Riding in Central & North-Eastern Europe
Introduction
The Balkans and Italy are my favorite places to ride my bike around the corner of the world I live - and this summer I thought of heading there. Alas, it was a hot-hot summer, with temperatures reaching all-time record values, so that idea did not seem all too swell. A bit grudgingly, I started contemplating of biking rather than south more to the north. Grudgingly, as I had some not too pleasant memories of a not-so-recent trip: when my meniscus tore somewhere between the Czech Republic and Poland (eventually, it had to be operated). Further, it did not sound as compelling - while the nature is pretty, that region is a bit less exciting, not so exotic. Just think how this sounds: "I spent a week on the Amalfi Coast" as vs. "It was close to Pilsen that I biked for a couple of days".
Anyhow, I set off in August 2026 and rode west from close to my home in Vienna along the Danube river - something I had not done earlier (at least not to this extent), then veered up north, brushing Germany for a few kilometers, then entered Czech Republic and spent over a week riding there. Then I decided to return back to Vienna - I shall explain why - from where I took a train to eastern Hungary, holding a presentation there - should you be following my biking trips, it might be of interest to you. Then on, I started riding north, crossing Slovakia, then the large country of Poland and arrived in Lithuania - one of the few countries in Europe that I had not visited earlier. (For my own interest, Latvia, Iceland, Luxembourg and Belarus are on this list - still, as of writing this story).
Granted, this trip was not GOAT (greatest of all times), still, there were beautiful parts - looking back, the Masurian Lake District in Poland, the Curonian Spit in Lithuania,and many wonderful small towns along the trip were really memorable. While not by bike, I had visited Prague, Vilnius and Krakow - in each of which I could spend multiple days. I also really had a great time in Warsaw - there (and in many other places) I saw how much the Jewish life had thrived in the past couple of centuries - and what destruction on industrial scale took place during World War II.
Let me tell you about the story of this trip.