April 21, 2015
Day 96 - Ketrzyn to Duly: When Nazis roamed the earth
I was filled with anticipation this morning, but that didn't stop me from getting a late start. Luckily it was only 10 km from Ketrzyn to Wolf's Lair, a former Nazi base, notable because Hitler spent something like 800 days there, and because one of his colonels tried to assassinate him. And now this intriguing historical moment, part of a still-sensitive topic, is a minor tourist trap. The Nazi barracks is now, amusingly, a hotel (and cheaper than the place I stayed at in Ketrzyn; let that be a lesson to always do your research). You can pay extra to be driven around in authentic wartime vehicles. You can buy souvenirs, though sadly I didn't see any Hitler magnets or anything.
I felt better about not knowing about the hotel after I managed to get my ticket for free. A very skillful negotiation on my part, the conversation went like this (yes, the actual conversation, not another imaginary one):
Him: "The ticket is 15 zloty, plus 2 zloty for the bicycle."
Me: "Okay."
Him: "There is a discount for students. Are you a student?"
Me: "No."
Him: "We give you student price anyway. 10 zloty plus bicycle, so 12 zloty."
Me: "Okay." *holding out 12 zloty*
Him: *taking the 2 zloty coin* "Just the 2 zloty for the bicycle."
Him: *giving back 2 zloty coin* "You don't have to pay."
I think he was having trouble with some aspect of the payment system. I was the only non-group there anyway.
The site is full of partially reconstructed bunkers. I started wondering how effective they were if the Nazis managed to destroy them so easily when they left. Those things were massive, reinforced concrete, apparently consisting mainly of thick concrete and narrow corridors. Painted on all the bunkers was an easily ignored, multilingual sign telling people to stay out, yet that was clearly not how the site originally operated: there were steps and railings in place to aid access to the ruins. It was fascinating wandering around among the twisted metal and chunks of concrete.
When I was leaving, I went into the washroom while there was an utterly clueless German tour group there; they were so slow-witted I bet they thought they were on some sort of pilgrimage. I had to wait for a stall. The woman who walked in behind me stepped right in front me, took the next available stall, without even glancing at me, as if she'd never had to wait in line in a public washroom before. I wanted to say, "You haven't been a woman very long, have you?" but she wouldn't have understood. Then, unbelievably, the woman who walked out of the next stall tried to carefully close the door behind her, even as I was already stepping inside, my hand holding the door. She didn't even notice. I began to suspect they were part of a special program, a charity tour for the stupid.
After Wolf's Lair, I ended up on another really bad road, but didn't mind at first because it seemed like a small price to pay for what I had just seen. First, it was broken concrete, then sand and rock, and quite lengthy. Eventually I came to a fork in the track; according to the GPS, I was supposed to take the left one. But the left one turned out to be the right one, which was of course the wrong one, and which resulted in more time on non-roads.
After I finally escaped that, the rest of the day was kind of windy, the usual pleasant but not spectacular scenery, and too many hills. I'm getting into the lake district now, and the towns have that holiday feel to them, albeit without the vacationers yet.
After Gizycko, I biked a stretch on a busy national road. To pass the time, I started talking to vehicles that passed me, telling them if they got a tip of the hat (for passing at a distance of 1m) or didn't get a tip of the hat. Most were pretty good. Though DHL got a hat tip, UPS definitely did not.
Pedestrians didn't get hat tips today, either. I've been amazed at how often (80% of the time) a lone pedestrian will step onto the street without looking, generally directly in front of me. Or people might see me coming, but they're so engrossed in their own world that they don't realize they shouldn't step in front of me. Today they were especially bad. I'm sure we all do it once in a while, but what I've seen seems excessive. Now I'm curious--have people always been like this?
Today's ride: 89 km (55 miles)
Total: 4,816 km (2,991 miles)
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