CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
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Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
A 426 km round trip from Kraków - roughly 6 h 14 in the saddle. The stops in between: Kalwaria Zebrzydowska: the Mannerist Archi, Salt Mine in Bochnia, Auschwitz and back through Salt Mine in Bochnia. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For 38 km this is Polish Eagles Nests Route, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Kraków has the kind of old town that makes you slow down on foot, and it deserves it. At the centre is the Rynek Główny, the main market square, one of the largest medieval squares in Europe, with the Cloth Hall in the middle and the two uneven towers of St Mary's Basilica at the corner. Each hour a trumpeter plays a bugle call from the taller tower, and the tune stops abruptly in mid-phrase, in memory of a watchman said to have been shot in the throat by a Tatar arrow while sounding the alarm.
Read the complete Krakow write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Krakow is where the day begins. Next is Kalwaria Zebrzydowska: the Mannerist Archi.
In 1600, Mikołaj Zebrzydowski, a Polish nobleman, began to build a chapel on a hill south-west of Kraków, modelled on the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. Over the following decades, he and his descendants added dozens of chapels and churches spread over the hills, laid out to recreate the Passion of Christ and the life of the Virgin, with the landscape itself standing in for Jerusalem. The result, Kalwaria Zebrzydowska, is one of the most important pilgrimage sites in Poland and a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1999.
Read the complete Kalwaria Zebrzydowska: the Mannerist Archi write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Kalwaria Zebrzydowska: the Mannerist Archi comes up 57 km in. Next is Kalwaria Zebrzydowska: the Mannerist Archi.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Kalwaria Zebrzydowska: the Mannerist Archi write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
115 km in you reach Kalwaria Zebrzydowska: the Mannerist Archi. Next is Salt Mine in Bochnia.
People were mining salt at Bochnia by the middle of the thirteenth century, which makes it the oldest salt mine in Poland and one of the oldest in Europe still open to visitors. For centuries the salt from here and from Wieliczka, about twenty-five kilometres to the west, filled the coffers of the Polish kings; at times it accounted for a remarkable share of the royal income. Together the two mines and the royal castle at Wieliczka form a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Read the complete Salt Mine in Bochnia write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Salt Mine in Bochnia, about halfway. Next is Auschwitz.
This is a stop to make in silence. Auschwitz was the largest of the Nazi German concentration and extermination camps, built in occupied Poland on the edge of the town of Oświęcim, and between 1940 and 1945 around 1.1 million people were murdered here, the vast majority of them Jews from across Europe, along with Poles, Roma, Soviet prisoners of war and others. The memorial and museum, which includes the original camp, Auschwitz I, and the vast camp at Birkenau, Auschwitz II, about three kilometres away, was listed by UNESCO in 1979 as a reminder of the cruelty of humanity.
Read the complete Auschwitz write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Auschwitz sits at 229 km, about halfway. Next is back through Salt Mine in Bochnia.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Salt Mine in Bochnia write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Salt Mine in Bochnia comes up 286 km in. Next is back through Kalwaria Zebrzydowska: the Mannerist Archi.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Kalwaria Zebrzydowska: the Mannerist Archi write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
344 km in you reach back through Kalwaria Zebrzydowska: the Mannerist Archi. Next is back through Kalwaria Zebrzydowska: the Mannerist Archi.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Kalwaria Zebrzydowska: the Mannerist Archi write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Kalwaria Zebrzydowska: the Mannerist Archi, late in the day. Next is Krakow.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Krakow write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 426 km.
Krakow → Kalwaria Zebrzydowska: the Mannerist Archi is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Kalwaria Zebrzydowska: the Mannerist Archi → Salt Mine in Bochnia is 73 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Salt Mine in Bochnia → Auschwitz is 117 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Auschwitz → back through Salt Mine in Bochnia is 117 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Salt Mine in Bochnia → back through Kalwaria Zebrzydowska: the Mannerist Archi is 73 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Kalwaria Zebrzydowska: the Mannerist Archi → Krakow is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.