CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
From Kraków it runs 380 km to Kraków; allow about 8 h 01 of riding. It goes by way of Church of St Leonard, Church of the Archangel Michael, Wooden Churches of the Slovak part of the and Tvrdosin. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 850 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It crosses from Poland into Slovakia - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 55 km this is Tatra Foothills Road, 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 Church of St Leonard.
The hills around Limanowa in southern Poland have a nickname that suits them perfectly: the Beskid Wyspowy, the Island Beskids. Instead of forming a continuous ridge, the summits rise individually from the surrounding valleys like islands from a sea, each one wooded, rounded and separate. Driving through the area is a constant game of spotting the next hump on the horizon. The famous wooden church of St Leonard stands at Lipnica Murowana, in the hills to the north of here, and it is one of the Wooden Churches of Southern Lesser Poland listed by UNESCO in 2003.
Read the complete Church of St Leonard write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Church of St Leonard comes up about 70 km into the recorded legs. Next is Church of the Archangel Michael.
From the outside, the church in Dębno Podhalańskie looks like a sturdy wooden barn with a steep shingled roof and a squat tower, the kind of building you might ride past without a second glance. Step inside and the walls explode with colour: every surface covered in stencilled and painted patterns, animals, plants and geometric figures, dating back to around 1500, one of the best-preserved medieval painted interiors in Poland. The church, built of larch in the late fifteenth century, is part of the UNESCO listing of Wooden Churches of Southern Małopolska, a group of Gothic timber churches that show the skill of local carpenters who built without nails.
Read the complete Church of the Archangel Michael write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 125 km into the recorded legs you reach Church of the Archangel Michael. Next is Wooden Churches of the Slovak part of the.
The Church of All Saints in Tvrdošín, at the edge of the town in the Orava valley, is a wooden Gothic church from the fifteenth century, built of larch and fir, with a shingled roof, a tower with a distinctive spire and a painted interior, and it is one of the oldest of the wooden churches listed as a World Heritage Site in Slovakia. Its Renaissance and Baroque decorations, including a carved altar and paintings, were added over the centuries.
Read the complete Wooden Churches of the Slovak part of the write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Wooden Churches of the Slovak part of the, about halfway. Next is Tvrdosin.
Tvrdošín lies in Orava, the northernmost corner of Slovakia, where the Orava river has been dammed to form a long reservoir under the dark ridges of the Western Tatras and the Roháče. It is a border country, not far from Poland, and a place of wood, snow and sheep, where for centuries people built in timber. The town has a wooden church that stands among the oldest in Slovakia, the Church of All Saints, built in the late fifteenth or early sixteenth century in Gothic style with a steep shingled roof, and its interior is painted with scenes in a folk style that moves between the grand and the endearing. It is one of the Wooden Churches of the Slovak part of the Carpathian Mountain Area, which UNESCO listed in 2008.
Read the complete Tvrdosin write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Tvrdošín sits at 191 km, about halfway. Next is back through Wooden Churches of the Slovak part of the.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Wooden Churches of the Slovak part of the write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Wooden Churches of the Slovak part of the comes up about 191 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Church of the Archangel Michael.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Church of the Archangel Michael write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 256 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Church of the Archangel Michael. Next is back through Church of St Leonard.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Church of St Leonard write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Church of St Leonard, 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 380 km.
Krakow → Church of St Leonard is 70 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Church of St Leonard → Church of the Archangel Michael is 55 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Church of the Archangel Michael → Wooden Churches of the Slovak part of the is 64 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Wooden Churches of the Slovak part of the → back through Church of the Archangel Michael is 65 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Church of the Archangel Michael → back through Church of St Leonard is 55 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Church of St Leonard → Krakow is 70 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.