Day trip to the Czech Republic

On our first cycling day after a week's break in Czarnow we decided to make things more interesting by making a small detour to the Czech side of the border. Kaisa had read something interesting in the guidebook about the Polish town of Kudowa-Dzroj and the shortest way there meant crossing the border as it lies just about 15 kilometers south from Czarnow.

We were super nervous in the morning about getting back on the bikes, and waving goodbye to our friends felt like a really bad idea when we rolled down the hill. The road tested us first with a furious head wind that made Lina nearly throw up on top of a long hill, and then with scorching heat that made Leka collapse of exhaustion on the bench of a bus stop.

But then we descended through the forest into a valley where the road started following a river running through small villages with charmingly run-down old stone houses. There were covered bridges, small waterfalls and even a horse carriage.

The frightening return to the road turned out to be one of our best cycling days on the whole trip. We weren't the only ones appreciating the views and the quiet traffic: we've never seen as many cyclists as today. And once we returned back to Poland in the afternoon we still had another unforgettable experience waiting for us… but that's another story for another blog post.