Riverside in Wroclawek is the most expensive hotel we have stayed at so far. It is strange that we chose that hotel since we arrived early and would have plenty of time to go around and look for cheaper accomodation. We motivated our expensive choice by saying that soon there will be a lot of camping nights, so we are allowed to treat ourselves to something better.

Having a luxury breakfast. This won’t be any habit 😉

Today we managed something we’d never done so far on this time. We managed to start on time, or actually 7 minutes ahead of schedule. Finding the routines on a trip like this takes some time and when having 8 bags that all look the same (almost) you need to be a bit organized about where the stuff is packed. Packing also needs to be balanced according to weight, but now we think we have found the routines. Everything is supposed to be packed before we go to bed, and then there is very little to pack in the morning prior to departure.

Our bikes were parked inside the hotel door and outside our room and this led to us being very quick in the morning. It was sunny and not cold so we didn’t even wear thick clothes for the warm up session, i.e. the first 20 minutes. Finding our way out of Wloclawek was easy – we only needed to stick to our old friend the E75.

Bikes also had a nice rest at the Riverside

When arriving to Wloclawek we jumped into the first (and most expensive) hotel we found. But before that we had discussed going to a hotel some 15-20 km south which the GPS said would be there. For good reasons we don’t trust the GPS so we stopped early. Today when riding past the hotel it turned out to be a large motel so maybe the GPS is correct sometimes.  As we continued along the E75 we found plenty of motels so accomodation won’t be an issue as long as we stick to that road.

After a first break at a gas station we had another break at a second gas station. Both gas stations had an open wifi connection so we could make an unplanned status update on the Facebook. When will Swedish gas stations have free wifi?

Enjoying a nap in the sun outside a gas station

The reason for the second pit stop was to kill some time since we understood we would make it to our hosts in Lodz too early. We used that time to do the first chain exchange. We carry two chains each that we will switch between every 800 km. Next time will be in Romania.

Arriving into Lodz was a bit hard. It is a big city and the shoulder we had ridden on the entire day all of a sudden disappeared and we were once again riding too close to the cars. When getting into the city we immediately switched to the cycling paths which feels a lot more safe. The GPS made a great job in bringing us to our hosts, so we shouldn’t complain too much about it.

Agatha and Radek offered us traditional Bigos stew, some cold cut dishes and a few beers. We had a fun evening with lively discussions about everything from choice of route (always on the agenda) to heating systems. Meeting people like them is the purpose of traveling and we hope we will see them again some time. So Agatha and Radek, thanks a lot for your kind hospitality. Hope you will make it out on the roads soon too 🙂