on, especially UK with all our potholes. Yesterday was als remarkable because as I approached Schipol airport I heard the first aircraft in days, presumably as the flight ban was starting to lift. Before that mostly I had been listening to the amazing variety of birdlife there is here given the mass of waterways all of which provide a wonderful habitat for geese, many varieties of duck, moorhens, swans nesting on eggs, kingfishers and herons.

Talking of waterways, I note that nobody has contaced me about the deliberate mistake in my last blog - I crossed the Seine at Vernon, not the Rhone. But I think I have crossed the Rhine - it's not dalled that as it gets to the sea, with its waterways turning into Rivers such as the Maas, which I crossed a couple of days ago. That brings me to the main experience of the last few days - visiting Breda and the area to the north of the city.

My dad always said he had visited Breda, but he never told me about the events. In the pictures attached you'll see the Polish cemetery which I found as I cycled in. There around 100 of dad's comrades are buried along with another 50 paratroopers involved in the Arnhem operation. I was surprised when I looked at the monument to find that there were lots of fresh flowers, then I discovered the small paingin amongst them saying "Katyn 1940 - 2010". The Poles have been through a lot as a nation.

I camped in Breda and when I got back to the tent and elderly couple (75 and 83) invited me into their caravan for a late evening coffee (I think they took pity on me). It truned out that they were from Emmen, which I'll be visiting next week. It also was freed by the Dad's regiment, and being aged 10 and 18 at the time they remembered it well, having endured "the winter of hunger" in 1944-45 and having to wait until almost the end of the war to be freed from Nazi rule. It was very touching as they told me how many Dutch towns and villages have memories of and revere the Poles and the armies of other nations for what they did.

Other events? Well, not having learnt my lesson last time, on the very day I completed the last blog, I left Gent at lunchtime in a real hurry determined to cycle 90km to Antwerp along the River Schelde. First I managed to ride 5km along the Leis, then having negotiated miles of ting road I cycled 15km along the Schelde in the wrong direction. By the time I had aborted that idea and found my way through the badly sin\gned suburbs of Gent it was 4.30 and I had 65 km to do to Antwerp. But I made it by 8.00 and the hostel by 8.30pm. But it was bread and cheese for me that night as all the restaurants were too far away - I am learning graduallt\y abut cycle navigation and wish I had brought a compass!

As for places visited (see pictures):-

Antwerp was civilised - I passed through a huge Jewish quarter and massive port area

The border into Holland merited a picture for its insignificance

Bergen op Zoom was a very pleasant rest place with a lovely Grot Market square

Breda is a very hip place now, with waterfront bars and a wonderful cathedral tower

Gouda isn't just about cheese, it's very charming in a Cambridgey sort of way and it too has a lovely cathedral with water surrounding

Until you've been in Holland you don't really understand how much water there is here and what the Dutch (a lovely bunch of folk from those I have met) have done to create their country. Windmills new and old, lovely residential areas all with their own waterways surrounding ultra neat houses and gardens, and polders with high rivers on one side of dams and low fields on the other. Beautiful

Finally, cycling along one muses. Everywhere I have been apart from the ride in England I have seen wind farms. I know that they are not the most efficient and that their energy is not always delivered at the right time, but why do we bury our heads where the French (even the French), Belgians and Dutch know that continually to use up the Earth's capital in the form of fossil fuel without using it to create means to harness the energy of the sun, wind , sea etc. is foolhardy. Why isn't there a wind farm on Portland!!??

Here endeth the lesson for today! Now signing off. Next posting probably from Lubeck on the Baltic close to the old East-West German border.

John

PS - very glad to be away from the election personality politics stuff. Ken, who joins me in Germany tells me that it's getting to be neck and neck between all three parties. Michael Foot and Maggie may have had their separate drawbacks, but at least they had some political philosophy on which one could vote.

Gently cycling to gent

2010-04-15T02:34:00.000-07:00

Two weeks gone now and 600 moiles not counting the extras around town etc.. The wind persists from the NE as Ihead that way, but its not raining. Apologies for punctuation, I have trouble coping with a non UK keyboard.

Now I am on the flat bit the days are easier and ,ake me realise how tough some days have been. Rest days as in Vernon are a good thing in some ways, but last Thursday as I set off from Vernon out of the Rhone Valley going North with a 25 mph wind against me I really felt like a snail towing its shell. Lyon La Foret is a lovely village well worth going to and all along the way, as here I am looko,g for church towers to tell me where settlements are. The day ended with 60 miles covered by 7.30pm which is when the front pannier frame fell off. Luckily I had a great place to stay and was only 2 miles away, the distance Patrick drove to pick me up.

Have just added the pictures, sorry that they are in no order, but the house is where I stayed that night. Following that I crossed the lower Somme not far from where Dad did in September 1944. After that I passes through Hesdin where he hjad been and then hqd my first camping session. A very cold start, but I soon warmed up ctcling up hill for about 17 miles going past the straw horse en route.

Then I got onto the high plateaux passing Crecy well known for where Ed III thrashed the French. After that it was donhill towards Flanders and a night in an F1 at St Omer. Going east from there took me to the First World War battlefields, crossing the Messine Ridge; You cane see why that area became a main front as the armies fought for the only high land in a very flat landscape, especially as you go further east towards Kortrijk the flax centre.

Yesterday I cycled from there to Gent, see night scene, expecting to do 35 miles. I did 55 having not noticed the canal to Roulers while listening intently to the I pod. But Dad went through Roulers and I said I would follow his route, so I think he played a hand in Yesterdays blunder.

So today its a (( miler along the Scheldt River to Antwerp. As you ride you get to muse on the things that have gone well and not so well. After two weeks the wells are

Mark cycling back down a 2 mile steep hill to get the pizzas when I was too knackered on the first day
Patricks lift
The chemist who printed a google map for me to get to a Hostel
Finding a contact lense after it blew onto a field
The tail wind to Trun aznd the Mpnt Ormel Museum
Hilde in a bar in Gent who introduced me to Orvel beer.

So thats it for now, next write up probably from Amsterdam

Love to all

John

Mixing with Monet

2010-04-07T09:02:00.000-07:00

Away a week now. Covered 300 miles in five and a half days with one flat tyre and a rattley pannier rack, so cannot complain. Best part is the weather which has now warmed wonderfully. Leaving UK was pretty wetas Mark and I met in Portsmouth in the middle of a huge storm at 7.00pm after each having a demanding ride of about 60 miles (although his took only a third the time mine took, but mine was demanding because of the problems in finding the Solent way along a very muddy and wet shoreline and having to negotiate through the architectural bliss of Gosport.

Once here we had a splendid day together with early morning market in Caen, then ride to the Polish cemetery near Falaise, followes by a wonderful tail wind thqat took us to Trun and then south to the Museum that tells the story of the Battle of the "Fally Gap" that my father's regiment fought starting on his birthday, 17 August 1944, ending on 20 August when the gap was closed and thousands of Germans were locked in. The scenes depicted were truly horrific and qa blight on such a beautiful landscape, which forms the escarpment at the edge of the Isle de France plateau.

The following two days were spent cycling across the wonderful orchards and then arable lands towards Paris with wonderful quiet roads and a lot of father and son chatter as we wended our way. Mark likes to average 30kph plus while I manage 20kph only. So he helped me and I did my best. We had great accommodation, but managed to enter no bars in th three days - what does that say?

Today has been a day off. I am at the youth hostel in Vernon, which is fine, although lqte lqst night when I thought I had the room to myself a guy of about 65 arrived. He can best be likened to Estragon frm waiiting for Godot. He told me he lived in Paris in a cave since 1964, which seemed in character until I realised the true meaning of cave. Apparently he was booted out of his cellar in 2009 and has been living in youth hostels ever since, poor chap as I am sure he has a bad heart complaint.

So today the sun shone and I spent the day in checking the bike over and then riding it to Monet's garden and the impressionist museum at Giverny. Tomorrow it's north towards the coast to seek out the fabled Cafe Eu.

Love to all.

John

2010-03-22T11:03:00.000-07:00

Only 10 days to go now until I depart. It's great to see that so many friends and relatives have donated to the charities or promised to do so, so that I am a third the way towards my target.

Also had a pack up of all the stuff I expect to take to see if it fits into four pannier bags. Good news, it does. The bad news is the rail strike likely on Saturday 3 April, but if I can conjure up the time before I go it may be possible for me to cycle to Portsmouth starting on April Fool's Day - is that a good day to start though!?

Enough of this blurb now - it will be best to post again once there is something interesting to tell everyone!

First Blog

2010-02-14T01:54:00.000-08:00

Hi,

I've never blogged before, so this is a try to see how it works in preparation for my Poland trip due to start seven weeks from today. I still haven't worked out how I get my blog address to friends who may want to view it as I go along. However, Polish John and John's Pilgrimage to Poland seem to be key words and a google account may be helpful for some, as may my hotmail address be useful to me - john.surowiec2@hotmail.com No news now, until much closer to when I go!

John