Warsaw to Slovakia

We had been looking forward to this break for weeks. A chance to stop for a few days and enjoy good food and good company.

Warsaw was a very busy city, and the old town was jammed pack full of tourists. But it was a great place to explore on foot. Anita calculated for us that we averaged 20000 steps a day, except the final day when we only achieved 15000, a little disappointing.

We spent three days catching up with Anita, touring the old town, watching a multimedia fountain light show, eating loads of Polish food, and learning about both the Holocaust and post-war communist Poland. We also tried to learn about the Polish Uprising but failed as we all got completely bamboozled and lost in the poorly laid out, mishmash of information and massively over crowded Uprising Museum. The Guinness Cake that was carefully flown in from Edinburgh was definitely a highlight and a great way to celebrate all three of our birthdays even if they had already passed.

Oh my God we're in Warsaw!

Yes, Warsaw!

As our visas are so short for Europe, we decided to train from Warsaw to Krakow. Getting tickets for the train, with our bicycles, was a breeze compared to the effort of getting on the train itself. As the train approached Calvin was quick to identify the carriage for bicycles. We wheeled our bicycles to the door, lugged them on board and realised there was no room, we were wedged between the door and a man with two huge suitcases so couldn't get our bikes to the bicycle racks. To make matters worse it meant we were not blocking the thoroughfare and a elderly couple 'tsk'd us as they wanted to pass through. We unloaded our bikes, removed the panniers and tried again. This time the man with the suitcases moved for us - very slowly - and feeling frazzled Kate followed Calvin on a little too soon only to be growled by the unhelpful conductor for blocking the doorway. Finally bikes were on, bags were on, and after booting people out of our seats, we were on. Getting off was much easier as we were the last stop and just waited for everyone else to disembark before attempting it ourselves.

No more Guinness cake

Arriving in Krakow we cycled through the old town, past the castle and down the river to the nearest campground only to find that it was full. We quickly found cheap last minute apartment accommodation online and settled ourselves in for a relaxing two nights in Krakow. This was a brilliant town to walk around, and despite the intense heat we made it out to the Krakus mound to get a 360 view of the area.

Krakow castle in the evening light

Our ride out of Krakow detoured passed Schindlers factory and the Plaszow Hard Labour Camp. We then headed through endless suburbia situated on steep rolling hills. We climbed and we coasted until midday when we arrivd at the only campground we could find within a reasonable riding distance of Krakow. Once again it didn't exist so we cycled on through the afternoon to another Agroturistica with views over the high rolling hills.

The benefits of biking when the road runs out

The next day we followed a river upstream towards some pretty big hills. As we started to climb we were approached from behind by a Polish cyclists who joined us for the climb. He was on holiday for a week and as he was suffering from a running injury he had taken to the bike and was doing good long day trips that took on multiple mountains each day from his home. When we hit our turnoff we waved him goodbye as he continued to climb the remaining 500m to his first if several mountains for the day. We were a little envious, but we happily rolled down the long, steep incline to our campground beside the river.

This part of Poland reminded us of some of the small, remote Mongolian villages we had ridden through. The streets were higgilty piggilty and arranged in no particular order, and it was impossible to find any stores although everyone insisted they were there. After attempting to find a restaurant for dinner - a wee treat to ourselves - we gave up and headed back to the campground and had fries and 'casserole' (also known as cheese and mushrooms with sauce on a toasted baguette) and a beer from the little cafe provided.

Our final day in Poland had us riding in to the Tatra Mountains, and taking on our longest climb yet. It went on and on and on. Finally after reaching the top and enjoying a small downhill we turned off to make our way to Morskie Oko, a picturesque lake nestled 10km into the mountains. One kilometre in and we hit a gate. Turns out you can only walk or take a horse and cart for the remaining 9km up to the lake, no vehicles are allowed on the road. 30,000 people had walked it the previous day which explained the huge number of parked cars and buses we had passed during the day and the overflowing carpark at the gate. We had planned on staying at a campground on route up to the lake, but we weren't keen on lugging our gear and bikes up so we sat down had some coffees, pizza and a jacket potato before turning around and making our way to the Slovakian border, much easier.

Into the Tatra Mountains

Slovenia... no Slovakia!

Our final task before leaving Poland was to use all our remaining złotys. We didn't really have enough to buy anything useful or tasty so Kate approached some travels and offered them our last coins. They were a little confused and bewildered but happy with their end result!