Biking Poland
12 June 2023, Warka, 61.63km
Kemping Nad Pilica 90zł [R412]
We are in the town of Warka, 60-plus km south of Warsaw, in a room at the campsite, Kemping Nad Pilica. In our block, there is a shared kitchen and communal bathrooms for men and women sporting more basins, loos and showers than seem necessary. The showers are generous in size, but parsimonious on two counts. 1. There is no temperature adjustment option - you get what is delivered which is somewhere between tepid and hot; I would describe it as "warm". 2. Instead of taps, the showers have those push-button "taps" you find in airport bathrooms, the type that provide water at a set pressure for a limited time. Here, you get your hair partially wet, then push, get partway through shampooing it, then push, suds one underarm, then push... You get the picture...
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We had plotted what looked like a simple route out of the city and onward to Warka. Down Nowy Swiat (which we dubbed Now You See It, Now You Don't so we could remember the name) and its extension past the Botanical gardens and the Regent Hotel, then left to the Vistula and right along its west bank. Follow the river as far as Gora Kolwaria, spend a short period on busy route 79, and veer onto the quieter 731 to Warka.
The cycle paths in Warsaw make managing Monday morning traffic relatively easy, though you do need to be alert for approaching and passing cyclists and for pedestrians who use crossings over the cycle paths. Also using the paths are scooters. Not autocycle scooters, but a motorised version of the stand-n-push scooter from your childhood. Like electric bikes, these scooters are available for hire all over the city. They move at quite a pace whizzing people from a to b in the most fun way possible.
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The cycle path that began on the city outskirts was built on a raised embankment* with the placid Vistula, Poland's longest river, on our left and the railway line and a narrow country lane on our right. Once off the path, we cycled narrow roads, sometimes more confusing than portrayed by Google Maps.
*At the start of the embankment path was a tool station for cyclists with an air pump and a variety of tools in case of a breakdown. Pretty cool.
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The scene was green with farming (wheat, hops, fruit trees) and woods, the terrain mainly easy, the architecture uninspiring.
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We have plotted a 1000km route south and west to cross into the Czech Republic somewhere north of Prague...