Cycling to Poland via Harwich / Hook of Holland

Poland. Ride through our home country was short, but it provided us with more adrenaline than our entire journey so far. Unfortunately, not in a positive way. All started very well as route to German/Polish border was alongside Odra (Oder) river with no cars or busy roads in sight. The path was great with good quality tarmac, the river flowing gently next to it and with very picturesque surroundings. We arrived to Kostrzyn in high spirits, had a nice dinner and went towards our accommodation. In the meantime, our plans had changed slightly and Bydgoszcz became our final destination. The shortest route there from Kostrzyn went through Gorzów Wielkopolski, in Krzyż Wielkopolski direction. We set off in the morning happy to be home, but little did we know. First, the bike paths. Their design is chaotic, they start and finish in completely random places, switching between two sides of the road frequently. Very often, cycle path suddenly disappears and you have to use main busy road instead. Big towns usually maintain their bike lanes much better, but smaller cities or villages have other priorities and cycle lanes are at the bottom of their to-do lists. This means old and uneven surface, high kerbs, shops/house entrances or bus/tram stops in a way, etc. Even sections marked R1 were lower standard than what we got used to and expected. So, more about the roads. For whatever reason, according to cycle.travel maps a soft sand road was marked as a paved track. At least it was visible and easy to find because the next section was literally a forest duct that was forgotten about a very long time ago. Cobbled sections stretched through entire villages, and some potholes were of the 700c wheel size. When a cycle lane finishes and becomes a main road, you want to cycle close to the lane edge, as everywhere else in the world. Only you can’t, as the damaged surface is patched over and over again and it’s impossible to ride on it fully loaded unless you have a full suspension set up. You move to the middle of the road and then drivers are unhappy about that. Polish drivers, the final piece of jigsaw. You could write a book about them, but you would more likely gone mad just doing the research for it. With only few exceptions, drivers in Poland are still mentally in the dark ages. If you don’t drive a car or something more substantial, you are no-one to them and they are not afraid to shout it out straight into your face (not literally). Overtaking you less than 50cm away at nearly 100km/h? Notorious. Overtaking someone else on the opposite side without any care that you are in the way? Done. Joining your lane and pushing you to the kerb without even acknowledging you? Yep, no problem. Furthermore, everyone is rushing like there is a fire somewhere, they have been just called to help and you are in the way. They are dangerous, careless and do not have respect for bikers, nothing whatsoever.
All above happened in a space of less than 100km. Don’t get me wrong, we lived and cycled in London for over 20 years, many of those involved commuting on the bike every day but I had enough even before reaching Gorzów Wielkopolski. We decided to continue to see if the conditions would get any better. They did not, so we arranged a pick up from Krzyż and finished our journey there as we did not want to risk any physical damages to ourselves or the bikes. We were approx. 180km from our final destination but it would take us another 2-3 days and a lot of grey hairs to get there so just decided to call it a day.
So here is a quick summary. We started our trip on the 15th of July in St Albans, and finished it on the 29th in Krzyż Wielkopolski. According to my partner’s Garmin we did 1294km in total, the shortest daily distance was 86.4km, the longest one 131.2km, so a daily average was just over 100km. We had 3 days of rest in total- 1 in Bremen and 2 in Berlin. Our overnight stays were mixture of Couchsurfing, Airbnb, our friends place and some local hotels. Paid stays were ranging between £30 to £70 per night, and we only booked in advance the first night and the ferry. With exception of Poland, the routes were fairly easy, with only few short sections being either difficult to find, or to go through. Approx. 90% of time we were fine on our racing bikes with 25mm tyres, while remaining 10% was doable but would be much more comfortable with wider tyres. For the roads in Poland we used, I would recommend a touring bike set up as it is a pain to do that on a racer. You not only have to worry about your own safety but also navigate the bike through various obstacles. I am sure that if you stick to regional trails or if you cycle in bigger towns, you will not be faced with problems we experienced. But if you decide to ride across the country, you will need eyes on stalks, very comfortable set up for your bike and be prepared for the unexpected. All in all, we had a great fun and would be happy to do the same journey again if necessary. If you have any questions about it or need more info, just let me know. Thanks for reading, have fun on two wheels and stay safe!

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