A great day of riding in Poland

May 23, 2019

Once again, our room at the hotel looked like a shambles as we had transformed it into a drying room covering every available space with our clothes, rain covers for our bags, shoes, etc. We slept so well as we were both pretty tired. It was a joy to wake up and see that the weather should be better today. We will risk wearing shorts and hope for the best.

We enjoy the friendliness and hospitality of the Polish people. Yesterday as we rode into town in the heavy rain, car windows would roll down and we would be greeted with a warm welcome and thumbs up.

The weather may be improving but Barry’s back continues to be the big issue. The lower back and sides are pretty bad off the bike and when trying to sleep, but so far, it is manageable on the bike. A combination of Voltaren Max, ibuprofen, a heating pad and quiet evenings relaxing are our strategy at this point.

When we arrived at the hotel, we appreciated the easy going attitude of our hosts. We asked where the bike could be stored and they indicated that Seavo could rest in the dining room. We are reminded of the flexibility of Polish people in these situations from our travels here before -nothing is a problem.

Poland offers such great opportunities for travel with comfortable hotels at incredibly good prices and breakfasts that suit us. Great fresh eggs, salads, veggies and fruit. We are on our way.

Kostrzyn nad Odra has the tell tale appearance of a border town but it offers much more with an historical stone fortress museum with a walking/cycling route around its perimeter and a bustling shopping district with many new stores. It feels like a city that is being revitalized. During WW2, 95% of the buildings were destroyed a Nazi POW camp Stalag III-3 detained American, French, Soviet and Italian soldiers as well as a Work Camp and Concentration Camp.

Since 2004, Kostrzyn has annually hosted Przystanek Woodstock, the largest open air music festival in Europe and the World.

We began our route with the reminder that in Poland we will not have the luxury of dedicated cycle paths as a common thing, like in Germany. The first 14 km were on a pretty busy road with many large trucks, but the drivers were very kind to us. After that we rode on quieter roads, all of which were paved. Yeah, and thank you again to the funding from the EU!

A highlight of our first 14 km was that we rode alongside the Park Narodowy Ujscie Warty. Many school groups were on field trips. We enjoyed seeing this pretty area and the varied bird life,

We enjoyed a picnic lunch in a park in the lovely historic town of Oslo Lubuskie. This town is known for many things: one of the few towns with an intact medieval wall (a Polish Carcassone), restored cobble roads throughout, it dates back to the Copper Age with the discovery of a Chariot in excavations, a brewery town in the 600’s with over 500 breweries and a plantation for Lily of the Valley -a medicinal plantation for treating heart disease. We enjoyed sitting in their pretty gardens and reflecting that for the past weeks we have needed to eat in cafes to keep warm and get out of the elements.

And later in the day, Barry saw this fox run across the road right in front of us. We stopped and watched him for some time and the fox seemed to be equally curious about us.

We were going to stop at 67 km at a nice place with a sauna and hot tub, but we decided to push on as the clerk warned us that most of the place was booked out to a group and there would be a big party. She apologized but said that it would be loud. Not only do we want to avoid a noisy party into the wee hours, we can’t imagine sharing the hot tub either.

A Polish Grocery store chain. We like the happy looking bee on the logo.

This dog so badly wanted us to come over and play. We had to sit here for several minutes waiting for the light to change. Despite his barking, his tail wagged happily and he looked puzzled why we didn’t join him.

We encountered a lot of construction on the final 10 km of the route. We had to wait at each section for the light to change as only one lane was open

We arrived at our destination Miedzyrzecz, elated to have had such a great day of riding. It was quite a hilly day, yet the weather was amazing. We stayed in shorts for the day and only needed a jacket later in the day. Now, this is what cycle touring can be like when the weather gods look upon you favourably. We had heavy winds at times, but we didn’t mind...it wasn’t wet!

Once again our accomodation does not disappoint. Hotel Neo is elegantly appointed with a very comfortable room and (from what we hear) an impressive restaurant. We look forward to having a good sleep and a tasty Polish breakfast. We also like the reasonable price of €36.

It is a long time since we have ridden 92 km in a day -we are very tired, but so happy to be riding in better weather. Yeah! We had no energy to do the usual tasks like laundry, journal, etc so we both fell into bed after a long shower and tried to watch a program on Netflix. But we gave up and went to sleep.

Today's ride: 92 km (57 miles)
Total: 1,468 km (912 miles)

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