June 26, 2016

Michau and Lukasz had clearly put a lot of thought and effort into showing me around their part of Poland. For our first day, we headed to Wroclaw for a walking tour.

Wroclaw was known by the German name Breslau prior to World War II, as it was part of Germany prior to the war; throughout history, this city has been part of the Kingdom of Poland, Bohemia, Hungary, the Austrian Empire, Prussia, and Germany. After the war, it became part of Poland and officially adopted the Polish name Wroclaw. Both names sound very similar when pronounced properly, even though they are spelled completely different.

We began with a walk around Ostrow Tumski, or Cathedral Island. This is a beautiful spot on the Oder River.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next we walked through the old market square and past the old Town hall.

 

One of the more odd sights that I was interested in seeing in Wroclaw was the Krasnale, or Gnomes. It all started with the “Papa Smurf”, a gnome-looking figure that was placed at a location where the Orange Alternative, an underground anti-communist movement, met in the 1980s. Much later, these small gnomes began showing up in various locations around the city. Eventually, they became an attraction themselves, and today there are over 200 of them around Wroclaw. It’s very easy to walk right past them and never even notice, but if you want to search them out, one easy way is the Gnome Finder app. I downloaded this free app and it shows the location of every known gnome in Wroclaw.

 

 

After a bit of gnome-watching, we stopped for a lunch of traditional inexpensive Polish food at Setka Bar. This place had a great atmosphere.

 

After lunch we did a quick sprint up the spiral stairs of the tower at St. Elizabeth’s Church for a great view of Wroclaw, before sprinting back down and over to the Racławice Panorama. This incredible painting is over 45 feet tall, and over 7500 square feet of total surface area in a circular presentation that you stand in the center of to view. It was originally painted in 1893, but was hidden away during WWII to protect it, and spent many years in storage before a new home could be built to present it again. It depicts the battle of Racławice which took place in 1794. By adding special lighting and three dimensional items, the painting really comes to life. I found it difficult in several places to distinguish where the painting ended and the 3D pieces began.

 

 

After viewing the panorama, we took the train back toward Jary, and Patricia joined us for dinner at the house of Lukasz’ brother and sister-in-law. His dad was also there, and I had a great time talking with him, even though he speaks limited english. He was very excited to have an American come to visit in their small town, and was interested in my travels. He had a large World Atlas and we spent some time talking about my route through South America and Africa.

After dinner it was back to Michau & Patricia’s to rest up and prepare for our riding tour of southwest Poland over the next few days.

 

 

June 27, 2016

Up early to do a little bike maintenance before heading out on the first of three days riding through Southwest Poland with a bunch of great guys from the local area. I needed to change front and rear brake pads, lube my chain, add some oil, and update my gps maps.

All done, and the first of the riders shows up to meet us at Michau’s house. Grzegorz is riding a heavily modified BMW 1200GS. I hesitate to call it a GS, as not even the frame is from a GS, but from an R model. The front forks and wheel are from a KTM. Every single piece that isn’t necessary to ride the GS offroad but still be street legal has been removed. It looks more like a large but proper dirt bike, and he rides it like one as well. It was great fun to follow him on some two-track dirt roads through the fields.

We picked up Ela (Lukasz’ sister-in-law) and headed off towards Lubiaz. On the way here, I had passed through Lubiaz, and by this absolutely enormous building. I had to go back and see what it was all about.

 

 

For centuries, this was a Cistercian monastery. Parts of it dates from 1175, and it is one of the largest Christian architectural complexes in the world. During WWII it was used by the Germans as a laboratory and for production of components for V1 and V2 rockets using prisoner labor. Much of the building was damaged after the war during occupation by the Red Army, and it fell into disrepair. Only a portion of it is open to tour today, and renovation has been ongoing since around 1990.

 

 

 

 

In 1997, Michael Jackson toured this massive complex, considering purchasing it as his residence (a European Neverland). Apparently the renovation expense was too great for even him, and he passed. I’m not sure how a place like this would fit in the hands of a private celebrity owner, especially considering that there are 98 mummified former dukes buried under the church in the center of the building.

Next stop: KZ Gross-Rosen. This was a WWII concentration camp that housed up to 100,000 prisoners. It was a hard-labor camp, where prisoners were forced to mine stone from a nearby quarry. The stone was used to build roads and buildings during the war.

I had been to Dachau many years ago, and was prepared for the experience of touring a Nazi concentration camp, but it is still a very emotional experience. Prisoners here survived an average of three months, due to the hard working conditions and poor nutrition. The average weight of the prisoners was around 35 kilograms, or 77 pounds. Built in 1941, the original small crematory quickly became overwhelmed and three larger ovens were built just to keep up with the death rate.

 

The German companies Blaupunkt, Siemens, and AEG all operated laboratories and manufacturing facilities during the war at Gross-Rosen using prisoner labor. Among notable prisoners, Simon Wiesenthal was an inmate at Gross-Rosen.

At Gross-Rosen, we were joined by Mariusz on his KTM640. Marius led us to Świdnica, and to the Peace Church. This large wooden church has an interesting history.

 

 

After the Thirty Years War ended in 1648, the Roman Catholic church allowed the Lutherans to build three churches, but under strict conditions:

1. The churches had to be outside the city walls, in less prestigious areas.
2. They had to be built from perishable materials, such as wood, sand, straw, and clay.
3. There could be no belfry or tower.
4. The exterior had to be atypical of a church.
5. Construction time had to be less than one year.

All of these conditions were met, and three wooden churches were constructed. These became the largest wooden religious structures in Europe.

From Świdnica, we rode to the small village of Jarkowice, where we spent the night at a guest house, and I was introduced to Pigwowa, a fruit-flavored vodka that tastes a lot like Choya, or Japanese plum wine. I tend to drink about one alcoholic drink every one or two months, so as Michau said, Poland is “practice for Russia”. I’m not sure how much practice I can take!

At Jarkowice, we were joined by Ela’s husband (and Lukasz’ brother) Marcin, on his Suzuki V-strom, and Paweł, who was riding Ela’s Kawasaki ER500.

June 28, 2016

There are now eight of us on seven bikes: Ela is the sole woman, riding on the back of the V-Strom with husband Marcin. We’ve taken to referring to our group as The Princess and The Seven Dwarves after the gnomes in Wrocław. (“Snow White” isn’t used here).

After breakfast we travel to another place that defies description: this one hidden in the forest. We ride a short distance to a parking area, then hike up a trail into the forest.

If it wasn’t so well marked today, you would never expect to find this:

It looks like a fairly small entrance to a mine or cave in the mountain. However, once you enter, the enormity of it is mind-boggling. This is Osowka, part of the “Riese” (German for “Giant”) project initiated by the SS during WWII. A series of seven individual underground complexes that were intended to be joined together, but were never finished. The intended use is still not known today, but it is theorized that they were to be used for manufacturing. The tunnels are large enough to easily drive large trucks through.

 

The complex is so large that parts of it have not yet been explored. This huge complex, with all of its’ tunnels, caves, rooms, etc, is part of what supports the legend of a “gold train” that is rumored to be in one of the tunnels. The story is that the train was loaded with 300 tons of gold, jewels, weapons, and works of art, and was then placed in the tunnel and buried by the Nazis. In 2015, two men claimed to find the train using ground penetrating radar. Later exploration by a Polish team of scientists discredited the “find”, but nobody has dug down to the tunnel as of today. There seemed to be a lively discussion amongst our group — some believers and others naysayers. As Michau put it, regardless of whether it exists or not, the rumor is good for tourism and the local economy.

We left the Riese and headed towards the Table Mountains and further into the Sudety mountains.

Further on we passed a ski resort, and then to Kudowa-Zdroj, and the Kaplica Czaszek, or Chapel of Skulls. This small church (The Church of St. Bartholomew) is adorned with the skulls and bones of over 3,000 people. Another 21,000 skeletons rest below the church, and you can see many of them through a trap door in the floor of the church. The bones were collected in the late 1700s from mass graves of people who died of cholera and during the Thirty Years War.

 

 

After the Chapel of Skulls, we stopped for a great late lunch of local fish (trout) & chips, and then said goodbye to Grzegorz and Mariusz as they were headed home.

 

 

Down to five bikes, we headed for our camping destination in the mountains. We had been riding along the border with Czech Republic for a while, and the road now followed the river that was the border, so we stopped at a short bridge for some border crossing photos.

 

 

At this point I handed my camera to Ela and she took some photos while we were riding to our camp.

 

 

In the evening we camped at Zajazd Gosciniec, a beautiful spot in the remote mountains. Our campsite was decorated with mannequins and Halloween decorations. It was a little weird to step out of my tent in the middle of the night and have people looking at me. Each time I was startled before I realized they weren’t real.

 

 

 

 

We had another great BBQ dinner, cooking kielbasa sausages over an open fire. And more vodka, of course. Including Lubrowka Bison Grass vodka, another first for me.

June 29, 2016

This was my last day to ride with my new Polish friends. It had been a long time since I rode with anyone else, and it felt strange at first, but I was enjoying the past few days, not only the riding and the scenery, but the companionship. My lack of language skills didn’t create a barrier — at least not as much as I feared it would, thanks to Michau and Lukasz’ excellent english — and we were able to enjoy each other’s company.

After packing up our camping gear, we rode a short distance to a bath house.

 

We continued on to a huge fortress in Kłodzko.

 

 

 

 

 

After Klodzko, we rode together across the border into Czech Republic for a typical Czech lunch. I had a beef goulash. Some of the others had Smaženy Syr, which is fried cheese. Think of fried mozzarella sticks, but in the size of a large piece of toast, and typically with Edam. It looked so good I ended up having it for dinner later.

At this point we both had about 90 miles to get to our respective destinations — mine in Czech Republic, and theirs home near Wrocław.

 

It was a great few days hanging out and riding with this group. And the advantages of having local tour guides who speak the language and know the history is priceless. I hope I’m able to reciprocate in the future if these guys come to the States.

As odd as it felt to be riding in a group, it now feels odd to be riding alone again. But I’ll adjust quickly.