Our first day out of Wroclaw was distinguished by its extreme winds. It was also very sunny and hot, so we could sometimes feel thankful that the wind was keeping us cool. Other times it was just annoying. The winds were blowing to the north and we were riding to the south but somehow we managed to ride 110 km in spite of the wind! There aren’t many campgrounds in Poland so we are attempting to plan our routes between campsites. The 110km took us almost 7 hours of riding. The terrain was very flat, but the winds took their toll and I was pretty tired by the time we arrived.

Dinner was one of the best we’ve cooked for ourselves so far. We had Perogie Ruskie, which are dumplings filled with potato and cheese. We fried these and then topped them with sour cream and fresh tomatoes. It’s Polish-Mexican fusion! Yum!

We woke up the next day and did another 110km! After eyeballing the map I’d expected the next campsite to be within 80km but as it turns out I was off by a full 30km. This second day of riding was distinguished by extreme rain rather than wind. I can’t decide which one I hate more.

Here I am, soaked to the bone. FYI, our rain jackets have officially stopped working. My new theory on outdoor gear is that none of the products are nearly as durable and tough as the promotional material claims. Instead all outdoors companies are banking on the fact that 1) people will never actually use the product enough to wear it out and 2) even if they do wear it out, most people won’t bother to complain about it. Bah!

Here’s Jamie. He had steamed glasses for most of the day:

We ate the usual bread and cheese for lunch. On days like this it is tough to stop for lunch because the bad weather makes you feel cold as soon as you stop pedaling!

The scenery was mostly flat farms – really pretty on a rainy misty day.

The snails were out and having a grand old time in the rain.

After another 7 hours of riding we arrived at a campsite near the city of Rybnik. I was feeling really tired after two long days so we are taking a rest day here before continuing on to Krakow. We had potato dumplings for dinner, and then dessert was more perogies. This time they were blueberry and cheese – delicious!

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 23rd, 2007 at 5:00 pm and is filed under Europe, Poland. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.