🗺️Travels

EuroVelo 9: 624h Km Day 12 Left early. Booked with breakfast, but I was almost alone and didn’t feel like eating under the watch of the receptionist sitting right next to the buffet. Morning was sunny. Good mood. Goal: reach Poznań today. Road out follows a big forest. Could’ve wild camped there, but then I see fallen trees everywhere. Midlands reminder, storms hit hard here too. Still thinking about the hotel automation yesterday. No receptionist. Door codes. Kettle. Free instant coffee. That’s how you get above competitors rating on Booking. Tiny details matter. Maybe one day I open a small automated hotel in Asia. Then the headwind starts. Brutal. Long straight roads. Nothing in between. It feels like a chore. Knee pain creeping back. Almost a week after the Wrocław speed run and still no full recovery. Lesson: after 35, never race trucks uphill or do over 100 km a day. Just 500 km more to Gdańsk. So close. Forecast next week shows rain. I’m pumped to get there fast. At one point a food truck drives by, blasting a crazy siren so locals come out and buy groceries. Rural mobile supermarket. Poland edition. Long stretches again. Drivers flying by. Headwind pushing me sideways. Dead animals flattened on the road like a gum. Reminds you how fast things move here. 2 p.m...still 40 km to go. You could skip this entire section and take a train from Wrocław. I bet most people do. Five hours riding and I feel like I’ve seen nothing like a hamster on a wheel. By 4 p.m., the worst is over. From here it should be cycle paths into Poznań. Plenty of buffer. And...first big-city sign: shopping parks. Biedronka and Lidl. I stop at Biedronka to resupply. A lady immediately asks me for money. As if I’m a walking Zloty cash ATM in the digital era. I relocate to Lidl parking, wealthier customers, safer vibe to park the Brompton. On the outskirts I get déjà vu, like cycling into Vienna. Long flat cycle paths. Parks. Greens. Funny to see “no alcohol signs everywhere in parks. Then I hear house music from a riverside café. I’m tempted. Really tempted. But it’s getting dark, and I booked something remote. Better keep moving.

EuroVelo 9: 536th Km Day 11 Leaving Trzebnica, I’m glad I took a booking instead of wild camping in that heavy rain. Goal today: cut as many kilometers toward Poznań as possible, still more than 180 km away. First obstacle: Milicz forest, 20 km ahead. Cold morning. Down-jacket kind of cold. Knees complaining, feels like lack of protein more than sleep. Even hotel beds don’t fix the damage from the Wrocław speed run. Yesterday I felt like a celebrity here. People constantly asking questions. Then I googled it, Polish people are just curious and stare at anything unusual. Makes sense. In Konowo I stop by a church at a bus station to eat breakfast. Choir singing inside. Nice moment. Then a cracking sound. Three seconds silence. A huge chunk of tree falls one meter next to me. Healthy tree. No wind. I take it as a sign to move on. At the entrance to Milicz forest: sand dunes. Loaded Brompton stuck every few meters. A local sees me suffering and suggests turning left, longer but rideable. I listen. Five kilometers later I still have to reconnect to the route… which goes back onto dirt anyway. So much for the shortcut. But I see the appeal, mountain bikers everywhere enjoying mud life. Then I start noticing horse poop. Everywhere. Like an organized event. Soon I see why: seven ladies on horses ahead. Mystery solved. Out of the forest, narrow roads, too tight for tractors and two-way traffic. And with brutal headwind, progress is painfully slow. 5 p.m., still 18 km to Gostyń where I booked a place. Two hours of daylight left. Knees want a break. I ignore them. I pass a small funfair. Pony taxi ride for kids. Funny but also sad. An overpriced grocery is open (Sunday miracle), so I resupply just in case. 8 p.m., I reach Gostyń right before dark. Naturally the route ends with a big hill and a church overlooking the town. Would’ve been a nice camping view, but you never know until too late. I roll into a self-service hotel with an elevator, perfect introvert accommodation, zero interaction. One last mission: burger place five minutes away closing in 15. I make it. Cannot image better ending: Hot shower and a burger.

EuroVelo 9: 441th Km Day 10 Fourth day leaving Wrocław. Cold morning. It might rain. I gamble anyway. Night temps around 10°C and nothing booked until Poznań, 250 km away. Knees still flared from the speed run into Wrocław, so I take it slow. I’ve blown them before on EuroVelo 4. Not repeating that. The route follows the river out of the city. I see three loaded bike tourers ahead, heavy panniers, a real setup. For a moment I’m happy, thinking I’ll share the road. Two turns later they vanish behind a gas station. Then I see dark clouds forming. One hour max says forecast. I pass a gazebo and decide to risk it, every village has one, right? One kilometer later: two walls of rain ahead. It starts pouring. I turn around and sprint back to the playground shelter. Park bike. Rain hits full force. Soon a couple rushes in too, full adrenaline, laughing. We start talking. The guy, Przemek, asks about the Brompton and my route. I tell him Baltic Sea is the goal. He says he rides 100 km daily minimum and wants to try 300 someday. I call him crazy. We laugh. Then he invites me to stay overnight at his place. Shower, coffee, everything. I’m honestly touched. But it’s a 10 km detour, and that means only 30 km progress today. I hesitate and decline. He still saves his GPS location to my phone “just in case.” I’ve never met such kind strangers. Rain stops. We ride off in opposite directions. The road ahead is wet, hilly, draining. I start feeling mineral depletion. Twenty kilometers later I reach Trzebnica. Dino supermarket appears right as the sun comes out. Sardines, bananas, fruit, quick resupply. As I exit, dark clouds instantly return. A girl notices my packing routine and asks about the trip. Another friendly person. This region really loves cyclists. Rain looks serious now. Either ride back to Przemek or find a roof. I open Booking, surprisingly a decent place nearby. Expensive, but I go for it. I check in. Minutes later: heavy rain. Przemek texts that he can pick me up by car if I get stuck somewhere. I thank him and tell him I’m safe. To this day I wonder what would’ve happened if I accepted the invitation. Next time, I’ll probably say yes

EuroVelo 9: 397.7th Km Day 11 Last day in Wrocław. Dead tired after two days of speed-running 100+ km. Knees inflamed. So I mostly just relaxed and worked. Body needed it. But I couldn’t leave without seeing the city in daylight. That would be a crime. Weather is colder than previous days, but that doesn’t stop me. Wrocław is beautiful. Even more than Warsaw. Kind of Kraków vibe. Old town, rivers, islands. First mission: find a quiet place to install new handlebars on my Brompton. Sounds simple. In a city this big? Impossible. There’s always something pulling your attention. Riding through a park, I spot a group of people doing weird synchronized moves. Turns out they’re practicing mob dancing. They mess up a lot. Takes them fifteen minutes to finish a full sequence. I stay for all of it. In another corner, a crowd staring at their phones. Pokémon hunting? Looks like it. Almost joined. City is insanely bike-friendly. Wide lanes. Street cafés everywhere. This is the kind of place I could live for a year. I check TooGoodToGo. It works in Poland. But no Dunkin. Just Starbucks and pastry shops. Not exactly craving a five-day-old dry bagel. Skip. It’s getting dark. I ride to my final waypoint: Szczytnicki Park. Install the handlebars. Do one slow loop around the park. And I’m glad I stayed. Near a monument, there’s a huge pergola. Regular silent disco, salsa parties...and today: a house DJ. Live. Beats pull me in. I stay until dark. On the way back, I find a lively riverbank. Cheap food, young crowds, music. But it’s too much. I get stressed. So I end the day at Burger King. A sad ending, because tomorrow is a big unknown. From Wrocław to Poznań: 250 km of basically nothing. Weather forecast shows 30% precipitation. High risk of rain. Legs still sore. Part of me wants to stay one more night.

Somehow, I managed to book three nights in a five-star hotel for the price of mid-four. I love Poland!

EuroVelo 9: 397.7th Km Day 8 The road to Wrocław was supposed to be easy. That’s what the guide said. Reality: fast-moving traffic. Trucks. Constant pressure to keep pace so I don’t block anyone. Mentally exhausting. Then rocky farm roads. Occasional climbs. I was way too optimistic. Instead of 20 km/h, I’m crawling at half of that. When I reach Świdnica, a bigger town, I’m desperate for water. I scout parks for fountains until I finally find one. Stopping costs me time. But hunger wins. I sacrifice half an hour. Trying to get through Świdnica fast, but cobblestones and tight streets slow me down. Twenty minutes just to escape. From there, it’s pure grind. Kilometers. No sightseeing. No nature. Just churn. One small climb after another. Somehow these short rolling climbs feel worse than one big mountain. One strange detail: massive crosses in people’s gardens. Everywhere. People must be super religious here. By 6 p.m., still 30 km to Wrocław. Poland is flat, which helps. But flat also means wind. Strong headwind across open plains. 7 p.m. One hour until dark. 20 km to the city border. Then another 5 km into the center. I’m riding single-track farm roads in the middle of nowhere as the light fades. Starting to feel desperate. At 9 p.m., I finally enter the city. And suddenly, everything changes. The deeper I ride, the more amazed I am. It looks like Berlin from 2060. Clean. Modern. Hipster. My kind of vibe. At 10 p.m., I reach my hotel. Just in time. Three-night rest stop. Something tells me my legs are about to call an emergency meeting, so I hope three nights will be enough. I reward myself with McDonald’s near the old town. Cannot wait for next day’s 5 star breakfast.