We will always remember Poland fondly as the country where we finally had good weather.  We have had sun, less wind, and warmer temperatures most of our time here in Poland.  But before I talk more about our experience of Poland, I thought I would discuss a number of the obsessions of a touring cyclist (at least the two of us).  The following list is not all-inclusive, nor is it in order of importance, but these are points of constant discussion:

1.  The weather.

   

   It is probably self-evident that the weather is of great importance to us.  It can mean the difference between a pleasant cycle with the opportunity for relaxed rest stops and slaving against a headwind, cold, wet and well, miserable.  While we try to just “go with it” we do obsessively check the forecast and the number of smiles in the group increase exponentially with sun and tailwinds.

2. Food and caffeine.  Not only is the most important question at our rider’s meeting “where is lunch?” but we also plot snacks, coffee stops, and end of day treats as though we are addressing life-altering issues (which of course they are)!
3. Road quality.  Smooth pavement, washboard gravel, sand, cobblestones, chip-seal, patched pavement, potholes….it is a bit like the Eskimos vocabulary for  snow.
4. Saddle comfort.  Enough said.
5. Laundry.  As you can imagine, we dirty quite a few clothes, sweating on dusty or muddy roads.  One might think that doing laundry was pretty obvious.  Go to the local laundromat, right?  Well, nope.  Laundromats do not exist in much of Europe.  We can wash our clothes by hand and often do, but it is not my favorite task and then there is the issue of getting them dry before it is time to pack up and go.  On rest days, we scheme how to find a place to do our wash.  For example, in Warsaw, we discussed this issue at length with the gentleman at the front desk (in gesture driven English).He gave  us a map with some options.  Suffice it to say that after a couple of miles of walking and a few false leads with a large duffle bag of laundry, we found a place that we think understood we needed the wash done and needed it back by the next day.  Thankfully, it was done and we actually got our clothes back (despite Jim losing the receipt!).
6. Navigation eg., not getting lost.  Directions, garmin maps, google maps, paper maps, flagging tape.  One simply cannot have enough backups when it comes to navigation!

On a completely different note, I will share some impressions of Poland.  So far it has mainly been farming country.  Vast fields of grain, many cows, apple and pear orchards.  It is a very fertile and productive country.

The other big surprise to me is that it is still very Catholic.

I would have thought that after years of Communist rule that the Catholic church may have faded in importance.  But of course, there was a Polish pope which should have been a hint.  There are shrines dotted along the roads throughout the countryside.  The cities have many priests and nuns in robes.  Turns out the current Pope will be visiting Krakow in the next few days and the hotels as far away as Warsaw were filled with pilgrims coming to see the pope.  Consequently there were many marches and parades while we were in Warsaw.  We also saw a moving ceremony at the monument at the site of the gates to the Warsaw ghetto from WWII.

 

Its time to head to bed and stop writing.  So I bid you all good night.  Stay in touch.

See you down the road…