Rzeszów is the largest city in south-eastern Poland and the capital of the Podkarpackie region, a place that has grown fast and looks cheerful about it. The old market square has a Renaissance town hall and arcaded houses, and underneath it a network of cellars and passages has been opened to visitors as an underground route. The Lubomirski family built the castle that stands at the edge of the centre, and the area was long a crossroads of Polish, Ukrainian, Jewish and Carpathian culture. A strong aviation industry gives the city the nickname of the capital of Poland's Aviation Valley, and a fair number of its young people work in engineering.
For motorcyclists the city is an easy starting point for the Carpathian foothills. South of town the land rises steadily into wooded ridges, with the Bieszczady mountains and the Beskid Niski further off, and the roads become narrow and twisty, with villages of low wooden houses and old churches. The region is famous for its wooden churches, built from logs with shingled roofs and onion domes, and some of the oldest, such as the one at Haczów, are on the World Heritage list for the way they preserve medieval timber building. The rides here are linked to churches of this kind, including those dedicated to the Archangel Michael and the Assumption, which sit among orchards and fields on quiet back roads.
Autumn is a good season, with beech forests turning gold and mist in the valleys, and the summer is warm but rarely oppressive. Roads in Poland vary, with the main routes in good condition and the smaller ones patched and sometimes rough, and speed limits in villages are enforced firmly by cameras and police. Take care at dusk, as deer, farm vehicles and cyclists without lights are common on the country roads.
Fuel is no problem in Rzeszów, with stations all over the ring road and the A4 motorway that passes the city. About seventeen kilometres east, the castle at Łańcut is a fine stop, and its gardens and carriage museum make a pleasant break. For lunch, look for pierogi or a bowl of żurek, the soured rye soup, in one of the simple restaurants on the market square.