21.05.25 Day 15 - Puck-Sobieszewo. Meeting, Gdynia and Gdansk

I had a work meeting from 9-10, but made a few km before that and had the meeting on a bench beside the road. 

Nice ride from Puck, with some good bicycle lanes but also reasonably good forest tracks. And a few very steep ascents, one I just could manage. Not long, maybe 10-15m up. Still hard enough. Of course walking is the last thing you do 😀.

Solar power plant near Rzucwewo

Right here I had my meeting. I have seen several of these small plants, but little rooftop solar. Less subsidies than in e..g Germany and the Netherlands I suppose.

Further following a mix of tracks, cycle paths and roads with cycle lanes. As already mentioned, the cycle lanes and paths are excellent, among the best I've seen, but some parts of the tracks are among the worst I have cycled. But the general impression is surprisingly good.

I just passed through Gdynia. Oserved trolley busses. Not so many places that still have these. Arnhem in the Netherlands among them.

Trolley bus in Gdynia

The EV track leads you partly through town and partly alon a beach boulevard towards Gdansk. I passed a small Vietnames/Thai restaurant and bought lunch for a variation. Everything in Polish, but I recognized Pad Thai, which is usually good. Also here.

I did not want to take time to look around in Gdansk, but I wanted to see Lening wharf, which is now called Gdansk wharf. This had historical importance because here started the Solidarinosc movement in 1980. Not that there is anything to see, but just wanted to have been there. I came in from the west and wanted to ride through, but that was not possible, so I had to retun. Possibly the south side is more interesting.

Gdanbs wharf, parts of wind turbine towers visible

There is still some ship building and they also make parts for wind turbines. Picture was taken from the entry, where there was an old guard that pretty angry told me that I could not go in. I indicated I just wanted to take a picture. That seemed not to be allowed either. Funny how you sometimes can understand people. I took a picture anyway and left, he yelling after me. I can't see any reason why one should not take a picture here - guess he just want demonstrate his power. No one was coming after me at least.

I also passed Gdansk combined heat and power coal plant. Large pipes distributing heat all around.

Not renewable

Now the trail crosses the old town of Gdansk, which looked very nice. Then leaving Gdansk and moving on 10-12 more km to Sobieszewo, where I found Sobie camping. Very primitive, Nepali hot (=cold) shower, but fair enough for one night.

Some words about navigation. Maps would be nice, but I could not in any way bring all the maps I would need on this trip. Overview maps are not good enough. On the first days, I used "Knooppunten" and Google.

Then came the EV trails, that are marked. Quite well in Poland actually. But still there are places without marks, or you miss them somehow. I do regularly. I have also downloaded the EV13 trail. Then you need an app to show it on your phone. There are several options. I use OrganicMaps, which uses OpenStreetMap and is free. Not so many features, but enough for me. The nice thing is that you can show the GPS track all the time, so you know where to go. A child's game to cross a city that way. This GPS trail does not always coincide with the marking, you need to check what you prefer. The GPS trail largely is the best option in my experience.

82km in 9:00 hours, 6:00 hours active cycling. Total 1462km.