Around Spala: A very interesting day

September 28, 2014

What a great day we had today in the surrounds of Spala. Spala is a very interesting place. Now it is an upmarket tourist resort in this gorgeous deciduous forest, it was the hunting grounds of Czar Nicholas III and the family spent a lot of time here, after WW1 when Poland became a country again it was the summer retreat of the Presidents, during WW2 the Germans set up a command post here (Anlage Mitte) with a massive railway bunker at Konewka and associated works about 3km away, the Polish have also set up a huge sports complex and camp which is used to train Polish Olympic Athletes and I presume others considered to be elite athletes.

After a huge and leisurely breakfast we reclaimed our bikes and set off for the Bunker at Konewka. This is huge and extremely well hidden in deep forest. It is open to the public and very interesting. Its building was commenced in 1940 as I gather a preparation for the invasion of Russia. You sure could hide lots of trains in this, associated with it is everything necessary - it was just a pity that there wasn't a little more in English but we had read up about it before we went and one of the men there explained more about it to us. While we were there a group of around 30 cyclists arrived. They were from Warsaw and had come to Spala for 3 days to do a ride from here of about 40km each day - really nice people to talk to. They tell us there are great cycle tracks in Warsaw - we will see.

Back to Spala and we were off on a marked cycle route through the beautiful oak forest where we had an interesting encounter. There has been a fungi conference in Spala over the weekend and this dedicated man was out collecting samples to map the fungi in the forest. I think being a fungi. lover must do something to your brain as I have seldom met such an enthusiast. But not only did he increase our knowledge about fungi in this particular environment he told us a lot about the forest around here. On we went and we came to a tiny town which really was just a row of houses along one road. We turned into what we assumed was a small country road and low and behold there was a mass of not just traffic but also cyclists and pedestrians all going the same way. We rode on wondering what ever was up and then we came to it. A nearly new church, the service must have just ended and the congregation was spilling out - there must have been 200 people of all ages. I have since googled church attendance in Poland and according to what I read about 53% attend church every Sunday. Certainly a far cry to what happens in New Zealand.

A WW2 BMW motorbike and side car - plus Ken's thumb

The new church with the huge congregation

The interior is very small and most of the congregation sit outside

The water tower built by the Czars so they would have enough water pressure. They had state of the art facilities

This guest house we are staying in was part of the Czars entourage - it is hard to escape their gaze here

This explains it all. In 1860 Czar Nicholas II was on a hunting trip and shot 10 bison (discusting). He commisioned this life size sculpture of a bison to commemorate it. During WW2 it was removed to Russia for safe keeping but has since been returned here to what was his hunting lodge

Today's ride: 30 km (19 miles)
Total: 2,924 km (1,816 miles)

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