In September 1940, the great comic writer PG Wodehouse was being sent on a train to a German internment camp in Tost, Upper Silesia. As he looked at the dank, flat fields, he asked himself: “If this is Upper Silesia, what must Lower Silesia be like?” Well, I can tell him: in early summer, it is glorious. I got a good look at the countryside too, because I was seeing it from a cyclist’s point of view.
This is something I didn’t do lightly; the last time I rode a bicycle, Tony Blair was Prime Minister. (It’s true what they say, you don’t forget how to ride a bike.) But on a trip with travel company The Slow Cyclist, you’re handed a modified e-bike before cycling off on a carefully chosen scenic route, at a pace which accommodates the slowest of the group.
I thought that would be me, as I’m 61, and I am — to tick one of the boxes in the questionnaire they ask before setting out — “healthy but not fit”. I do not exercise, because I don’t like it and I see no need. But I already knew that Lower Silesia was beautiful and wanted to go again, and this is not — thank goodness — about taking you to the limits of your endurance.
The point is to enjoy the scenery — and, goodness me, the scenery is worth it. The Slow Cyclist covers a range of destinations, including Turkey, Transylvania, Greece, South Africa, but I particularly wanted to go to Poland because it is the land of my grandparents (well, two of them). Having been picked up from Wrocław and taken.