Cycling to Poland via Harwich / Hook of Holland

Germany. We left the Netherlands with high spirits and were looking forward to the next chapter of our road trip. No dramas so far, hot but not unbearable weather, great views, what could possibly go wrong? I will come to that later, but let’s start with positives first.

Bike lanes are pretty much everywhere, either dedicated and completely separated from other traffic or shared with others. Surfaces condition in some places being a different subject (again, more on that later) but bike roads infrastructure is impressive for such a big country. The same applies to German drivers- with only few exceptions, they left us loads of space when passing, or waited patiently behind if could not immediately overtake. We felt completely safe and in my opinion, UK and Poland have a lot of catch up to do in this particular subject. There are also crossroads with priority for bikes, but not as many as in Holland and mainly when path is shared with pedestrian’s walkways. I have never learned to fully trust car drivers on those, keeping in line with old Polish sentence stating that cemeteries are full of people who had the right of way. Although you supposed to use bike lanes if available, cycling on main roads is not prohibited according to few local people asked. Must be legit as there were other bikers happily cycling on those and no one had any problem with that even if clearly marked bike path was running alongside, not even police patrols that we were passing by. German towns have also some amusing names. On our way to Poland we passed through Jerusalem, Kamerun or danced a bit of twist in Twist.

So, let’s go through some things that we were not impressed by. To start with, you never know what kind of road surface is waiting for you ahead, as German bike lanes are very diverse and unpredictable. Large concrete slabs with 1” gap between, concrete paving with overgrown bushes that have been forgotten for more than a while, long sections of cobbled roads or tarmac damaged by overgrown roots? Be my guest! Furthermore, paved only option on cycle.travel maps is very good in general, but it gave us couple of nasty surprises. For whatever reason, sandy forest duct or loose crushed-stone surface section falls into this category as well. Don’t get me wrong, it happened only on few occasions, but somehow not at all when cycling in the UK or Holland. Another annoying thing in Germany were road closures with absolutely no warning prior to that. Imagine cycling alongside a canal on those lovely well-spaced concrete slabs for approx. 20 minutes, only to find out that the path is closed. Or expect to cross a river but the ferry is not there, and no info provided about it’s closure or any alternative route. Bike lanes in small towns are commonly shared with pedestrians, or are part of the only walkways in the area with house entrances and shops fronts in a way. It is worth to remember that most of the shops are closed on Sunday, and small towns or villages we passed had no shop or pub/restaurant so extra stock of snacks and drinks is a must. To our surprise, we were also charged for tap water top-up even when ordering other drinks.

Our overnight stops were in Loningen, Bremen, Egestorf, Aulosen, Lentzke and Berlin. First rest day was in Bremen and we had two more days without bikes in Berlin, were I managed to cut my new rear tyre right through the carcass. This happened on Sunday morning when we were leaving this magnificent town with all shops closed so my pre-made patch cut out of piece of old tyre became useful. I could feel the tyre bump on a smooth tarmac but it was not too bad otherwise, and more importantly we could continue the journey without risking another puncture. Another tip for long journey travel is making sure that a bottle of chain oil is always on board. With daily average of approx. 100km, it was required nearly every day, especially when bikes were left outside overnight. Overall, the ride across the country gave us a lot of good memories, was fun and enjoyable although tiring sometimes due to unexpected road conditions. Some of the routes we enjoyed most were close to Aulosen (parts of EV13 / Iron Courtain Trail and near Elba river) and alongside Oder river on our way to Kostrzyn (part of EV2 and Oder-Niesse / Odra-Nysa track). Cycle paths were completely separated from car’s traffic, had a very good road surface and were running alongside stunning landscape. We finally reached Poland on the 28th, with 1st night stay done in Kostrzyn.

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