Białystok is the capital of Podlasie, the north-eastern corner of Poland, and a city with a surprisingly cosmopolitan past. Around 290,000 people live here now, but the historical mix was far richer, with Poles, Jews, Belarusians, Lithuanians, Tatars and Russians all contributing to the character of the town. In the nineteenth century it grew into a textile centre, and before the Second World War, Jews made up a majority of its population, a history that ended in the Holocaust and is remembered in several memorials around the city.
One native son changed the world in a quiet way. Ludwik Zamenhof, born here in 1859, created Esperanto, a language designed to let people of different nationalities speak to each other on equal terms, partly in response to the quarrels of languages he heard in his childhood streets. A small museum and a monument keep his memory alive, and the city still hosts Esperanto events.
The most striking building is the Branicki Palace, a baroque residence of the eighteenth century with formal gardens, often called the Versailles of Podlasie. Its white façade, gilded gates and statues are an unexpected luxury on the plains. Nearby, the town hall, cathedral and a mix of Orthodox, Catholic and Lutheran churches show the layered history of the region. Food here is the food of the borderlands, with potato dumplings, a cold beetroot soup in summer and sękacz, a tall spit cake with a rippled surface.
For a rider, Białystok is a base for exploring the forests and wetlands of the east. The road to Białowieża, about eighty kilometres to the south-east, runs through farmland and then forest, with long straights and gentle bends, and traffic is moderate. Watch for tractors, horse carts and deer, and take care in fog, which can settle on the plains in autumn and winter. Cobbles and tram tracks in the older streets can be slippery.
Fuel and services are everywhere in the city, and you should fill up before heading out, since the villages on the way have fewer stations. Wasilków, a smaller town a few kilometres away, has more options than you would expect.
Leave in the morning, and give yourself time to stop in the villages with their brightly painted wooden houses.