Wrocław is a city of islands and bridges on the Oder, in Lower Silesia, and it has changed hands often enough to carry several names. Under the Habsburgs, then Prussia, then Germany it was Breslau, and after 1945 it became Polish as the borders moved, with nearly the whole population exchanged. Most of today's residents came from the east, from places like Lwów, and brought their own memories and food, which gives the city a layered feel. The old centre was wrecked in the war and carefully rebuilt, so the market square looks as it did in the sixteenth century, with colourful gabled houses and a lacy Gothic town hall.
On a cathedral island upstream, Ostrów Tumski, the lamps along the street are still lit by hand in the evening by a lamplighter, a little ritual that locals like. Dwarf statues, the krasnale, are hidden on pavements and in doorways all over the city, and hunting for them is a pastime for children and adults, a gentle echo of a protest movement of the 1980s. The Oder has flooded the city more than once, notably in 1997, and the riverbanks have been reshaped with parks and walkways since.
The riding starts in an urban sprawl of trams and ring roads, but the countryside to the south opens quickly. The road toward Świdnica and Jawor, home to the great timber churches of peace, crosses fertile farmland with long views, then gradually folds into the foothills of the Sudetes, where the roads become more varied, with gentle curves, small villages, castles and half-timbered houses. The surface is generally decent, though patched, and there are speed cameras at the entrances to villages. In the autumn the beech woods on the hills are rich in colour, and mist lies in the fields at dawn.
Fuel is plentiful on the outskirts and along every major road. Wrocław is also a city for eating, with bakeries selling poppy-seed pastries, pierogi bars that run late, and a thriving craft beer scene around the market. If you want to park the bike, hotels on the edge of the old town are often able to offer a safe space, and it is worth asking. The summer evenings by the river, with students and music, are lively.