Spala

September 27, 2014

Today was to be a very short day so we took our time and went down to breakfast quite late when we judged that most of the conference goers would have eaten and the feeding frenzy would be subsiding. It was a very good breakfast and we really ate far too much.

The ride was very different from yesterdays, firstly it took us to us to Tomaszow Mazowiecki, a town of around 50000. It is a pleasant place with extremely good cycle paths leading us through it. When we arrived in Przedborz two days ago we realised that we had a problem with the back rack of Ken's bike. The hole for the screw that attaches it to the frame at the bottom had broken off. There was no hope at all of getting a new rack in this area, nor was it fixable. We put as much of the heavy stuff as was feasible on my bike and Ken 'fixed it' using cable ties. He was very careful yesterday avoiding as many bumps as possible and the good news is it held out well. From here we have another two relatively long days to Warsaw and we feel concerned that it wouldn't hold out that long. There is a train that we can get from Tomaszow to Warsaw. Reluctantly we have decided that that is the sensible thing for us to do. We went out and sussed out the station, it is somewhat strange with no ticket office apparently you buy tickets on the train. Our intention therefore is to stay two nights here in Spala, tomorrow do a loop ride from here and then on Monday ride back to Tomaszow and catch the train.

The short ride from Tomaszow to Spala was lovely on a new paved cycle track through beautiful forest. Spala is in a forested area that has been a popular recreational area since the 19th century. First it was developed by the Czars who built a small town here and used it as a hunting lodge. After WW1 when Poland became Poland again it became the summer domain of Polish Presidents - they knocked down the stables of the Czars and built a beautiful little wooded church. Today it is a very upmarket little resort in the middle of the forest.

There were Bisons in this forest. There is a Bison breeding program in the forest at Smardzewice. We were going to see it but after we had battled our way down a muddy road we came to a place where we had to leave our bikes and walk another 3km so we gave it a miss

The lovely track through the forest to Spala

Today's ride: 23 km (14 miles)
Total: 2,894 km (1,797 miles)

Rate this entry's writing	Heart	0
Comment on this entry	Comment	0