July 31: Blissful Backroads
Wow! Stately stone and brick churches, dozens of little villages, rolling hills with green and yellow patchwork quilt fields, dogs running in the street, chickens pecking in their yards, storks roosting in their nests, the smell of bread baking, the scent of freshly mowed lawns – these are the last things I thought I would see today taking the most direct route along the entire eastern side of Poland. That ride and a great lunch with two Facebook friends made for an unexpectedly blissful day.
When plotting my course over 400 miles south from Suwalki today, I chose the most direct route, thinking that with over 8 hours of riding time on the agenda, interstate might be the best way to go. The first three hours went pretty much as anticipated. With the flow of traffic at speeds over 80 miles an hour, I made great time to Radzymin just north of Warsaw to meet up with Travis and Chantil Gill for lunch.
Travis writes for Upshift Magazine and he and his wife have been traveling in Europe and blogging about their experiences for several years now. I have to say I was so inspired and encouraged by our conversation. When Chantil offered to pray over our meal it opened the door for all of us to share on a deeper level about our journeys on and off the bikes over the last few years.
After traveling a few more hours by interstate after lunch, my navigation prompted me to accept an alternate route and proceeded to lead me on a series of wonderful little backroads through over a hundred villages in Southern Poland.
What an unexpected treat! Rather than bombing down the freeway I found myself navigating down small one lane roads with no center line, circling around dozens of roundabouts through little town squares, and riding up and down a variety of bridges over a series of rivers and lakes. Instead of trying to dodge cars traveling at speeds well over 50% of the posted speed limit, I found myself pulling over to get pictures of storks preening in their nest, braking to avoid dogs running out into the street, slowing down to smell the food being cooked nearby, parking to look at stone and brick churches, and stopping to admire clusters of country homes nestled in the foothills.
I ended up making it to my destination as darkness was settling over Krynica Zdroj, just in time to grab some groceries, get some gas, and find a place to eat. The little town is quite challenging to navigate with streets so narrow they look more like foot paths, pedestrians everywhere, and many blind corners. But I made it safely to my hotel and am grateful to rest up for more riding tomorrow.
