Author: Rob Ainsley

Probably the best ‘cycle touring’ day of the cycle tour so far. In other words, a day that demonstrated what cycle touring is really for. No, I don’t mean making friends and relatives at home jealous with Facebook posts. I mean a varied and unfolding day of weather that got better and better, of lanes…

A short day today, with the now-familiar range of riding: quiet back lanes where I was more likely to encounter a deer or hare than a car, farm-track shortcuts to test my front suspension*, bumpy cycle paths through woods ditto*, and fast main roads with wide shoulders that are effectively noisy, but safe, cycle lanes….

Another gloriously sunny day, with easy, flat, tailwind-assisted cycling through quiet rural back lanes, my progress further speeded up thanks to new streamlining from yesterday’s haircut. Here’s a typical view. I’ve seen a handful of road cyclists in all the gear so far, but by far the majority of people on two wheels are like…

A half-way rest day today, exploring Łódź by bike. In the morning, with yesterday’s crowds now sleeping things off, Piotrkowska Street was deserted, and I could go Art Nouveau spotting (pic) without getting in the way of some city bike-hire tourist, wobbling chaotically around on an unsuitably heavy bike. Me wobbling, that is, not them….

On a lovely sunny day, a delightful, easy, flat ride through gentle countryside ending in one of Poland’s most vibrantly rebooted, and confusingly pronounced, cities. From woods to, well, Łódź. (Granted, that doesn’t really work if you don’t know Polish orthography.) I’m on my trekking bike for this trip. It was a clanky, heavy old…

I enjoyed my morning shower in the hostel just as much as I enjoyed the one last night. Not at all, in other words, as there was still no hot water. But warmed up by an Aldi pastry on the outskirts of town, I headed north out of Częstochowa along the busy 483 for the…

This was what most of today’s riding was like (pic), with the shared-use cycleways that ran officially or unofficially for most of the route. It was a day of railway station coffee, petrol station hot dogs, drippy woods, puddled roads and wet feet. At least heavy morning rain had meant I didn’t have to feel…

I’ve been to Kraków several times, so didn’t feel the need to sightsee: I was keen to get on the bike, especially as heavy storms were forecast for late afternoon. I even got a rather dramatic text message warning me of power outages, floods, and the inadvisability of sheltering under trees: it didn’t state the…

The promised day of sun and downhill proved one of drizzle and tedious climbs. Neither accuweather, nor the BBC website nor yr.no got the weather right. However, Polish TV seemed on the money (and I was pleased to see my rule of thumb vindicated: the worse the weather forecast, the more the presenter smiles, as…

A delightful day of local wildlife such as frogs (ish), storks (ish), dinosaurs (ish) and elephants (ish), fine scenery that could have come out of Scotland, and plenty of pleasant downhill riverside cycling. This was where I stayed last night (pic): a lovely, cosy little wooden chalet hostel in the woods on the edge of…