krakow rest day / sightseeing
we had a great time with magda & maciek in the nowa huta district. the guys at the bike shop didn´t have time to check our bikes, but they let me use their tools so i could do some service to alex´s and mine bottom bracket.
cracow rest day
time for a blog update, bike maintenance and some backups . and some sightseeing of course! (but only if the temperatures drop in the late afternoon!?) andrzej gave us a interesting walking tour in the old town and jewish quarter of krakow.
ogrodzieniec cracow
69km 417 alti meter
the rolling hills are getting steeper and longer. it is obvious that we are getting closer to the mountains. we tried to escape the brutal midday heat with a nap in the park of olkusz. after some more hot hills we roll downsteams the pradnik river through the ojcow national park. after checking in at the hostel a nice walk around old district of cracow.
piasek ogrodzieniec
61km 694 alti meter
we pass some nice leaf tree forests and pine woods. the trails are sometimes just some sandy tracks which are not really bikeable (especially with a loaded bike), although they are signed out as the cycling route!?
kamiensk piasek
96km 465 alti meter
we started early and got to czestochowa for lunch break and some sightseeing before getting on the trail of the eagles nests (the runins of medieval castles lay like bird nests on small hills in the jurassic upland).
domaniewice kamiensk
100km 392 alti meter
the bottom bracket suffered again in this sandy rolling hills / detours, so i exchanged the chinese 8mm bolt that kept the bottom bracket together for more then 5500km!?
to hot to put on the rain cover of the tent, but some shelter from the mosquitos and the morning dew version a
to hot to put on the rain cover of the tent, but some shelter from the mosquitos and the morning dew version b
gora kalwaria domaniewice
93km 387 alti meter
we left the vestula river and followed the pilica river valley. the cornfields changed to fruit & vegetables fields (strawberry, cherry, .)
a fair price for cyclists!
finaly some sport after a day on the bike!?
warsaw gora kalwaria
40km 104 alti meter
magda & maciek from krakow gave us some great tipps about the route and whats to see along it! we left late and it´s alex´s b-day, so we checked in at the only motel in the village and watched the soccer game on tv.
warsaw rest day / sightseeing
time to update the blogs and look at the further route, as the weather in town is to hot and almost paralyzing. marek took us on a sightseeing tour to some off the not so touristy but very historical parts of town.
the artist and his sculptures
the only few remaining walls in ww2 in the jewish quarter.
kampinos warsaw
72km 181 alti meter
we ride the last 44km to warsaw and i finally can pick up my maps/ books (thanks to markus, renars, stiefel, mile, ewa .!?) marek our warmshower host wellcomes us at his place and konrad gives us a very intersting tour in the old town and the new town.
murzynowo – kampinos
91km 208 alti meter
we ride through the nice old town of plock and hear about the 22 villages only in this area who suffered from the floods a couple weeks ago.
once again a broken front rack!? 
ciechocinek murzynowo
82km 324 alti meter
along the way we meet a writer of a regional historic book and his friend who tell us some things about the area. at the river marina we get invited by peter and his friends to camp there and met a cycling couple who cycle from warsaw to kopenhagen.
bienkowko ciechocinek
89km 255 alti meter
we take a look at copernikus birth place torun and try to follow the river. that is sometimes difficult as the traffic on the main road is fast and there is not much space for cyclists. the alternatives are secondary roads which turn sometimes into just a sandy path through the forest. pushing a heavy loaded bike through sand and getting attacked by aggressive mosquitoes is not the best part of cycling around here. we stop to check out the thermal pools which this area is famous for.
koniecwald bienkowko
118km 319 alti meter
we follow the vestul river. sometimes on the dam sometimes on allee roads. we pass the nice old towns grudiadz and chelmno.
gdansk malbork (by train) koniecwald
24km
we left late after another walking tour around gdansk and took the train to malbork to look at the castle there.
jagodno gdansk
72km 173 alti meter
we found some nice side roads and crossed the vestula river (the queen of polands rivers) the first time before getting to the impressive old town of gdansk.
worlawki jagodno
96km 562 alti meter
we tried to get a boat from frombork to the mierzeja wislana but contrary to the information we got from the tourist information in braniewo, there was no boat that day!? so we checked out where copernicus used to work and continued cycling.
gizycko worlawki
110km 510 alti meter
nice day on the road, although the tourist information is closed and we couldn´t get more information about the area passing to the nice old town of ketrzyn.
wydminy gizycko
30km biking 15km kajaking 182 alti meter
we used the nice weather for a kajak day trip on the lakes and canals. (after realizing that there is one hour time differenz and that we got up at 5 o´clock!?)
suwalki wydminy
76km 301 alti meter
some more rolling hills on which we meet joel from paris who walks from tallinn to spain in 6 month!? we stop to take a look at the bunker / "defenssystem the germans build in WW2.
jurbarkas suwalki (poland)
155km 539 alti meter
a long rainy day on the roads. we leave the flatlands behind us and are getting more and more into rolling hills.
