Oder-Neisse - a nicer way to go

I seem to have learned more history while riding my bike than I ever did in school…or even in many of the years since then. Take this bike tour along the rivers Neisse and Oder for example. What appeared to be a gentle tour along one of the last European rivers to flow naturally, and therefore, gently downhill, brought together bits of knowledge from reading, films seen and general assimilation, into a coherent picture of events.

 

Along the Neisse - a newly-finished bike trail through beautiful woods

The Oder and Neisse both begin their journeys to the Baltic in the Czech Republic. In 1945 as the war in Europe drew to an end, Stalin persuaded the other Allies that the border between Germany and Poland should be along these rivers (and not further east as originally envisaged).

The Russians occupied (in their terms “liberated”) the land that in 1950 became “independent” East Germany, the DDR, and it remained so until 1990 when the two Germanys were reunited. Since then there appears to have been a huge investment to bring the DDR infrastructure up to western standards, but at the same time, extensive migration from the east to the west to find work, leaving cities and towns along the border with dwindling populations.

So our bike ride beginning in Czech Turnov took us through recent history along the border, on the German side, through the land that was once, on both sides, Germany and is now in two countries divided by the river. On the west side of the river there is a smooth dedicated cycle path, largely on the flood protection dam which is so much better to ride on than the rough roads of Poland.

 

Bridges which no longer cross the river, or the border

Evidence of the retreat of German forces as the Soviets advanced in 1945 is apparent in the number of road and rail bridges which were blown up and remain today weed-strewn and with a yawning gap in the middle. The land is totally flat and the Russian army crossed the Oder’s flood plain at some cost in January over thin ice.

In many towns there is plenty of evidence of the DDR time in the abandoned, crumbling factories, starkly functional in design but which provided work even though they were not profitable or producing goods which would be saleable after 1990.

 

Closed and crumbling factories 

As cyclists, a painfully obvious sign of the Communist days is the cobbled streets. Though much has been done to resurface the road network, many villages and towns have retained their irregular cobbles (as some kind of memorial?). These roads and some of the unrepaired roads are terrible to ride a bike on and cyclists seek out the narrowest strips of smoother surface often in the road edge.

During the ride, I wrote: “Many of the houses in the villages we pass through are of the DDR era – beetle browed, low walled under an enormous high roof, small windows. They give the air of frowning at the world.” For sure, the villages gave little signs of life other than well-tended vegetable plots. No shops or cafes, few churches, hardly any people.

 

Görlitz - thought to be Germany's most beautiful town lies along the route

It was encouraging to see the new bridges linking and reuniting towns and villages on each side of the Oder, built in many cases with support from the EU. However there is no love lost between the populations on each side of the border and poor communication as, on the whole, the Germans don’t speak Polish and the Poles have no German.

 

A bike tour group provided with deck chairs for their midday rest 

In total we rode 700km mainly in 60 – 70km stretches dictated partly by the distance between accommodation. The majority was on good, smooth asphalt and with little climbing after the first day in Czech where we climbed 850m. In the last couple of  days when the route  heads away from the river there are some rough field tracks to navigate as well as some concrete “platten” as found along the patrol routes of the old East-West German border.

 

The dreaded cobbles threaten to loosen every bolt on your bike

The trail reaches the sea at Seebad Heringsdorf on the island Usedom – a cure town from which we hurried away where the most memorabale thing was the huge amount of meat and chicken at our hotel breakfast buffet. No wonder cure towns are so popular.

Dreiländereck - where countries meet

Memorable accommodation:   

Maschinenhaus  Großneuendorf – a former grain drying tower now converted into classy bedrooms (no lift and with 69 steps to the fourth floor for spectacular views). Home made food in the restaurant.

Great views from the bedrooms, 69 steps to the fourth floor

Best coffee (always a critical factor):

Panorama in Turnov – a funky café with food too

Heaven & Earth – real espresso in a “cyclists church” with open roof

Heaven and Earth, cyclists' café in a former church

You said it!

The bicycle is the most civilized conveyance known to man. Other forms of transport grow daily more nightmarish. Only the bicycle remains pure in heart. Iris Murdoch