Still Addled and Saddled

Cycling from Wroclaw (Poland) to Ijmuiden (Netherlands)

In which two old blokes (me and Ben) go in search of our lost fitness and try to cycle from Wroclaw to Ijmuiden in time to catch the ferry back to North Shields on 24 September. I’d like to add a bit of tension by suggesting it’s a race against the clock but we fly from Newcastle with our bikes on 9 September and the distance is approx 1000 kms so we should have plenty of time for riding, sightseeing, and getting lost but you never know.

Here’s a snapshot of the route, although we might vary it a bit. We've gone for this oddly shaped dog leg because it coincides with a couple of Euro Velo routes.

In preparation for this epic quest, I’ve been reading the inspirational works of Polish authors Bruno Schulz and Olga Tokarczuk. It’s possible I should have been reading maps and guide books but there’s still loads of time for that sort of thing.

Schulz (1892-1942) was born in Drohobych and - without moving from his hometown - became a subject of the Austro-Hungarian Empire (1792–1919); the short-lived West Ukrainian People's Republic (1919); the Second Polish Republic (1919–1939); Soviet Ukraine in 1939; and Nazi Germany from1941-45, during which time he was murdered by a Gestapo officer in 1942. Drohobych is now part of Ukraine.

Bruno Schulz on the steps of his home in Drohobych 1933 (Bertold Schenkelbach)

Schulz was both a graphic artist and a writer of imaginative and mysterious short stories, which can feel both claustrophobic and boundless. His thirty stories invite us into a dreamily abstract world where things are never quite what they seem. The ending of his story Cinnamon Shops exemplifies this wondrous sense of uncertainty when we are ‘unsure if it was still the magic of the night that shone silver on the snow or if the day was already dawning…’

Olga Tokarczuk was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2018 and lives for some of the year in Wroclaw, where her Literary Foundation is based. Her works include the fragmentary novel Flights (2007) in which an unnamed female traveller explores the motivations for and meanings of travel.

This exciting and innovative book is divided into 116 fragments, some only one line long, others as long as 31 pages. The original Polish title Bieguni refers to runaways, a sect of Eastern Orthodox Christians who believe that being in constant motion is a way of avoiding evil.

‘I realised that - in spite of all the risks involved - a thing in motion will always be better than a thing at rest; that change will always be a nobler thing than permanence…that that which is in motion is able to last for all eternity.’ (p.17 Flights 2007)

These are encouraging words for travellers about to embark on a new adventure. Bruno and Olga will make stimulating and thought-provoking companions as we ride through Silesia, alongside the Oder River.

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The last time Ben and I set off on a long distance bike ride, just over a year ago, he broke his femur south of Newcastle. You can read the full story here. We’d planned a podcast for that journey but abandoned it when Ben ended up in hospital so we’re intending to revive it for this trip.

We’ll publish the Addled & Saddled Podcast here on Substack so if you’ve got time on your hands and fancy listening to a couple of old geezers droning on, why not join us? With a bit of luck, the first episode should appear on 9th September.

If you’re already a subscriber it should hopefully wing its way to your inbox and if you’re not then just click Subscribe below.