Breakfasted at our hotel that was once again deserted after all the frivolity of the previous evening.
On our way down, we heard such a commotion we thought 2 dozen guests were trying to check out and were all querying their bills simultaneously.
Turned out, the 3 hotel kitchen staff were having a very high volume discussion about something obviously very important. This continued throughout our breakfast and had us on our way sharpish with the beginnings of headaches...
Our plan today is to reach Krakow, Poland a ride of about 50 miles. This will be followed by our scheduled rest day which we are both looking forward to as the legs are starting to feel a little heavy.
Weather once again very hot and sunny - scorchio! Wind, either across us or somewhere on our backs.
We easily found our way on to the E77-7 and followed this south westerly all the way to Krakow.
Though the planned mileage for today wasn't particularly high, no one mentioned the flipping hills!
The landscape was very pretty with all the crops ready for harvest, rolling hills and lots of woodland.
The hills were a mixture of short/sharp little tinkers and big grovelling, drawn out monsters. Happily most were followed by fantastic, speedy descents and we recorded our top speed of the trip so far; 41mph!
We made the customary stop after 1.5 hours for the triple delight of ice lolly, choccy and pop. Don't tell our dentists!
This stop was followed by another an hour or so later for more pop and choccy. Sadly, as per yesterday, no CAKE.
After grinding out a couple of real mingers of hills, we arrived at the outskirts of Krakow.
Unexpectedly (for Tracey), Miles pulled over to the side of the road and gesticulated wildly at the cycle computer. No, he had not gone mad(er), we had just clocked our 2000th mile of the trip. Hurrah and double hip hip hooray!
Without too much of a do, we followed the main route into the centre of town, spotted a likely IBIS hotel and checked in. No grief, no aggro just a nice cool, clean room for a couple of days.
This is by far the easiest city and/or large town we have visited yet for cycling access. Minimal pot holes, no cobbles, very few (so far) tram tracks and little traffic insanity. Lovely.
We watched the last stage of the TdeF live (in French for extra atmosphere) then explored the Old Town for a likely suspect for the nights dinner haunt.
We walked along the bank of the river Wista into the Old Town. (yes, yet another Old Town) and onto the Market Square.
Apparently, this is the biggest market square in Europe and it certainly..... was.
After our very quiet journey down the eastern side of Poland when we were often the only guests in the only restaurant or hotel in town, we were suddenly faced with an absolute hubub of people, restaurants and bars.
Wow! What a tranformation, Poland had come alive.
We ate a lovely meal on the square and watched the tastless horse drawn Landau's go past complete with their payloads of tourists.
Later we watched fire eaters doing their thing (obviously hadn't seen the Gaviscon ad on British telly) and then we saw a Romanian Gypsy band performing the closing set of the '10th Crossroads Festival' whatever that was (is).
The music was very much like South American Salsa complete with full brass band section so David P would be happy enough....
After a last couple of (alocohol free) beers on the square, we walkede back to the hotel somewhat happy with our lot.
Rest day tomorrow - happy days....
Today we knocked out another red hot and flippin hilly total of 49 miles and 720m of ascent. Total trip 2002 miles. Ye haw!
More Southerly ramblings to follow.
Back soon. Miles & Tracey.
