Down the Vistula to Grandma’s House

A warm cabin with sausages and hand made pierogies

May 23, 2025: Krakow – Miechowice Wielkie – 87kms – Kogutowo Agrotourism

May 24, 2025

Ruth: I lost sleep worrying about the length of our first day’s ride, but as with many of my worries it turned out to be no problem at all. We spent the day on a completed section of the Vistula Cycling Route. Eventually this route will follow the river from Krakow through Warsaw and on to the Baltic Sea at Gdansk. We are using the river as our guide as we head north, even if we run out of bike paths sometime today.

I already love Poland! The birds are amazing! We lost count of the number of Ring Necked Pheasants we saw, some of them exploding from the long grass beside the bike path.  We were also serenaded by a great number of song birds as we cycled along the dike next to the river. I’m reevaluating the beauty of the Eurasian Magpies that I took for granted growing up in Edmonton. They are truly amazing birds. There is lots of other life along the shoreline too. We saw a beautiful red fox and many deer.

It was a chilly ride yesterday, so when we stumbled into the 1905 log cabin that we are staying in, we were delighted to find a cozy interior with a fire burning in the tile stove.  Once hot these massive masonry stoves continue to radiate heat through the tiles with very little additional wood.  It’s still cozy in the cabin this morning as I write this.