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.
A 261 km round trip from Wieliczka - roughly 5 h 52 in the saddle. The stops in between: Salt Mine in Bochnia, Church of St Leonard, Church of the Archangel Michael and back through Church of St Leonard. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 800 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
35 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it — speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through.
For about 56 km this is Tatra Foothills Road, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it. Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast.
Wieliczka is a town that sits on top of a vanished sea. Millions of years ago, this part of southern Poland lay under a shallow, salty basin, and as the water evaporated it left thick beds of rock salt, which people have mined for about seven hundred years. The Saltworks Castle, the Żupny Castle, was the administrative heart of the business, a medieval fortified complex that housed the managers, the accounts and the royal officers who ran one of the richest enterprises in Poland, since salt was money. For centuries the revenue from Wieliczka and neighbouring Bochnia paid a significant share of the Crown's expenses.
Read the complete Saltworks Castle in Wieliczka write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Saltworks Castle in Wieliczka is where the day begins. 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 comes up about 28 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 75 km into the recorded legs you reach Church of St Leonard. 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.
Church of the Archangel Michael, about halfway. 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 sits at 164 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 about 233 km into the recorded legs. Next is Saltworks Castle in Wieliczka.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Saltworks Castle in Wieliczka write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Saltworks Castle in Wieliczka closes the day.
Saltworks Castle in Wieliczka → Salt Mine in Bochnia is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Salt Mine in Bochnia → Church of St Leonard is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Church of St Leonard → Church of the Archangel Michael is 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Church of the Archangel Michael → back through Church of St Leonard is 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Church of St Leonard → back through Salt Mine in Bochnia is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Salt Mine in Bochnia → Saltworks Castle in Wieliczka is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.