Central European Tour

This was a unique opportunity to visit Poland for the first time, led by a Polish couple who are members of our Chapter, Krystof & Agniezska, or Kris and Agnes as we know them.  Seven of us on 4 bikes rode through France, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Poland, Slovakia, Austria, back into Germany, Luxembourg, then back into Belgium and France, and covered 3,000 miles.

We detoured to the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, on the way from Hannover to Wroclaw, but were chased around a bit by police trying to find a place to park.  We did, however, manage a brief look and a photograph.  (We met a British couple on our return Tunnel trip who were told to park on the pavement, maybe because they were riding a BMW!)

We left home in heavy rain although it relented after some 50 miles, but we also had very heavy rain and spray on several further parts of the trip to contend with. Wet weather gear was tested beyond its limits but the resultant wetness was at least warm!  Some of the secondary roads in Poland were the worst that I have ever encountered in terms of ruts that ‘trap’ the bike, compounded by diesel & oil spillages and the most treacherous & slippery white road markings that produced momentary but alarming sideways slips from time to time!  Every pedestrian crossing had to be made on the black!

Wroclaw immediately struck me as a smart and prosperous city, but I learned that 90% of the buildings had to be rebuilt after WWII.  Previously, Breslau was part of Lower Silesia, Germany and it was the site of a 3 month long siege in 1945, after Hitler ordered it to be defended at all costs.  It was renamed Wroclaw when it became part of Poland after the War.

We took a day trip from Wroclaw to Auschwitz, a 260 mile round trip, but it was compromised by heavy rain, a car fire at a motorway toll booth, and traffic problems, so our visit there was too brief to take a guided tour.  At Birkenau (Auschwitz II), we could only look through the heavy rain from the car park to the infamous entrance gate to this extermination camp, but we managed a 15m visit inside Auschwitz I, without a ticket and guide thanks to Kris’s negotiation with an attendant.  Then, it was back through the rain to Wroclaw.

Auschwitz-Birkenau

Auschwitz

Work makes (you) free - the iconic slogan over Auschwitz

Members of the Wroclaw HOG Chapter were waiting for us at our hotel and took us to town to the Chopper Bar & Grill, owned by a friend, and clearly a place where the local Harley community congregate.  They were amazingly generous, laying on beer and two vast plates of meat and extras for us.  You wouldn’t want to be a vegetarian in Poland!  Afterwards, we enjoyed a night-time walk through the square with its Dutch style buildings, before taxiing back to our hotel.

Meeting at the hotel

Wroclaw Railway Station - reconstructed

Hosts Yvonna & ?

Vic and Wroclaw Director Artur

Vic Ann Roy Jean Me Agnes Kris

Vodka shot arrives!

It was a pleasure to retrace that motorway route in the dry the next day and see some of the beautiful rolling countryside either side that we had missed the day before.  We stopped at Wieliczka Salt Mine, just outside Krakow, en route to Zakopane.  What a vast and cavernous place that is, dating back to the 17^th Century.  The rock salt had been mined up until quite recently and the corridors and caverns are just enormous compared to any coal or slate mine experience I have had to date.  The mined salt has been replaced by logs to keep the mine stable, and it was removed in large lumps using a capstan and rope system with counterweights, very ingenious.  Horses were also used, although they were very well cared for, better that those above ground, by all accounts.

Typical cylinder of salt, ready for removal

Large wooden capstan, horse driven

Carvings in the salt

Even the chandeliers are made of salt!

On leaving the Salt Mine, we traversed the roughest piece of cobbled street ever before we started climbing through some very pretty forested and hilly areas to Zakopane.  It also struck me as very prosperous and is a popular ski and trekking resort so obviously makes a lot of income from its visitors.  Nonetheless, it is very tidy and well-kept with some fine wooden architecture, and the cobbled streets are extensive with more on the way.  We took a funicular tram up to the top of a mountain on our day of walkabout to enjoy lunch and the view.

Vodka toasts!

Made of cheese, apparently!

Kris finds a new hat!

Zakopane, with two ski jumps in the distance

Meeting a local, well an actor for photographs

Zakopane was the eastern extreme of our route and we crossed over into Slovakia very soon after leaving it.  The change was instant, from colourful and stylish dwellings to drab and simple.  However, as we rode west on a high quality fast road to Bratislava the countryside was very pretty and more signs of prosperity were evident.  In Bratislava itself, we stopped at the H-D dealership and I collected yet another T-shirt!  Next door was another biker bar, large and well-known as we encountered four Austrian bikers there and had a brief exchange.  It is obviously a popular local venue.  There are some common words between Polish and Slovak, so Kris was able to help out a little when it was necessary, although English is quite widely spoken in both countries.  Afterwards, we headed for our hotel, small and friendly but with good food.

Countryside in Slovakia

Roadside stop in Slovakia

Bratislava H-D Dealership

Bike bar & restaurant next door

Not far from Bratislava, we crossed into Austria, only to discover that one of our members had left his wallet with passport at the hotel.  Kris made the phone call and return trip to pick it up, so it didn’t delay us too much.  I wonder what will happen to all these abandonned border crossings and buildings in Europe.  Austria brought a return to high mountains rising up either side of the motorway as we made our way to our next stop at Salzburg and it had begun to get quite warm and sunny, which was nice.

Slovakian side of the Slovakia-Austria border

After an easy trip round Munich’s ring road, we detoured to Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial and the day was dry.  It was established in 1933 and is the only camp to have survived the whole 12 years of Nazi rule, plus it stands for all the concentration camps that were established in their territory.  We were both surprised by the extent of the sub-camps that fed the main camp at Dachau, as also by the extent of the concentration and extermination camp system as a whole, evidenced on maps inside.

One thing we hadn't known was that the SS used obsessive cleaning of the huts as a form of torture for prisoners, in addition to the other forms.

Arbeit Macht Frei again

Roll Call

Map of the camps system in all countries

Memorial sculpture

Map of Dachau sub camps

Murder of those unfit to work

Never Again

Ashes of the Unknown Prisoners

Three tier bunks system

Large Crematorium - Barrack 

Allegedly never used

Jean exits the 'showers'

Original crematorium

Next overnight stop was a suburb of Stuttgart where we found a very local Gasthof to enjoy dinner.

We rode onward to Foetz in Luxembourg the next day.  There, a pretty violent thunder-storm with lightning and high winds passed through while we were enjoying a pizza near our hotel, scattering lots of hardware outside our hotel, but it was fortunately gone by the late evening and our only problem the next day was some fog as we left.  We set off before 7 am, to beat two busloads of Chinese tourists who were schedule to breakfast then, in the rather meagre restaurant of our hotel.  Later in the day, one of our number had a back wheel puncture, that failed to seal with a roadside repair kit, so he had to be recovered.  We split into two groups so Kris and I rode on to Calais for our last stop near the hotel.  He got the tyre replaced and they all arrived just in time for dinner despite a major delay to the Tunnel approaches that had developed since we had arrived.  Thanks to the Chinese, we had left very early so were all able to enjoy our final dinner together, which included celebrating an anniversary and a birthday!

Off the Tunnel train and fuelled up, we said our goodbyes at Clackett Lane Services before splitting into two groups for the last leg home.

We have now topped 7,000 miles in our three European trips, visiting 12 countries, some more than once, seen some fantastic scenery, endured some hostile weather at times, but enjoyed some great and varied food, drinks and laughs along the way.  I think we’ll stick to short rides for a few weeks now!