September 21, 2024
Day 82: Orneta to Elblag
Quiet roads and More Farmlands
“Watch out for the acorns,” Rachel says along one stretch of road lined with old oak trees. “I'm glad I have a helmet.” Then Patrick adds, “Yes they could cause some damage I’ve loosened my hat, and I have a bit extra hair in my cap to cushion any that fall. I badly need a haircut.” We see many locals collecting the acorns.
The hotel is very quiet overnight, we think we might be the only guests, but then when we pack-up this morning there are some other people walking around. Today is another relatively short day with a check-in time of no earlier than 2:00. So we sleep in a little, have our cereal breakfast and check our internet messages. At about nine we get going.
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It is a nice cool Saturday morning with light traffic, until we turn off the main road when there is practically no other traffic. Again we ride on a narrow road, mostly following ridge lines with oak, linden, beech and birch trees lining the road.
When cycling 60-80kms a day, the scenery changes gradually, but in Poland, the scenery doesn’t change much. The trees though don’t block the views like in Finland, but line the roads. On both sides we have expansive views of rolling farmland. Most fields have been harvested; Some fields are ready to harvest; Some farmers are still busy readying the plowed fields and fertilizing; And some fields have green crops growing.
We are looking for a place to find coffee, but no luck today. Even when we find a small shop in a village we pass through they do not have a coffee machine we found in the Baltics. We carry all we need though and keep going. We see several churches with old-looking wooden steeples. At one of them we take a lunch break and can peek inside through a locked steel gate. The ceiling is beautifully painted.
We arrive in Elblag just after two, find the apartment and following the emailed instructions find our way inside. We are just on the edge of the old-town and after cleaning up, a cold beer and a rest we walk around the old town and find the Asian restaurant we had seen on googlemaps.
Today's ride: 59 km (37 miles)
Total: 4,198 km (2,607 miles)
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