Cut and Polish

Warsaw has been 90% rebuilt after WWII by the Russians in the main, the old city being built in the style it was before. The result is very pleasing to the eye with a mix of lovely European architecture blending with the cobbled streets, expansive squares, lush gardens and modern tourism. We cycled out of Warsaw on the morning of Sunday 1st August, just as the celebrations were getting started for the 1944 commemoration of the uprising in the Jewish ghetto which effectively sent the Nazis packing. Only trouble was, the Russians stayed.

Riding out was also exciting because the Tour de Polgna was being set up so we got to ride along the route and encourage the workers to cheer. Fortunately some milling crowds of drunken youths who had enjoyed a BIG Saturday night came to the party and yelled and chanted as if there was no tomorrow. Riding under the finish line was exhilarating - I've always wanted to fist the air a la Cancelarra and his mates, and I got to do it.

Polish youth are globally recognisable: mobile phone clutched in hand, back-to-front baseball cap on head, earphones plugged into ears, legs clad in jeans - skinny and otherwise, visible tattoos and piercings, long straight blonded or streaked hair and stupid shoes for the girls, just like everywhere. Rural youth were hard to spot, country areas mainly the province of old people scratching the hay with rakes or feeding chooks or doing the milking. All the old folks ride bikes, laden with shopping, milk crates, walking sticks - anything they need. The young people who were around passing summer holidays in languorous boredom, seemed to bear the mark of western overweight as they slumped off from the sklepas (shops) carrying plastic bags crammed with Coca Cola, slurping on the ubiquitous Magnum ice cream.

Things are a deal more prosperous south of Warsaw. No muddy villages with down at heel houses and falling down barns, instead huge modern houses as neat as a pin, imposing stone fences behind which are parked modern vehicles. Every household has at least one dog, sometimes three or four, plus cats and kittens. Pigeon fancying also seems to be popular.

We have continued to enjoy out-of-the-way camping grounds with blissfully luxurious facilities. The hotels are well up in the one and a half star category but the dinners have been bloody good. Lots of salads, fresh flavours and sound portions of protein. Brekkie and lunch can be a bit boring, but we have enjoyed some good tuna and egg mayonnaise combinations for lunch. Apart from Stewart's bullet wound, we have also had a severely scalded thigh, an infected foot, a hernia, a suspected broken collarbone and two seriously twisted ankles. Quite enough for Doctor Nini.

Krakow is original in architecture, a bit Viennese perhaps, with double trams rattling along busy boulevards. Today I am partaking in a walking tour of the city and tomorrow it's a bus to Auschwitz - dunno how far I will venture but the bus ride sounds comfortable. It is lovely to have two full days in which to rest and read, plus half a day yesterday after we arrived, especially before the onslaught of five days in hilly terrain.

I would like to leave you with my personal best to date: 290 kms in 2 days. Here's the rest of the facts:
Sunday August 1 to Smardzewice : 145km, 21.1km, 6hrs 49mins average holiday until past 2am
Monday August 2 to Bobolice: 145 km, 20.1 km average7hrs 10 mins, a two Mars Bars and two Powerades sort of a day as the sun beat down and the hills lengthened and grew in stature with the last 14 kms too much and too long for me, but I made it
Tuesday August 3 to Krakow: 94km, 18 kmh average, 5hrs, a most beautiful limestone valley  with a burbling brook that we followed for 20 superb kilometres - a guided ride into the city, an all round good day despite the many slow long climbs of the morning