Czech Republic and Poland 2012
My friend Hope_LE (F800GS-Forum) and I wanted to go on a tour on the Easter holydays. After a short brain storming we came up with our decision, we definitely wanted to go east and chose Auschwitz as our destination. I was interested to see the memorial of the Nazi time period since a long time. We had 5 days for a distance of 1,500 km. The 300 km per day seemed to be manageable if the winter hadn't hit again...
One day before we started on our trip I still had to get back my F800 from the shop because there was a small problem with the water pump. On this day the thermometer showed pleasant 15°C. I thought, great, summer is already coming and I can leave the winter lining of the suit at home. Why carrying dead weight if I don't need it. What a fatal mistake...
I have to admit, as a former West German, I barely know anything about the eastern neighbors of our country. I was very curious about what to expect. On Thursday, 5. April, after having breakfast at my friend Hope_LE's place, we started our tour. We took the B6 to Dresden, Bad Schandau and further in the east direction. We took our first break right after the Czech Republic border. I saw that the Navi wasn't working anymore. After checking and trying to fix it for 40 minutes I had to accept the fact that it was broken. To cheer up we went to the next restaurant and ate a Schnipo (Schnitzel with French fries). Now we were good to go again.
We mainly stayed on small roads to see the countryside. After a while my hands started to get cold so I switched to my winter gloves. The roads got smaller and smaller, most of the time they were one way only and covered with grit from the last winter. In the evening it started to rain for the first time. We cancelled the thought of camping and took the first bed and breakfast. Let us camp tomorrow we thought. The last glance at the thermometer said 5°C.
On Friday morning the temperature was still the same and the weather was contrary. I hoped that my 3 long pairs of underpants would work as a substitute for my winter lining which I didn't bring. The small winding roads still led us in east direction. Sometimes it even were just forest tracks, trails or "just straight up the hill". Much to our surprise we took a break in the middle of the forest and found two old bunkers from World War II which we, of course, explored. Back on the bikes we took the dirt road down a hill. It was too slippery for my Heidenau K60 Scout. The tread were filled with loam so fast that my bike just stuck in dirt and I tipped over. The temperature was around 3°C when we arrived at the Polish border. At this point it started snowing for the first time on our tour. I thought of my winter lining which was laying nice and warm back at home. It kept on snowing and raining until we reached Auschwitz at 8 p.m. at night. We were looking for a shelter for about 30 minutes till we found a small hotel close by. I definitely appreciated the hot shower that night...
We got up at 9:30 a.m. the next morning. We had a lot planned. We ate breakfast really fast and went to the main
extermination camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau, by food for a change. We stayed 5-6 hours looking around. It is terrifying
and embarrassing what the Nazis did there to other human beings. But that is a different chapter.
Around 4 p.m. we were back on our bikes driving back to Czech Republic. We wanted to find a nice spot at daylight
where we could pitch our tent for the night. And again right before we reached the border it started to snow again.
So we changed our plan again and we wanted to spend the night in a small bed and breakfast in a town I didn't even
know the name of. The place didn't look very reliable but hadn't much of a choice. After "talking" to the owner in an
English German Czech language mix and a lot of signing, an old lady in her nightdress opened us the door and let us
bring the bikes in the backyard. We got the small summer house which was just waiting for us.
On Sunday morning we left without a breakfast. At least the weather was dry this day. After 1.5h we stopped at the grocery store to get something to eat. While we were enjoying our breakfast it started to snow again. The temperature fell to -4.5°C. Our bikes even had icicles. It got really difficult to drive on the small roads with all the snow. After trying a while staying on small roads we decided it is saver to take the main road instead. And again we didn't camp at night because it was just too cold.
On Monday morning the temperature was around freezing point but we had a crystal blue sky for our last day of the trip. The roads were no longer covered in ice and snow and even the temperature gone up a bit. For the last time we enjoyed the small winding roads of the Czech Republic surrounded by a beautiful landscape. Back in Germany all of a sudden we had 13°C again. So we stopped for a Schnipo...
To sum it up it was a great trip to our neighbor countries. I won't be the time I was there. But the next time I will take my winter lining that is for sure...
Luz
