Blue Velo - Stage IV [Szczecin - Gryfino]

Stage IV: Szczecin – Gryfino [30 km]

The journey south from Szczecin takes place along bicycle paths through the municipality of Kołbaskowo, briefly following the Polish-German border. Just before the border, you can see the ruins of a church in Pargowo. After just three kilometers in Germany, we cross the border bridge over the Western Oder, which we can see from the observation tower. Then we ride through the Lower Oder Valley Landscape Park directly to Gryfino.

The name of the town comes from the Gryfit dynasty, who ruled Western Pomerania from the 12th to the 17th century. The griffin has been the family crest since 1214. Gryfit castles can be seen in many towns in Western Pomerania, but Gryfino is not one of them - and not even because the town was severely damaged in 1945. The closest and largest seat of the Pomeranian Dukes was located in Szczecin. Gryfino, on the other hand, could boast a Gothic old town, from which the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Bańska Gate, and fragments of the defensive walls survived the war. The town lies in the heart of the Lower Oder Valley, a bird paradise. Stretching for several dozen kilometers, the floodplains, marshes, meadows, and peat bogs form a mosaic of habitats, particularly friendly to water and marsh birds, which occur here in huge concentrations. Up to 9,000 cranes gather here in the autumn! Among others, 14 species from the Polish Red Book can be found here. It is therefore not surprising that white-tailed eagles have been nesting near the town for several years.

Another natural attraction near Gryfino is the Crooked Forest, a place whose fame has long since spread beyond the borders of Poland. The place owes its name and fame to the uniquely shaped pine trees that grow there. The forest was planted around 1934 and was brought to public attention by Prof. Eugeniusz Ćwikliński in 1971. At that time, he counted 400 trees, all growing in even rows, with their curvature facing north. Today, this regularity of planting is almost invisible - only 105 curved pines remain. Interestingly, no one knows for sure why the forest is crooked. The most fantastic explanations have been put forward, such as the interference of extraterrestrial civilization or the influence of water veins on plants. Most likely, however, the trees were simply cut, bent, and tied up, fixing the top shoot to the ground. An even more important and also unanswered question is: why bend the forest? Here, too, there are several competing hypotheses. Perhaps it was to obtain curved wood that could be used to make boat planking, barrels, or runners for so-called horned sleds? Perhaps it was meant to be an attraction for patients of the nearby (now abandoned) sanatorium? Although the old trees are slowly disappearing, foresters have decided to plant a new, equally crooked forest. Not far from the original, a so-called replacement area was created, which was divided into two sectors. In one, seedlings from trees in the Crooked Forest, genetically identical, were planted. The other sector is home to unrelated pine trees, which will be subjected to deformation. In this way, we will finally find out if there is something in the nature of the local trees that causes them to grow crooked. The revitalization and tourist development of the Crooked Forest is coming to an end.

Every winter, Gryfino becomes the national capital of travelers. The week-long travel festival "Włóczykij" has been attracting more or less famous travelers, reporters, writers, filmmakers, and musicians for over a dozen years, and above all, people who are passionate about the world, nature, and culture.

Transport: PKP railway stations are located in Szczecin and Gryfino (on the Szczecin-Kostrzyn line) and Szczecin Gumieńce, which can be reached by Deutsche Bahn train. Connections are operated by POLREGIO, Intercity, and DBahn at the Szczecin Gumieńce station. The timetable can be found at https://portalpasazera.pl and www.bahn.de. In Szczecin, bicycles can be transported free of charge on public transport. This allows you to travel from the city center to the German border, for example.

Surface: asphalt 93%, cobblestones 5%, concrete slabs 2%.

Type of traffic: bike paths 83%, general traffic 17%.