We woke up yesterday to a damp morning, but the weather forecast predicted no rain so we decided to head for the hills and do some hiking in Tatra National Park.

We started off hiking through the forest and met Princess Toadstool along the way.

After about an hour of walking, we broke through into a meadow with views of the peaks we were heading for.

After that it was a steep uphill climb to the ridge at 1900 meters.

Sarah got mad at me because we were passing too many people. What can I say, I was born to crush souls. Especially when nasty switchbacks are involved. I shouldn’t feel too proud though, half the people we passed were drinking beer and smoking cigarettes at the top.

We dined on some of our mountain cheese at the top and enjoyed the spectacular views.

And then bounded off along the ridge, pretending we were a couple of Chamois. Sarah was disappointed that we didn’t spot any real ones.

It was chilly and wet at the top. Sarah almost succumbed to hypothermia when we were posing for this shot.

Normally, there is a gondola that runs up and down the mountain, but it is currently under renovation. That was bad news for us, because we both hate hiking downhill. It would have been great to hike around on the ridge some more and then take a 20 minute ride down on the gondola, but instead we had a three hour descent to look forward too. At least we got to descend through a gorgeous valley.

Towards the end, the trail deteriorated into some sort of torture device for a tired hiker’s feet. Sarah was dying to meet the person who thought that jagged rocks were a good hiking surface!

Today we are relaxing and tomorrow we head for Slovakia and then Croatia where we will travel for two weeks with our friend Sean.

After three days of riding, 164 kilometers, and 1,950 meters of climbing we have arrived in Zakopane – the gateway to Tatra National Park. That’s 102 miles and 6,398 feet for those of you who are not impressed with the metric system! The ride to get here was one of the most beautiful stretches in Europe so far. We rode over many miles of rolling foothills and then finally broke through to a huge plain which lead up to the base of the mountains. Our pictures don’t do it justice!

The last day included the most climbing, but thankfully the gradient wasn’t too steep so the ride was enjoyable rather than torturous. As we got closer to the actual mountains the locals we rode past began cheering, whistling, and saying things to us that we couldn’t understand but by the tone interpreted as “You guys must be crazy, the hills up ahead are going to absolutely maul you!” The last time we had people expressing this kind of astonishment was when we were about to climb the highest paved road in New Zealand and I certainly suffered quite a bit during that climb! At one point I slowly cycled up a hill past an older man who was walking down the hill and he gave me a salute and then reached out and patted my leg. I think he wanted to get just a taste of my mighty climbing power!

In the mountains we rode past a road-side cheese smoking house. We couldn’t pass up this chance to see the traditional Polish Oscypek cheese being made, so we stopped in. There were two guys sitting outside a small wooden hut. Inside the hut was a big cauldron of milk boiling away over a very smoky fire. Set up in a row on a rafter above the fire was a row of cheese being smoked.

We ended up buying two types of cheese. The darker one is fully smoked and looks almost like a loaf of bread. The lighter one is a squeaky fresh cheese that is only lightly smoked. They each have a design imprinted on the outside. As for taste, they are both really salty and strong tasting…I’m not sure how we’re going to eat it all. I think we walked away with about 4 lbs of cheese!

Here’s Jamie, testing out the new cheese.

Jamie has been quite the photo-journalist the past few days. He finally succeeded in getting the elusive “bicycle rider in the mirror” shot that he’s been working on for 8 months!

He’s also accomplished at creating a rustic senior picture type atmosphere. This is how he amuses himself while I am taking a shower.

Today we are in Zakopane at about 1000m about sea level. The highest peaks in the Tatras are 2600 meters. The town of Zakopane itself feels like a touristy ski-village. We’re staying in a campsite just outside of town and planned to go hiking today but it is raining and cold. Tomorrow’s forecast looks much better, so we are hanging out in a cafe today working on things like this journal! Tomorrow we test out our hiking legs. We’re a little scared after our experience tramping in New Zealand!

We just visited three UNESCO World Heritage sites in less than a week! Not bad for a couple of pedal pushers!

The biggest tourist draw in this region of Poland is Krakow. It’s like Wroclaw, but not as colorful. That was our impression at least.

We almost didn’t come here actually. A couple of days ago Sarah tried to convince me that we should just head for the Tatras Mountains and bypass Krakow completely. We had veered too far south into the mountains and were way off course in terms of getting to Krakow. The area of Poland west of Krakow is the most heavily populated and you could definitely feel it on the roads. Even the smallest roads on our detailed map were filled with cars and trucks, so we had been forced south in our attempts to avoid being run over by an 18-wheeler. But, being UNESCO geeks, we decided we could not afford to miss the largest medieval square in all of Europe. So, we pushed on and spent two days sightseeing in the city.

Sarah was really on a roll in Krakow. Comments made by her included the following.

James – “They tore down the medieval city wall and built a park, since the wall wasn’t needed in modern times.”
Sarah – “That must have been before the Germans decided to pay a little visit.”

Sarah – “An onion is considered a fresh vegetable here. That is actually insane.”

We came here by way of Oswiecim, better known by it’s German name of Auschwitz. We didn’t realize that Oswiecim was Auschwitz until we actually arrived there.

“Hey look, this sign says straight ahead to the center. Hey look … that’s a … concentration camp.”

Oswiecim has also easily taken over from the tricycle graveyard as our spookiest camp site ever. The campsite itself was great; new and modern. But it was literally across the street from the former concentration camp. It made for a strange night looking across the street at the imposing buildings and listening to the trains go by.

In the morning, we walked around the grounds of the camp. Unbelievable is the only way to describe it. We have already visited Dachau and the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum in Cambodia, but we were both awed by the sheer scale of Auschwitz.

The ride to from Oswiecim to Krakow didn’t have much of interest except for the giant bird’s nest we saw. Sarah keeps telling me there are supposed to be storks all over this region of the world but we haven’t seen one yet.

As Sarah mentioned, we have fallen into quite the food rut here. Yogurt and muesli in the morning followed by bread and cheese for lunch. The bread and cheese bit has been posing some problems for Sarah as she has been setting new records in terms of messy eating. Check out this slovenliness.

It’s so bad, pigeons have started circling her like sharks every time she dines on crusty bread.

After Krakow, we headed south to the Wieliczka Salt Mine. I didn’t take any pictures (here are some other peoples’ pictures on Flickr), but Sarah and I both agreed it was pretty amazing. And it better have been too, it cost over US$20 per person to get in!

We are continuing south now and are actually nearing our fourth UNESCO site, the UNESCO biosphere reserve of the Tatra National Park. We are maybe 100 kilometers from the park and the hills are already killing us, so here’s to hoping we make it there with our legs in once piece! In addition to the terrain, it feels like the weather is changing too. We’ve noticed a definite chill in the air these last couple of days. Better break out all the cold weather gear we’ve been carrying but have barely used!

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!

Jan gave us a ride into the city of Wroclaw in the morning and gave us some advice on what to see. The city was really beautiful, we spent the first half of the day sightseeing.

The second half of Saturday was spent running around from post office to the DHL Office in a frantic race against the clock to collect our replacement gear before everything closed for the weekend. We needed to pick up our replacement sleeping pads from REI as well as two replacement tent poles from Mountain Hardware. First we visited the post office for our mats – they were not there yet. We were really frustrated because they’d been shipped 14 days ago and were supposed to arrive within 10. This delay meant we’d have to stay in Wroclaw until Monday to make another attempt at pick-up.

Next we needed to visit DHL to pick up the tent poles. First we tried to call the offices to make sure they were open and the tent poles were there. Only the fax picked up. We decided to hop on the bus and ride to the offices to try our luck. This turned out to be an unwise decision. After a 40 minute bus ride deep into the suburbs we arrived at the completely deserted offices of DHL. We crossed the street and sat and the bus station and waited for 1/2 hr for a bus returning to the city. During this wait I had to go to the bathroom so badly that I was reduced to peeing behind the bus station shelter. Obviously this trip has really blurred the lines between human and animal behavior for us – I would have never done something like this before the trip!

We spent one last evening with Jan eating his delicious food and watching Abba videos together. The next morning we set off for a campsite to wait out Sunday. On Monday morning we resumed our mission to claim our replacement gear. First stop was the DHL office. We rode our bicycles rather than the bus this time, but were met with bad news again. Our packages weren’t there. The DHL guy was really helpful and called his friend at FedEx, who looked up the tracking number and gave us a phone number to call so we could find the address our package was actually sent to. This address turned out to be the Post Office’s – same place our mats were supposed to be!

Considering the one week of back and forth we’d had with Mountain Hardware where they insisted they would not ship to a Post Office, this was more than I could take. I was officially infuriated and turned into a raving maniac about poor customer service for the rest of the day. We went to the post office next. Once again they didn’t have our mats or our tent poles, but this time they told us that the Post Office address we were looking for wasn’t them. Thanks guys, wish you would have let us know this last time we visited you! Some might say this is our fault for not matching the addresses correctly, but I was not expecting for there to be literally three post offices on the same street within 3km of each other! Anyhow, raving aside, at the post office 1 km down the road we were able to pick up our packages. Turns out the Mountain Hardware tent poles were accidentally FedEx’d to the office building next door which is where some very kind person signed for them and then walked them down the street to the Post Office where we picked them up. Talk about a lucky break (thanks five leaf clover!) – if this small delivery accident hadn’t happened we’d have never gotten our tent poles.

To top it all off, Mountain Hardware forgot to send us two poles like they’d promised. We just got one. I’d like to dedicate a few final words to a customer service stank rank:

#1. DHL – our package wasn’t shipped through them and it wasn’t delivered to their warehouse, either. The employee helped us out anyway by calling FedEx and pointing us in the right direction.

#2. REI – responded to our email about the defective sleeping mats within 24 hours, and sent replacements to us 24 hours after we gave them an address!

#3. Mountain Hardware – took one full week to respond to our email about the defective tent pole. Took another week of back and forth to agree on where the pole would be sent. Conversations went exactly like this:

Me: Filled out a “Contact Us” form
M.H.: Please contact someone else, I’m on maternity leave.
Me: WTF?! …sent another email to a sales address from the website.
M.H.: Um, sorry about that. How can I help you?
Me: Our tent pole broke. The other was hit by a car. Can you send us new poles to this Post Office address.
M.H.: FedEx can’t ship to the Post Office, sorry.
Me: OK, here are the three options I came up with. 1) FedEx the poles to a Mountain Hardware retailer in Wroclaw. 2) send the poles via DHL to this specific DHL address in Wroclaw. 3) don’t use FedEx and send the poles via regular mail to the Post Office.
M.H.: OK I will do the DHL option.

End result: Mountain Hardware went with a bizarre ‘hybrid’ option previously stated as impossible – using FedEx to ship to the Post Office – WTF. My final assessment is that they meant well and did replace our tent pole for free, but the execution needs some work.

All griping aside we were really happy to get our new gear. We left Wroclaw the next day with a new tent pole and new sleeping mats to get us through the colder autumn months!

Our breakfast smorgasbord at the hotel in Swidnica was delicious, although I think our perceptions have shifted a little bit over the past few months because it wasn’t quite as spectacular as we’d hoped. Here’s what I think is going on: in New Zealand we were eating oatmeal for breakfast every single day. When we got the chance to eat toast, cereal, eggs, pastries, and more at the hotel during our forced layover between Auckland and Singapore, we thought we’d died and gone to heaven. All that food practically made up for the canceled flight and one day delay! Here in Europe we’ve been eating more than just oatmeal every day. When we stay with families we get to eat meals with them, which is wonderful. Also, we can usually afford to buy bread, cheese, muesli, and yogurt because they’re not as expensive here as they were in NZ. Yogurt is only 50c for 500 grams, and you can buy generic bags of muesli for only $1.

After breakfast we visited Swidnica’s World Heritage church. This is the largest wooden religious structure in Europe. It was built after the Catholic-Protestant war. The Catholics won the war and told the Protestants that they could build a church if it met the following conditions: built outside the city walls, made of impermanent materials (wood, clay, or straw), and finished construction within one year. So the most impressive fact is that people managed to build this gigantic structure in only one year and it is still standing.

The pretty city center of Swidnica:

We followed bicycle route 9 from Swidnica to Wroclaw. I was fed up with attempting to follow bicycle routes, but for some reason we decided to give it one more try. R9 was fairly well signed and we only got lost two times on the way to Wroclaw.

It was grey and rainy all day long which made the 85km seem to last forever. Ugh.

We arrived soaking wet and an hour late to the home of our couchsurfing host Jan. I felt a little embarrassed hauling our soaking wet bags and bikes into his apartment, but he was extremely friendly and sweet about it all. Jan turned out to be an excellent cook. We love food, so his efforts were very much appreciated by us! He had a delicious three course homemade Polish dinner waiting for us when we arrived. We had homemade tomato soup with cheese first, then chicken with mashed potatoes and sauerkraut, and finally a homemade dessert that was sort of like a warm gooey jello filled with tart cherries.

Sarah and Arthur (a cousin of Jan’s who was there during our stay):

We chatted with Jan and Arthur over a glass of wine after dinner. We had a lot of fun listening to them say Polish words that have an amazing number of consonants but almost no vowels. They sounded more like buzzing bees than people speaking. They also taught us how to say a few words. For example, the city name Wroclaw sounds nothing like we thought it did (Row-Claw or Raw-Claw). Instead it is pronounced something like Vrote-Suave.

In this picture I am looking up Polish words in the dictionary and asking Jan how to say them.

We went to bed early to get ready for a day of sightseeing in Wroclaw.

Good news everyone – our luck is changing. The day Jamie got his new FORT bike I found a very rare five leaf clover! Not kidding, I think this is a once in a lifetime find. And to my brothers: I do not need you writing to tell me that a five leaf clover is actually bad luck…I know you were thinking it!

After getting the new bike we set out for Adrspach-Teplice National Park. We camped near the park and spent two days hiking around exploring the gigantic rocks. The first day we’d cycled most of the day and did a short loop trail in the evening. The next day when we went back during the day we realized we were lucky to have visited the park outside of peak hours – it was packed full of Czech and Polish tourists and was an absolute madhouse. We did a longer hike through the park on the 2nd day. Many times the trail narrowed down to tiny staircases going up and down through the giant rocks. This was horrible because the trail was absolutely packed with hikers, so we’d all march along slowly in a long line. The BO problem we noticed in other parts of the Czech Republic was operating to full effect in the tight quarters of the stair-marches.

We found a nice campsite only a couple of kilometers from the park, but there were no picnic tables, so we spread everything out on the ground for each meal. I think we shocked the entire campground by doing this; people could not get enough of us. They walked past our site to stare at us, and then craned their necks to start some more. It feels like we blend in here because we don’t look very different from the Czech people, but we get started at a lot so there must be something very interesting about us… We just don’t know what it is.

After two days of hiking we left Adrspach-Teplice this morning and headed for Poland. We crossed the boarder at a “bicycle, pedestrian, and environmentally friendly wheelchair” crossing. There was no guard, no passport inspection, just a red and white painted pole that we walked past.

We cycled about 50km to the city of Swidnica where we spent over an hour searching for a campsite in the rain. We finally found what appeared to be the city’s campsite but it was deserted and locked up. It was getting too late to search much longer, and the countryside did not look promising for free camping – lots of open farm fields and fences. So we ended up in a way too expensive hotel. This is the first time we’ve tried to find camping and ended up in a hotel. We’re annoyed at the budget busting price, but we are also looking forward to the included breakfast smorgasbord!

It’s a FORT. Not the coolest name, but things could be worse; it could be called a FART.

My Longhaul Trucker has been relegated to the scrap heap. I’ll never again be able to call out “10-4 Lil’ Buddy. We’ve got some smokey up ahead!” to Sarah when we see a police car up the road.

The bike is not bad looking. It is an aluminum frame that claims to be handmade in the Czech Republic and its got a cool looking headbadge.

It also has a Suntour oil-suspension fork. I thought I was going to have to get a new front rack, but the mechanic at the bike shop was able to get my Surly rack on with a little bending of the attachment plates.

All the components were pulled from my bike except for the headset, crankset, and front derailleur. My crankset and front derailleur where also mangled during the accident, so now I’ve got a new crankset with 28 cogs on my little chainring. Nothing smaller was available so hopefully my legs and knees will be able to handle it!

The FORT felt comfortable on a short test ride; the biggest difference is that I am in a more aggressive position. I was expecting my Brooks saddle to be unridable in this new position, but it doesn’t feel too bad. We’ll see how it feels after several hours in the saddle though.

Sarah got her rear wheel trued and some new pedals. The total cost for everything including the minor repairs to Sarah’s bike was 9545 crowns (~US$477.25).

Tomorrow we hit the road again.

Our bad luck with our gear continued today when our tent and bicycles were hit by a car! Things could have been much worse though and luckily we were not injured at all.

We were sleeping in our tent at 8:00am when we heard a loud crunch and then felt our tent being pulled to one side. At first we didn’t realize what was going on, then we both woke up and realized there was a car right next to us that was still moving! We screamed for the driver to stop and he shut off the engine as we crawled out of the opposite side of the tent.

A large crowd formed immediately and after a lot of back in forth in Czech, we learned that the driver was attempting to pull out of his campsite without starting his engine and in doing so he lost control of his car and slid on the wet grass through our campsite before colliding with a tree and our bikes. He then attempted to start the engine and back the car away from the tree, and in doing so ran over the corner of our tent.

We were very lucky he didn’t run directly over our tent, or things could have been much worse. As it was, Sarah and I were OK, but our bikes were injured. My frame was bent in a couple of places, including the chainstay.

Sarah’s bike had less damage. She had a bent pedal and front rack and her rear wheel was out of true.

Our tent also now has two broken poles instead of one!

We spent the next couple of hours waiting around for the police to arrive. Everyone urged us to take a lot of pictures, especially once they learned we were American. “You know, in case you want to sue their asses.” It is funny to hear the conceptions people have about Americans. A few weeks ago we met a Dutch girl who asked us if it was really true that if you want to drink alcohol in public in America, the law states that the alcohol bottle must be wrapped in a paper bag!

Once the police showed up they helped us take the bicycles to a local mechanic to asses the damage. Luckily at this point we were being helped by Jana, the operations manager of the campsite, so she was able to translate for us. The mechanic’s verdict was that my frame was totaled but that Sarah’s bike was pretty much OK and just needed some minor repairs. We relieved to hear that he could put my components on a new Czech frame for less than $500. For a while we were wondering if our trip was going to be cut short!

After that, it was back to the police station to fill out a police report. We left our address in the United States with the police and the driver with the understanding that we would be reimbursed for the costs of the bicycle repairs after an insurance claim had been filed. We’ll let you know how that turns out!

We planned to leave Trutnov today, but now we will be waiting here for three more days. There is a train that runs to the National Park, so we may take that to the park to do some hiking while we wait.

We spent two days sightseeing in beautiful Prague and have had an interesting couple of days since leaving the city.

First let’s talk about the Czech bicycle trails. We made a brief mention of the elusive Route 3 when we first entered the country. I think we now know why the route was so elusive. Let’s start with getting out of Prague. We were optimistic that leaving the city would be easy because we picked up a nice bicycle map of the area from Tourist Information and there was a trail leaving north from the city – perfect for us! Things went decently well for the first 10 km through the city but then the trail deteriorated into a dirt rut covered in large sharp rocks. I am not talking gravel – I’m talking about brick-sized jagged black rocks. Not fun at all on a loaded touring bike! We pushed on because we were definitely still on the marked bicycle trail, we thought maybe the trail was under construction.

Next the rocks went away but the trail narrowed to a single-track dirt rut running alongside the river and through thick undisturbed forest. This part would’ve been really fun on a mountain bike – zipping around sharp corners and riding within twelve inches of the river. But what I mostly felt was terror. It is not easy to precisely steer a heavy bike with front panniers and I was not at all confident in my ability to stay on the path and out of the river! I spent the next hour with white knuckles thinking about what it would feel like to fall six feet off the retaining wall and into the river.

Every once in awhile the path would wind its way up a steep root-covered hill so we’d have to get off and push.

The trail also passed under a giant leaning tree which we had to duck under. Please note how close I am to the actual river bank; this was the reason for my white knuckles!

I am willing to bet that Cycle Route 3 was a dirt trail running off along some crazy mountain ridge and that’s the reason we couldn’t find it. Thank goodness we didn’t!

We got off the trail at the first opportunity and began cycling on secondary roads. There was almost no traffic and many roads were lined with apple trees. We started a contest where the first person to pick an apple from a tree while riding (and without slowing down) won. Jamie claimed the title after two days of playing. He ate his prize and claims it was very tasty.

Once on the road, we passed through hilly, rural scenery with the occasional pipeline passing over the road for entertainment.

The one thing that has stood out about the architecture here is that so many buildings are falling apart. All the small towns and villages we pass through are usually in pretty rough shape; at least half the buildings look totally neglected.

One side effect of sticking to secondary and tertiary routes is that it is impossible to ride a decently direct route to anywhere. Instead we have noticed that after three days of riding we have managed to ride in a semi-circle or hook shaped route each and every day. I am not exaggerating. This drives me absolutely crazy. I try to relax and enjoy the scenery but when you ride all day long and then see a sign saying you are only 26 km from your original destination it is infuriating! Also, the back roads tend to be much more hilly than the others. One day we turned off a too-busy highway and ended up climbing up and over a 744 meter peak, the absolute highest thing around!

Now for some more observations about the country of Czech Republic. We’ve noticed some interesting behavior. First of all is the omnipresent bikini and speedo. Everyone wears swimming wear as often as possible here. There is no need to be close to water – a bikini while mowing the lawn or taking your baby for a walk in the stroller is considered normal. A speedo while unloading the car or sanding the stucco wall of your house is acceptable. Today a woman riding a bicycle in her bikini almost ran into me outside of the grocery store. The closest swimming place was at least 10km away.

Next is body odor. Maybe deodorant is not popular here, but we have noticed a big upswing in the number of times we’ve smell wretched BO since we’ve been here. There’s always a moment of panic in the line at the store when you wonder: is that ME? Then you realize it is the normal looking guy behind you and you are temporarily relieved. But then you think again and you know for sure: everyone in the store thinks that smell is coming from you because you are obviously the one that’s been out cycling all day in the heat!

Finally, Jamie says he gets stared at a lot here. Our theory is that people are wondering whether or not he is blind. He got these new prescription sunglasses in Bangkok which he wears all the time. He tends to forget he is wearing them after a day of riding and wears them indoors at inappropriate times, like in the bathroom while brushing his teeth. People are probably staring at him thinking (1) he doesn’t know they’re all looking at him, and (2) how is a blind man able to so dexterously floss his teeth?

We were originally planning on cycling to Bohemian Switzerland National Park, but we changed our mine and headed for Adrspach-Teplic National Park instead. The scenery is supposed to be more dramatic there. Today we are about 15km away in a town called Trutnov. We are pretty close to the Polish border now. After checking out the park, we are going to cross into Poland and check out Wroclaw and maybe Krakow.