2022: Cycling and Walking Event NYSA-ODRA
The 11th NYSA-ODRA cycling and walking meeting organized by the Gorzów Eurojumelage Section took place in Świnoujście from 7th to 11th September 2022.
This year's meeting marked the end of the first round (NYSA-ODRA 1.0) of cycling and walking meetings starting at the source of the Neiße River and ending at the Baltic Sea. It was again a great pleasure for all participants to meet and spend a few days walking, cycling and exchanging ideas.
This year's meeting marked the end of the first round (NYSA-ODRA 1.0) of cycling and walking meetings starting at the source of the Neiße River and ending at the Baltic Sea. It was again a great pleasure for all participants to meet and spend a few days walking, cycling and exchanging ideas.
On Thursday September 8th at 9:00 a.m., 16 walkers and 12 cyclists set off on their day tours. The cyclists, all riding mechanical bicycles, started from Karsibór first via side roads with hardly any traffic and thereafter along cycle paths on the side of the roads until they reached the underground city. This is a military facility, initially a German bunker built in the 1930s, and during the Cold War to defend against potential NATO attacks. It was used by the Polish army until 2014. The facility was secret and inaccessible except to military personnel until this time. The walking group first took a public bus to the starting point of their walk, from where they walked to the underground city. After a common tour of the underground bunker complexes, both groups continued on foot or by bike to the common tour of Fort Gerhard, a former Prussian bunker complex, near the lighthouse. The originally planned visit to the lighthouse as well as the second part of the walk, were unfortunately cancelled due to the onset of heavy rain. Adam organized a taxi ride back to the hotel for the walking group, the cycling group waited quite a while for a break in the rain before their return trip to the hotel.
Unfortunately, the Rybaczówka Hotel was no longer available from Friday onwards and the entire group had to move to the Naval Academy, a residential accommodation of marines in Świnoujście. This is also used by tourists during the summer season. After transferring, the cycling and walking tours were somewhat shortened and commenced from the new accommodation. The walking group joined a group from the Gorzów section and went together for a trip along the beach to Ahlbeck and back.
The cycling group did a round trip on the island of Wollin, visiting the towns of Zalesie, Wicko, Wapnica and Misdroy. In Misdroy, a longer break was taken at the pier before returning to the hotel. Due to construction work and health restrictions of a fellow cyclist, some cycle paths, especially sandy sections and forest paths, could not be used, so that the busy E65 had to be used in parts.
On Saturday, the group of cyclists first went to the windmill-shaped beacon built in 1874; this is now the symbol of the town Świnoujście. Afterwards, the bike tour cycled along the Baltic Sea Cycle Path via Ahlbeck and Heringsdorf to Bansin. After a short break, a post mill and a Dutch windmill were visited on the way back via Pudagla, Benz and Korswandt, before returning to Świnoujście on the Baltic Sea Cycle Path.The walk led along the mouth of the Świna via the Engelsburg to the west battery at the west fort (all former Prussian fortifications) and then to the mill beacon and the harbor pier. The walking tour ended here and the participants were free for the afternoon.
The final meeting began after dinner: pictures and films from the past 3 days taken by Sławomir were shown. Now that the journey along the Oder and Neiße rivers had reached its end point, the next actions were discussed. It quickly became clear that there will also be a NYSA-ODRA cycling and walking event in 2023 – NYSA-ODRA 2.0
NYSA-ODRA 2022 in Świnoujście was an all-round successful meeting - excellently organized by our friends from Gorzów! All participants will retain fond memories of this meeting. Next year NYSA-ODRA 2.0 will start, probably in Zittau, and hopefully all this year's participants will also take part in NYSA-ODRA 2023.
Harald Weber
association of Darmstadt
Germany
