The longest weekend (since 2012 and until 2029)

It’s the longest possible weekend. This year 1 May fell on Tuesday, 3 May on Thursday, both days are national holidays. So Poland has nearly come to a stand-still, since two-third of the alive working population have taken three days off to enjoy nine days away from work. This might have been a nuisance if you wanted to run errands. I had signed up to stay in the office as I am taking two-week holidays from 20 May, so I needed some time to catch up with all assignments needed to be completed by the end of May, but in practice two weeks earlier.

Here, first the day of May. My girlfriend induced me to take an over 80-kilometre bike trip. We practically set off from Metro Młociny, then further east towards the other end of Vistula, through Most Północny. Apart from the dual carriageway and the tram tracks, the bridge carries a sidewalk and the cycling path. I must say the infrastructure for cyclists is getting better and better in the capital.

Having cycled through Białołęka, between blocks of flats and then between detached houses (a marvelous place to spend weekends; unfortunately far worse in terms of daily commuting), we find a path which runs parallel to the railway line running to Gdańsk, the venue I had seen before from train window. Oddly enough, Pendolino trains are less noisy than modern Koleje Mazowieckie sets.

The path leads to Legionowo. In the distance a road viaduct being a part of DK61, customarily solidly jammed (traffic jams on bank holidays are a rarity) – Varsovians are heading for Zegrze, stuck in their cars. Quite probably many of those people are fit enough to go there by bike like us. We are stopped before the gates on a guarded railway crossing and we spot the odd (colour-wise) loco hauling nine passenger carriages. A phenomenon to be noticed – in Poland gates are closed several minutes before a train passes (resulting in huge queues of vehicles waiting for gates to open; this is why I always turn the engine off before railway crossings), abroad quite often less than one minute – why?

After a short stopover to eat sandwiches, we cycle west along the bank of Narew river, through the soil-made embankment. The lands here are barely touched by mankind, virgin I would say. It is getting hotter and hotter, my back gets sweaty, as I carry food and a pack of juice in my rucksack.

Having passed through Nowy Dwór Mazowiecki, a district town less than 50 kilometres north of Warsaw, which despite its vicinity to the capital felt like a provincial town, we cycle back south, this time roughly along Vistula. To our left, we come across the oldest golf course in Poland and the most famous one in Rajszew. In terms of area, I suppose it is at a par with professional courses in Western Europe. Round there, we take another stop to fill up our stomachs by the bank of Vistula.

Less than a quarter later, dark clouds set in and thunders herald a downpour. Raindrops get bigger and fall more frequently, but we keep moving on. As the downpour gets intense, I spot a large canopy, under which a few cyclists have already taken shelter. We stop over there and luckily, we are under the roof the wait out the hail. The ice balls are probably the biggest I have ever seen in my life. As I watched them fell, I felt lucky the hail hit there, not over Ursynów where my car sat in the open air; such balls could have left marks on the vehicle. Oddly enough, some three kilometres south not a single droplet of rain has fallen.

To the right, Wednesday late afternoon, sitting on Vistula boulevards next to Centrum Nauki Kopernik. Sipping beer, living it up in the city centre, glad Warsaw’s authorities have done a lot to make improve this area and make it relaxer-friendly. All potential voters of Patryk Jaki should make a list to check out what stride Warsaw has made since 2006 when HGW and Platforma took over. Needless to say, it would not hurt to make another list of things which still need to be done, some even badly and compare length of both of them.

On Thursday we went by bikes to a beach behind Wał Zawadowski, Wilanów district and spent there half a day, basking in the sun (second day this year with day-time high near +30C), walking around. The snap shows in the distance (looking south) cranes and other machinery which are used for preparatory works before construction of bridge carrying the Southern Bypass of Warsaw over the Vistula gets in overdrive. To our nice surprise, not droves of people around, yet the sort of people who while away on city beaches remains the same (portable barbecues, screaming children, swear words are the order of the day).

Now only two weeks in the office and then off to Slovenia, through Slovakia and Austria ;-)