Let us get across our river!

From Most Siekierkowski down to Góra Kalwaria, there's nowhere to cross the river. These days, when Poles are getting more mobile, more active than ever, this is a getting to be a problem. Today, I intended to cycle to Pilawa, south-east of Warsaw, which I did, though crossing the Vistula was not easy. I crossed the Las Kabacki, cycled through Okrzeszyn City (każdy obcy będzie bity)* to reach the river at Obory. Hundreds of cyclists tearing up the asphalt around here.

An article I'd recently read in the local press suggested that at Gassy there'd be a ferry that's now taking pedestrians and cyclists across the river to Karczew. No such luck. I got down to the riverbank to find a lot of people puzzling over why there's no ferry. Apparently, I hear it's because of the ekolodzy, (ecologists) who are blocking the permission to open the service. From here, it's 25km to the other side by road. And it's not a safe road, either.  Below: a sign warns drivers of a Thelma and Louise moment that might befall them in 150m time.

Onward then. From Gassy to Góra Kalwaria, the best part of the trip. The Wał of Silence. No one around but me and the occasional cyclist or pedestrian. No bloody quad riders to spoil the quiet.

Approaching Góra Kalwaria, there's the railway bridge. One or two freight trains an hour at most. Can you get your bike across? Can you stroll across? Not unless you want the SOK (railway police) to slap you with a 50zł mandat for making an unauthorised crossing. Again, lots of cyclists around, below.

Onwards. Beyond Góra Kalwaria (after a kebab and beer), I decide to look for an alternative to the road bridge taking the DK50 across the Vistula. Is there a ferry downstream? Same story as at Gassy. Huge crowds on both banks expecting a boat to take them across. Nothing doing.

So I back-track to the bridge, looking for a route that avoids the dangerous ramp leading up to it. There is none. I'm forced - as anyone on foot or on bike wanting to cross the river - to share a narrow road with international trucks and speed-limit breaking drivers. This is dangerous. Finally, I get to the bridge, where there is a separate bike and footpath. But it's too narrow and too short. Below: the view looking south from the Góra Kalwaria bridge. You can see the two piers that the ferry should be serving in the middle foreground.

At the other end, cyclists and pedestrians are forced to dash across both carriageways to make it to the stairs down from the bridge to the safety of the embankment (when the quads are not howling along it).

Whoever is responsible for this bridge - it falls a long way short of the safety standards considered the norm in western Europe. If the bridge can't be re-engineered for pedestrians and cyclists - then open the railway bridge for foot traffic and bikes. Or allow ferries to take pedestrians and cyclists from one bank to the other. Like they do in Warsaw. Below: the ferry in Warsaw serving the beaches. Something like this is needed at Gassy and at Góra Kalwaria too. Chewing out a rhythm on my bubble gum/The sun is out and I want some/It's not hard not hard to reach/We can hitch a ride to Rockaway Beach.

Poland's local authorities (outside of its major cities) need to sharpen up their act when it comes to the demands of a fast-changing society and deliver social amenities at low cost. The value to local communities of letting hundreds of cyclists and walkers cross the river using ferries and (safely segregated) rail bridges would be hugely beneficial for communities on both sides of our river.

Sorry - can't get over the Ramones - since hearing of Tommy's untimely demise, it's been full-volume Ramones all weekend. Below: updated lyrics of Commando, from Ramones Leave Home.

They do their best
They do what they can
They get them ready for Vietnam
From old Hanoi to East Ukraine
Commando - involved again

First rule is - the laws of Germany
Second rule is - be nice to mommy
Third rule is - don't talk to commies
Fourth rule is - eat Kosher salami

Those commentators who question the Ramones' talent should listen to the chord progression in this song - complex yet simple, melodic, catchy, heavy, fast - and those lyrics - as true today as at the height of the Cold War.

* Każdy obcy będzie bity = 'Every stranger will be beaten"

This time last year:
S2 update (nearly ready, as it happened)

This time two years ago:

Progress on S2 bypass - photos from the air

This time four years ago:
Up Śnieżnica

This time seven years ago:
July continues glum (2007 - a rainy summer)

Out on the perimeter

Less than seven kilometres (four and half miles) from the very centre of Warsaw, and you are right out in parts of the city so rural you'd think you were deep in the countryside. Below: Siekierki power station from the flood protection wall. Earlier last month, firemen fought desperately here to stop waters from seeping in under the wall. They succeeded. The sandbags (just out of sight) are still here today.

Below: rail crossing where the coal train makes its way to the power station. Pure Kentucky, is this not? The Vistula is to the left of the flood protection wall. A long way home, but on a day like today, I feel the need to get on my bike and ride and take photographs. No apologies for vibrance of colours; it's that polarising filter giving you an idea of how it looked to me wearing polarising sun glasses.

The railway line runs from Siekierki to Konstancin-Jeziorna sidings; from then on via Nowa Iwiczna and Jeziorki, to the sidings at Okęcie. Below: passing Kilometer 500 on the Vistula. The black sign (left) has the numerals cut out so that boatmen can read it clearly.

Below: I'm deliberately not showing the river. It hides behind high walls. Its presence is felt. Last month, the water was getting close to spilling over the top and trickling under the sodden foundations of the flood defence walls.

Below: I cycled along the banks of the Vistula. There's no tidy towpath, just a track along the top of the flood wall. Here and there you can catch sight of the river. Eventually, I get to Obórki, then I head inland through Okrzeszyn, Powsin, the Las Kabacki forest and home. A long ride, but every inch of it in the presense of the Sublime. Below: A field near Okrzeszyn, Kentucky?


Right: Powsin, Warsaw. Let's not forget where we are. It's just five days before the second round of the presidential elections. You have a choice. Use it to determine whether Poland will mark time or march backwards.
It's quiet and calm in this very rural part of Warsaw, though cyclists and motorbikers are drawn to its quiet byways on beautiful summer afternoons and evenings. Quite a contrast to the rush hour hubbub of Ursynów just three miles to the west of here, ul. Puławska jammed up solid with commuters.

The days are marching

After dropping off Moni at band practice, taking the segregated waste for recycling and making lunch for Eddie and myself, I think "time for a bike ride". I look at the time and it's almost three pm. The sun now sets just after quarter to four. The river beckons.

Above: Just gone three-thirty and the sun is disappearing over the horizon. I've covered some 10km in the half-hour since leaving home, riding through the Las Kabacki forest. This wet field is in Powsin. Today and yesterday were dry, more rain is due.

Above: the village of Okrzeszyn at dusk. Home of the immortal (though now faded) graffiti: "Okrzeszyn City każdy obcy będzie bity" (Okrzeszyn City, every stranger will be beaten). The village has since gone up-market with new houses springing up everywhere.

Take me to the river. Above: The Jeziorka river, which flows into the Vistula at Obórki. Below: The Vistula at Obórki, 15km by bike from home. Time to set off before it gets too dark.

Below: Looking the other way; with the river behind me, I'm standing on the flood defence dyke and looking across at fields of Obórki. Five kilometres beyond lies Konstancin.



Below: On the way home, I pass the church at Powsin. The children have regularly come here on pilgrimages on foot from their school. Next year this church celebrates its 600th birthday, hence the new illuminations.

It's dark by the time I reach Las Kabacki. However, I have recently bought some outstandingly good bike lights; the front one illuminates the forest like a car headlight - and runs off AA batteries!

To the Vistula, by bike

Eddie, Moni and I set off by bike to the Vistula. It's just under 15km/ten miles from home, through the Las Kabacki forest. Across the Warsaw-to-Konstancin highway, we reach an interesting hinterland where development is sparse and farmland still prevails. If there's development I would like to see more of, it's sewage treatment plants. Right now, raw sewage is still pumped directly into the river that flows through Poland's capital; no wonder Warsaw has its back turned to the Vistula. Unlike other major European cities, where the riverbanks are lined with cafes, shops, promenades etc., the banks of the Vistula are unkempt and wild. The water is filthy with floating plop-plops.

Above: Bielawa, where the Okęcie-Siekierki coal line rumbles over flat fields on the last leg to the power station.

Right: The railway bridge adjacent to the level crossing. Graffiti on the bridge, now fading, reads: 'Okrzeszyn City, każdy obcy będzie bity' (Okrzeszyn City, every stranger will be beaten).
Symptomatic of backward, introspective attitudes that prevailed across rural Poland, let's hope they are fading, just like the paint that expressed the sentiment.

Above: the floodbank protecting the Vistula's low-lying hinterlands. A good off-road cycle track with views for much of the way out of Warsaw. I wonder how far south it continues? Below: Taken a few days earlier, late evening near Okrzeszyn, a mile away. The dusty road puts me in mind of 1930s America, yet again. Street lighting betrays the presence of suburbia. It's not rained in over two and half weeks.