Wroclaw cycle culture

The last few weeks have been a whirlwind, mostly of work, but as part of that, it's good to be able to get out of the office and visit other places in Europe from time to time.

This was my first visit to Poland, to the small city of Wroclaw (pronounced Vrot-swarv) and I found it a very welcoming, friendly and interesting city. The market square is very pretty, although most of the buildings are replicas - it was flattened in the second world war and has been rebuilt since then.

Wroclaw has very young population, as the city has two big universities; the area is flat and there are lots of canals and waterways, and cycling is extremely popular with all ages.

There are a lot of cycle paths, but it's also acceptable to cycle on the pavements, and it seems to work very well. On the whole, cyclists go slowly and respect pedestrians, you don't get the feeling that you are putting your life at risk when walking along the pavement.

The city has its own bike rental scheme 'nextbike' a la Boris Bikes, which seems to be pretty new, and the Scandic hotel, where I stayed, had bikes that could be borrowed for free by guests.

They have lots of bike racks for locking up your own bike - including some rather beautiful ones such as these shown here.

Naturally, being Europe, there are also plenty of trams and buses for those preferring to use public transport.