Olsztyn

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I wake up at 7am already, although it took me a while to fall asleep - Hans' snoring didn't make a good lullaby. Since I find myself in a bed, I decide to force myself back to sleep - enjoy it while you have it! I manage to sleep on to half past eight. Another shower and then off to breakfast: coffee, eggs...I'm in paradise! Around 9:30 we're on our way.

The sun is hiding behind clouds, perfect weather for cycling. We follow the road into the woods and find the junction Christof (the son of the German family) showed me yesterday. A poor road full of potholes soon leads us on to a larger road towards Olsztyn. Unfortunately, traffic is pretty heavy, an on top of that, most of it are trucks!

Shortly before we reach the town, we meet a Polish couple from the South-West who made the journey up here by train and are starting their tour of the Masurian region here. We follow them for a bit until they take a break and we continue on into the town.

Once in Olsztyn, we head for lunch - finally, a Polish restaurant! The sun is now out in full force and we enjoy some pierogi and a great tomatoe soup in the shade outside the restaurant. We decide to spend some time exploring the city, but soon realise that the bikes are a majour obstacle. After two hours in Olsztyn, we continue eastwards - or try to. Hans and I disagree on which way is east. After asking a passer-by for the way, it turns out that his East was the correct one, while I would have sent us South.

The rest of the day drags on, mostly due to the heat. At some point, one of the elements in my chain opens up and the chain almost rips. Fortunately, I'm able to fix the problem before disaster strikes. Good thing I packed these spare chain elements!

Later on, we have dinner at a bus stop in a small town, when a bus arrives. The driver comes out, crawls under his bus and pulls out a hose of some sort. Air starts shooting out, and his attempts to reattach the hose fail. After a few attempts and some discussion between the driver and some of the passengers, he somehow manages to undo his mistake and the bus drives off towards Olsztyn. Does he ever reach it? Who knows...

We head the other way and find a nice place to pitch the tent just behind Dzwierzuty next to a field. On the way there, the sunset is just breathtaking and bathes the entire picturesque landscape in blood red - simply amazing, unfortunately, the photos just can't do it justice...

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Photos

City gate
The lovely old town of Olsztyn, looking towards the city gate.

Sunset...
The pictures just don't do it justice...

Doing homework
Hans writing his journal