September 25, 2014
To Prezedborz: Back in another century
Today was another great day of cycling. We used our massive atlas of road maps of Poland to plot out a cycle friendly route and the Garmin implemented it with a bit of checking from Galilao.
For much of the day we felt that we could be back in another century and certainly we were in a very remote area. The houses now were much more modest and the cars much smaller and older and much to our delight there were far fewer of them. Here we were often in forest or scrubby countryside and the farms at this stage looked much smaller and if life was a bit of a struggle. Twice we saw farmers using horses rather than tractors to work the field. The first time the farmer was harrowing and the second time he was tedding hay. The little towns seemed to be almost totally without services but we found one of those tiny hidden shops and got some excellent bread rolls and a pastry for lunch. We even managed a coffee, there was a kind of service station cum shop and the very corpulent gentleman in charge made us a coffee rather reminiscent of one we had in Slovakia a few years ago. It consisted of ground coffee with boiling water poured over them. The secret to drinking such a coffee is to first let it stand for a while until the grounds sink to the bottom, then use your teeth as a strainer making sure you stop drinking well before the bottom of the cup. He was a kind man and I think he thought we looked a bit thin as he gave us 5 biscuits each and 2 chocolates.
Much of the day was in forest. We saw one bus load of people that had been dropped off to walk in the wilderness. During the day we saw 7 deer and a dear little red squirrel. Our lunch spot was in a very superior ditch in the forest -we did have to clamber over an empty Vodka bottle to get to it.
As we approached Prezedborz things changed. The farms looked much bigger and more affluent, the houses were fancier and the fences up to the latest in fashion (I will tell you about fences in Poland another day, it is a real phenomenon). Prezedborz itself is not a tourist town but it is a pleasant little working town. Our hotel is fantastic and the owners incredibly helpful. When I booked it at the Information in Krakow they said " You know it is really in the country it may be basic, I hope it is elegant enough". To start off with looking at us after nearly 8 weeks of cycling how ever would the word elegant come up. The other thing is this hotel is anything but basic, in fact one of the best we have stayed at. They just need to get advertising on booking.com
Today's ride: 76 km (47 miles)
Total: 2,810 km (1,745 miles)
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