September 19, 2014
Rudno: A day of two halves
Yesterday the wonderful woman in the Information gave us some excellent information about our onward journey to Krakow, We were keen to be off busy roads today as we value our lives and as we have plenty of time we can afford †o wander along on the Greenway. This meant of course not only would it involve a much greater distance it would take us up into the hills so it would take two days. She was fantastic and spent ages researching accommodation, the only possibility seemed an Agroturystyka about half way along. She rang to see if they were operational, printed out all the details and a list of all the places we needed to pass through.
What a delightful morning we had wandering through rural Poland. It was completely flat, at the times the roads were absolutely terrible. They were what are called in Poland 'Natural roads'. That means they are of course unsealed, the pot holes are like craters so riding along them is like a slalom. Ken felt pleased to see people working in the fields and in this flat land there were lots of people on bikes. They were just going about their regular business. Women were going shopping, there were old men going slowly along with their seats too low, I am sure that they were doing something very important. There were many lovely houses along the way with pretty gardens and people were out working in them. Painting your fence seems to be very important in Poland and I soon lost count of how many women (yes they were always women) giving their fences a gleaming new coat of paint. We stopped at a coffee shop just as it opened and much to our delight saw the NZ equestrian star Andrew Nicholson complete a cross country round in some completion.
When commercial operators do this same cycle tour they stop at Babice and they are transported by car to Krakow I certainly see why. From there it is straight up hill with numerous slopes marked 14% so there was a fait bit of pushing though some wild downhill rides as they always seem to take you steeply up to go headlong down again. Navigation was difficult as signage is virtually non existent. It is very attractive country though with small villages with well kept houses though very few services. There seem to be two villages called Rudno. Guess which one we went to? The wrong one. No one had heard of the place we thought we were going to stay. All was not lost we knew that the Agroturystyka was called Podzameze which means under the castle. Scoring the hills we saw the castle and headed for it and found the imposing gates. They were locked and there were two menacing looking dogs. What to do now, I had a couple of phone numbers and someone answered the second and said "5 minutes". The dogs now seemed friendly and the owners of the place are absolutely lovely, friendly like the dogs. They place is very new I doubt if they have had many customers yet and they just can't do enough for you. No where to eat nearby but there is a shop up the road and a kitchen for us to use. We are very comfortable.
Today's ride: 56 km (35 miles)
Total: 2,599 km (1,614 miles)
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