The last few days of cycling took a heavy toll on us and yesterday we didn’t do much at all. We ate, slept, read and regained our strengths so there is not much to tell.

Well, there might be one thing to tell after all. We think we have solved the problem with the clicking sound from Wej’s bike. We read some articles on the internet about strange sounds on bicycles that indicated that the seatpost could be the culprit. When my friend Robin made a comment to a previous post on this blog about him solving the same problem on his bike by greasing the seatpost, then we thought that it would be worth to try. It took me 5 minutes to remove the seatpost, grease it a bit and then put it back, and voila…. the sound is gone.
Big thanks to Robin for that advice… 🙂 🙂

Now we will go out to spend the day to take in everything Krakow has to offer.

I have read many cycling blogs that tell about what roads the writer has cycled and how the cycling itself was and although very interesting for a cyclist who plan to follow that route, it can be rather boring for a non-cyclist. We know we have more friends who are non-cyclist than cyclists who follow us on this blog and therefore we try to tell tales from the road rather than tales about the road.

In this post I will allow myself to make an exception and tell the hard facts about yesterday’s cycling. I am now sitting comfortably in a guesthouse in Krakow and yesterday there was simply no strength left to pull myself together and write a post about day 15.

Yesterday was the toughest day so far. Wej’s problem with her bike the day before yesterday (Day 14) made us stop 25 km short of plan so the distance to Krakow had all of a sudden grown with another 25 km. We wanted to make it to Krakow and we thought it could be achieved by starting earlier.

We woke up at 6.45, had breakfast at the bakery below the hotel at 7 and started to cycle at 8.10. About 15 minutes later we got the first drops of rain. We didn’t worry about the rain though since the forecast promised only very small amounts. Apparently the forecast was wrong and it continued to rain. Once we reached the village where we had intended to stay the day before, we had to stop to look at the map and decide if we should go for the smaller or bigger roads.

Since it was raining we thought we would miss no nice views if we took the big roads and besides this we have a well founded distrust for what sort of roads our map can bring us to.

When we reached the town of Jedrzejow we were quite wet and decided to change to our rain clothes at a gas station. It felt like a relief and after a cup of coffee and with dry clothes we pedalled on. The road was good with the same wide shoulder as the good old E75.

After a while I felt my power was deterioating and we stopped at a bus stop to have our sandwiches. With new strength we went on, but only a short while later we discovered what the local cyclists in Piotrkow had described to us as ”a little hilly”.

The hills were not steep, but very long. When climbing up the hills, the shoulder of the road was gone to make room for a climbing lane for the trucks. Once on top of a hill, it soon turned into to a downhill slope. Unfortunately there seemed to be no flat section between the hill topss or in the valleys between and since the downhill parts took so short time we had little time to recover betwen the uphill climbs. We only used two gears, our lowest and our highest. Up the hills the speed was about 7-9 km/h and downhill it was often +50 km/h.

The kilometers went by far too slow and for a while I seriously doubted that we would make it to Krakow. None of us wanted to stay at a motel some 20-30  km from Krakow so we kept going. We rode 3 hours non-stop and Wej was mostly behind me. When I was tired I thought she might be so too and evertime I asked her ”are you OK?” I only got the answer ”keep going and don’t stop”. I must say that she might be a tiny little lady, but she really has a strong mind and strong legs to be able to keep going up and down that rollercoaster in the rain hour after hour.

When we finally reached Krakow we went to a wellknown hostel that was full. We then continued to the hostel where I and Araya (thai sister) stayed when we visited Krakow last summer and we even got the same room.

Araya and I went to a restaurant nearby the hostel and they served traditional dishes in huge portions. We then ordered a ”huge meat selection” for two and couldn’t finish even half of it. I thought that maybe after cycling 122 km up and down hills in the rain  would make it possible to finish that dish, so we went there to order it.

As mentioned, Wej is not the biggest person on the planet, but when it comes to cycling and eating she possesses more resources than anyone would expect. She can cycle and eat for ages. Today’s cycling was no problem, but she failed to finish that monster dish. If two hungry cyclists can’t finish it, then I think it is time for the restaurant management to reconsider the size of that dish.

If somebody had too many of those giant beers, or if somebody some day would be able to finish the monster dish, then this device in the men’s restroom maybe would come in handy.

Last night our bikes got their best accomodation this far during this trip. We were allowed to park them in the hotel’s conference room. The bikes didn’t say if they liked it or not, but they are indeed very silent creatures. Wej’s bike is a lot older and wiser than mine and has stayed in conference rooms before, so we intepreted the silence simply as lack of excitement.

We got headwind today. It was tough and when we rode along over some flat areas with open fields on both sides, we felt the full power of the wind. We didn’t complain though, since we had the wind on our backs a few days ago, and we know it will come back our way later.

We are a bit ambivalent about the direction of the wind. If it comes from the north it is on our backs, but it means cold air is coming and spring is delayed. If it comes from the south it is straight into our faces and delays us instead, but it brings up warm air and spring. So we can’t decide what we want most, tailwind or spring.

We passed a local library today and we stick to our traditions of taking photos of Wej in front of libraries. Unfortunately there was no time for a visit this time either.

We usually have a coffee break in the afternoon at some gas station or cafe. When we felt it was time for coffee we almost rode past a little place with the sign BAR on it. We quickly turned around, Wej went in to buy coffee while I watched the bikes outside. Soon I understood what kind of visitors that frequented this place – the local drinking team.

One of the guys was trying to talk to me non-stop and I must say that I admire his willingness to never give up his attempts to make me understand. Another man in the group showed how to run a conversation with a foreigner whom you have no common language with. He walked up to Wej, pointed at her and their conversation was as follows:

Man:  – Japan?
Wej: – Thailand
Man:  – Bangkok?
Wej:  – Tak (yes in Polish)

When it was time to go, the guy who first talked to me disappeared into the shop and came back with a piece of paper and a pen. I think he tried to make a map for us how to get out of the village. We knew the way but let him make his map anyway. He seemed to be a nice guy and it is a pity we coudln’t figure out what he was trying to say.

Later in the afternoon Wej’s bike broke the silence. It started to make a clicking sound for every turn of her cranks. We tried to eliminate all possible sources, but the sound was still there. Then I suspected that the crank arms could be loose and tightened the bolt even further. The crankset is tight so it couldn’t be that and I have removed the pedal and re-attached it again, but the sound is still there. There is no play anywhere and we can’t understand where the sound comes from so there is nothing to do other than tolerate a click for every rotation and then have a professional mechanic in Krakow have a look at it when we get there.

I guess you all have thought about the interesting coincidences in life when you are at the right spot and at the right time. Yesterday when I was waiting for Wej to check us in at the hotel was such an occasion.

The lady I mentioned I met outside the hotel yesterday is called Lucie. She came and picked us up in her orange Fiat at 8 PM and brought us to a pub in central Piotrkow where we met about 15 other cyclist. I thought it was the local race or MTB cycling team we would see, but it wasn’t. It was Piotrkowska Grupa Rowerowa which is a local group for touring cyclists, i.e. just the same kind of people like we are.

The cycling group meet regularly at this pub and yesterday they invited us. We had many interesting discussions about our present trip, trips that they have done together and trips they plan to do. Everyone in the group engaged in helping us to plan our route for the coming days when we ride towards Krakow. After having some pizza, beer and a really good time togehter Lucie drove us home in her orange Fiat.

Lucie works as a receptionist at the hotel and was on her way home when we met her. If we had come 5 minutes later we would have missed her and also this night out with the cycling group. Sometimes it is necessary to be on the right spot at the right time – we will try to do that in the future to.

I knew it would happen sooner or later. Yesterday it was Wej and today it was my turn to have a day of complete lack of motivation. We expect to get days like these and hopefully we won’t have them on the same day. Yesteday Wej was riding behind me, staying silent and not commenting much on anything. Today I was behind Wej almost all the day and when I didn’t stare straight into her bright yellow vest, I looked at my cycle computer that kept showing that we had moved too short distance 🙁 .

We spent the morning hours riding around in downtown Lodz and even went into a shopping mall. That felt like a short relief to the hard work on E75.

After a few days of tailwind we today had headwind for the first time which probably had a part in me being a bit unmotivated. I know there will later be both headwind, rain, uphill and flat tyres on the same day, but that didn’t leave me any comfort today.

After a while we decided to cut the day short. We asked our almighty GPS where the closest hotel is. It turned out to be 671 meters away and we kindly asked the GPS to guide us there. While Wej was inside to check in I was waiting with the bikes outside the reception when two ladies came out. They started to point at our bikes and asked me many questions in Polish. Our conversation got nowhere beyond that they understood that we were on our way from Sweden to Thailand by bike. Then one of them took up here phone and called someone, talked for a minute and then handed over the phone to me.

The guy in the other end of the line spoke excellent english and presented himself as Mike. He said that he is a member of a local cycling club who will have a meeting at a pub today at 8 PM and he asked if we wanted to join in. I guess you readers by now know that we really want to meet people along the way, so we instantly said “thanks, we will join in” and now we will soon be on our way to meet the local riders of Piotrkow Tryb.

 

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.

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.

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?

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 🙂