Vienna - Krakow Cycle

Not sure why I decided to cycle to Krakow. I knew I had a free week while Pascale was to be in France during the Easter holidays and felt the need to do something different. I also needed to put in some training for the summer trip to the Rockies.

Photos I had seen of Krakow looked beautiful, and there was the added attraction of leaving directly from the door in Vienna and getting a train back.

I looked at various routes: there is an "official" path by Greenways although it looked very long and windy and I couldn't find much information on it. I tried sites like GPSies and Komoot and my Windows app called GeometerPro. All gave quite different options. In the end I chose the Komoot version. It allows to choose between road bike and touring bike and I selected the touring bike version in the hope that I would be less on busy roads and more on cycle paths.

I need to do some research into where these sites get their data and how they choose the route.  The Komoot route appeared to follow some marked trails in the Czech Republic and Poland, but never for very long and sometimes only with minor variations. It would have been nice to have the route and some description of when it joined the 5 or the 5034 or the Greenways trail. Also, how do you have the data corrected? Sometimes the track on my GPS would send me into a dead-end in a forest, or take me down a road one street away from a sign-posted trail.

Lessons to be learned, hopefully:

• Get better padded cycling shorts. I could have gone further and faster and with more enjoyment were it not for my sore buttocks. Starting up every morning was a painful process.
• Make more of an effort to stop and take photos. It's hard to pull on the brakes when the wheels are rolling but a real shame not to have the recorded evidence of some very pretty countryside and some of the worst due to human destruction.
• Make sure items not in the bags are well attached! Lost a nice pair of lightweight shoes and wasn't about to cycle back to find them.
• Always charge gadgets when possible and always fill with water when possible.
• Don't ignore the GPS when it beeps - it is probably right - just stop for a few seconds and zoom right in to see the correct path to take.
• Take a pressure gauge for the tires and maybe a better pump. Or buy a gravel bike.
• Take notes, written or recorded, in order to be able to write a short blog afterwards.
• Always put items in the same place - e.g. bike lock key always in a specific zip pocket so I don't spend hours unpacking everything looking for it. Ditto for passport, wallet etc.

Day 1: Schottenfeldgasse to Strážnice CZ. 138km

It was certainly quite nice just leaving from home, cycling through the city centre and out past the UN where all my ex-colleagues were chained to their desks. But it is quite depressing seeing the endless housing estates being built on the eastern side of Vienna. What was all farmland only a couple of years ago is now covered in concrete. Where are all the people coming from to fill these apartments?

Once outside the town the route was mostly pleasant though with short stretches on the main busy road. I was intrigued by a long, decaying brick wall topped by rusting barbed wire in Strasshof. This was the Strasshof Durchgangslager, conveniently situated on the main railway north from Vienna. People from throughout German-occupied Europe were transported here and forced to work in various factories and farms in Eastern Austria - Zwangsarbeiter. Gradually as lands were liberated from the Reich there was a shortage of labourers so 20,000 Jews were brought here from Hungary. They were the lucky ones who weren't transported to Auschwitz.

Some nice cycle paths (part of the Kamp-Thaya-March-Radroute which I might do sometime), took me up to Hohenau an der March where I crossed the border to Slovakia.

The route followed the Morava river - the border between Slovakia and the Czech Republic - for quite some time before I unexpectedly ended up in the latter. I found a small but expensive hotel (1200 CZ : 47EUR for the night) in Strážnice with a well-deserved Pivo in the main square.

The greasy onion-filled scrambled eggs for breakfast was not the best for cycling.

Day 2: Strážnice - Starý Jičín. 123km

It's always very pleasant cycling early in the morning on quiet paths in the sunshine listening to the birds singing. However it never lasts - you inevitably end up surrounded by industry, shopping centres, business parks & busy roads at some point.  

The scenery was reasonably pleasant but always interspersed with new warehouse and factory developments and way too much clear-felling of whole hillsides for wood.

The cold NE wind and the hills made this quite a tough day and I was happy to find a hotel slightly off my route in Stary Jicin. Only 700 CZK : 27 EUR this time.

Day 3: Starý Jičín - Oświęcim (Auschwitz). 152km

Another pleasant start along quiet paths in the sun, but still heading north-east into a cold north-east wind.

It is no wonder our birds and insects are dying off: fields in the northern Czech Republic are huge. One crop stretching for kilometres without any hedgerows or variety. Where are the birds and insects supposed to hide and nest?

At some point I realised I was in Poland! I noticed someone wearing a Polish football strip and all the car number plates had changed. I did not see any sign of a border.

First puncture today. There was a section of the route through a very long forest, at least 25km. The path was terrible and very stony. After changing the tube I had to cycle very gently as I couldn't get the tire up to a decent pressure. If I punctured again I'd have to repair one of the tubes and really was not in the mood.  I hope they protect their forests though - it felt very remote.

Even outside the forest, I sometimes had the feeling that the whole place was quite remote, but then you turn your head and see a bunch of factory chimneys or an artificial mountain probably hiding an open-cast coal mine. I guess in the end, there are not many remote places left in Europe, where you can't see the results of man's activities.

The most annoying thing about a trip like this is when you start to worry about finding accommodation towards the end of the afternoon. I stopped around 5:30pm in a sizable town and found nothing, not even someone who could speak English. So I bit the bullet and decided to head another 20km to Auschwitz on the assumption that there would be a few tourists heading there. Busy road and lots of traffic.

So I ended up in the Hilton because that was all I could find. 239 Zlotys - 56EUR. But the pizza and beer were cheap.

Day 4: Oświęcim - Krakow. 68km

Some nice cycling along the dams on the Wisla river plain, ruined by having to join a very busy road for 20km or so before re-joining the river into Krakow. Went straight to the railway station to make sure I could get a ticket back to Vienna. Luckily there is one direct train per day and in theory reserving a bike was possible. In practice the seat number I got didn't exist, neither did the bike compartment, but the conductress didn't seem to mind seeing a bike in the corridor of the 2-coach train.

I cycled through Poland faster than the train went, but once in the Czech Republic it picked up speed and added a buffet car and other wagons. Got into Wien Hauptbahnhof only 20 minutes late having traversed 3 countries, thanks to the EU and the Schengen Treaty!

In between though I spent two fine days visiting Krakow and will definitely go back, though not by bike.