Katowice is the capital of Upper Silesia, and for a century it was a place of coal and steel. The region's mines and furnaces made Poland industrial, and the city grew quickly in the nineteenth century from a village into a city of brick, smoke and railway lines. In recent decades much has changed. The mines have closed and a new city has grown from the old industrial land. The Silesian Museum is built into the shafts and buildings of a former colliery, and the concert hall of the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra stands beside it, a bold block of red brick and glass. Nearby, the flying-saucer shape of the Spodek arena has been a landmark since the 1970s.
Nikiszowiec, a few kilometres east, is one of the strangest and best places in the city, a settlement of red-brick housing blocks built a century ago for miners and their families around a church, a square and a laundry. The brickwork is handsome, with arcades and courtyards, and the whole district has the feel of a stage set, though people still live there. It is worth stopping for coffee and a slice of cake, and for a look at the work of local artists.
Silesia has its own character. People speak a dialect that includes many German-derived words, and local food is hearty: roulade of beef with dumplings and red cabbage, known as rolada, and kluski slaskie, soft potato dumplings with a dimple for gravy. The region was fought over after the First World War and changed hands between Germany and Poland, and the sense of an in-between place is part of its identity.
For a rider, Katowice is mostly a hub. The motorways, with the A4, tolled on parts, running west toward Wroclaw and east to Krakow, make travel quick. Traffic in the conurbation is dense and tram lines are slippery in the rain. Fuel is everywhere. The day's ride heads east to Oswiecim, about sixty kilometres away, where the Auschwitz-Birkenau memorial and museum stand. It is a place that deserves a quiet, unhurried visit, and a rider should plan time and energy for it. Spring and autumn are the best seasons. Winter days are short and damp.