Re: Ride to "Hel" and back :P

Travelogue Approved

Wonderful sir. That is one Hel of a ride

Re: Ride to "Hel" and back :P

What the 'Hel', this is beautiful!

Re: Ride to "Hel" and back :P

Wonderful!

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Re: Ride to "Hel" and back :P

Will you be allowed to ride in beach side through the sands ?

It looks amazing

Re: Ride to "Hel" and back :P

Looks amazing, especially the aerial view

Re: Ride to "Hel" and back :P

Sir, so good to see a travelogue from you after some time. I have loved each and every one that you have written so far.
The location and geography looks beautiful.
I am hooked.


Rachit

Re: Ride to "Hel" and back :P

That seems like a Hel of a place! I havent been to that part of Europe at all, maybe some day
Look forward to the rest..

Re: Ride to "Hel" and back :P

Thank you for the approval - Monk

Thank you

Thank you Krishna77

It is not allowed to take any vehicles to the beach side. But it was also on my mind

Thank you, and being on the road with sea on both sides was also quite mind blowing

Thank you so much Sir ji

Thank you, hope you will like the rest as well.

Re: Ride to "Hel" and back :P

So on the D Day, the alarm set off at 2 am and we were ready to get on the saddle at 3:30 am. Riding out of the sleeping city at wee hours is a delight. The well-lit marked roads looked straight from the settings of a video game while the yellow flashing traffic lights seemed like check points. Now Wroclaw is among the major cities of Poland, however the cities in this part of the world are not so widely spread. Usually the most populated part spreads in about 7-8 km and it took us just about 15 min to cross out of the city limits.

Trip Meter set to "0"


We didn’t take the Motor-ways, where the traffic usually maintains a good 130-140 kmph. These high speed straight roads somehow take the fun away and start to make you feel like a monkey holding the throttle after a little while. Also I am still not quite comfortable with Mercs, BMWs and the likes overtaking me at 180+ speeds. So we picked the single lane state highways, which flow through towns and changing terrains alongside. The speed limits usually are 70 – 100 kmph and 50 kmph while crossing through a town. The vstrom seemed to glide through at 4000 rpm maintaining a pace of slightly over 100 kmph with two riders up.

the state roads


Refueling


There were interesting change overs from one state highway to the other, though the road surface was not as great, but the vistas around were beautiful. Layers of vegetation with homogeneously spread green, yellow and even lavender colors over wide fields seemed surreal. There were various water bodies that we could see on either side as we rode along. As well as some thick dark woods fringing both the sides of the roads.

Lavender color fields around




Yellow color Mustard fields around


Enjoying all this fun and the breeze of a comfortable morning we made it to our first halt at the beautiful town – Torun. We had covered almost 280 km in about 4.5 hrs and with the ease we did it I was feeling fresh, buzzing, excited and ready for action.
The road leading into the town Torun takes a huge bridge over the river Vistula, along which is the Torun city center. The first look of the interiors make it evident that you are riding through the medieval old town, probably among the oldest in Poland. We had planned a quick halt but we never realized that we had spent over 2 hrs roaming around in a place that dates back to 13^th century.

Heading into Torun city center


something familiar in Torun


Short video at Torun City Center with world renowned Astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus and the historical Golden Donkey


Nicholas Copernicus, who formulated a model of the universe that placed the Sun rather than the Earth at the center of the Universe, was born here in Torun in the year 1473.

look closely at the ridge across its spine


It is said that this Donkey with a sharp ridge on its spine was placed presumably in 1629, to discipline soldiers. As a punishment soldiers were made to sit astride with lead weights tied to their legs ... Ouch !

We had a nice breakfast at Torun and were once again ready to proceed with our ride further.

click to continue >>

Re: Ride to "Hel" and back :P

Nice narration!

Sent from my Xperia L.

Re: Ride to "Hel" and back :P

Thank you Krishna77

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As we prepared to leave the lovely town of Torun, the sun started to make its presence felt through the intermittent clouds. Perceiving the sudden increase in warmth it was time to take off the warm layers of our riding gear. We started for our next check point, which was almost 140 km away. We continued on the state roads through the green pastures. As the day progressed we saw relatively more traffic on the roads, however it still was convenient to maintain a good pace.



In about 2.5 hrs we made it to our next stop – The Castle of the Teutonic Order in Malbork or more simply Malbork Castle. It is a medieval fortress, built in 1406 and at that time it was the largest brick structure of the world. It is now recognized by UNESCO as a World heritage site. The Malbork castle now stands as the largest castle in the world by surface area.



rider in front of the Malbork Castle


a pic from the WW-II, 1945


taking a walk around the castle complex








Knights of Malbork Castle




view of the castle and town from high above


We spent over 3 hours walking around the beautiful medieval fortress. It was mesmerizing to witness the architecture and life style evidences from the 14th century. Given the time at hand, we had to almost drag ourselves out to resume our journey.

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Re: Ride to "Hel" and back :P

It was almost 4:30 pm when we finally resumed our ride. Our night halt was next to the Gdansk old-town, which was about 70km from where we were. But I haven’t been picking the straight short routes from the very beginning of this ride. While the engine was still warming up, we looked at the map to see if we could just head straight to the Baltic Sea.

Gdansk, Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad on the map


Actually the sea seemed much closer than Gdansk Town. Another point on map - Kaliningrad caught our attention (marked in red rectangle on the picture above). It is a part of Russia that is sandwiched between Poland and Lithuania, it is not connected to the main land Russia. Unfortunately for us, we cant reach to the Russian border (marked in red circle) from this side. Well it still gave us a momentary excitement thinking we (an Indian couple) on a motorcycle could reach the Russian border.

Anyhow, we started off following the trail heading straight to the nearest shore called Stegna Plaża (plaża is a polish word that means beach). It was about 40km from Malbork and we made it to the Baltic Sea. The first look reminded me of the beaches back in India. Especially the ones in Northern Goa in off season with low tourist influx.

touch down at Baltic Sea


the Beach life, exciting as ever


a short video of the beach at Baltic Sea


It was exhilarating that after riding over 500 km we made it to Baltic Sea. The water was quite cold (~7 degrees) and hardly anyone was braving a dip. I was told earlier that water in Baltic Sea is not very salty, when I checked it wasn't. In comparison to the experience back at India, the water seemed almost drinkable, lets just say about a small pinch in a glass full of water.
We still had a 50km ride to Gdansk, so we left the beach at around 5:45 pm.

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Re: Ride to "Hel" and back :P

Lovely pictures sir. The high above view of castle was clicked from kind of tower?

Re: Ride to "Hel" and back :P

The castle loooks straight out of the history books!

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