Taking Poland by force

Szczecin(pronounced shh-cheh-cheen apparently) harbour by night.

This sunset was our first night in Poland.

Days 16-24 01.05.2009-09.05.2009

16-Moryn to Szczecin
17- Szczecin to Pobierowo
18- Pobierowo to Kolobrzeg
19- Kolobrzeg to Ustka
20- Ustka to Gdansk
21- Stayed in Gdansk
22- Gdansk to Elblag
23- Elblag to Ketrzyn
24- Ketrzyn to Stary Folwark

This post covers the entire time we spent in Poland. The first thing we noticed about Poland was just how much wilder the landscape was compared to Germany. It was exactly what we wanted though: a (slightly) different culture and a different language. We had spent long enough in Germany. We did encounter a problem, though, when we got to the first shop and realised that we did not actually speak said language. At all. Not one word. After pointing a lot and muttering various foreign words in various languages under our breath we finally managed to buy some food on the first day there. It did not become any less stressful as the days went on and we would draw cards to see who would go in to the shop and make a fool of themself each time. In the end we worked out a system of every second time.
We made our way to the Baltic coast on the first couple of days in Poland and eventually we could finally feel the chill of the sea and smell the salty air...the sea itself was nowhere to be seen, hidden behind a thicket of trees. That evening we ended up renting a Butlins style self-catering cabin for 40 zloty (about 9 pounds) after a misunderstanding about camping but we did not complain.
The following day we finally laid eyes on the Baltic sea, and as the pictures show we decided to hit the beach with our bikes and take a half-day. The motion was carried with a unanimous vote of 2.
To compensate for the slightly lazy (or maybe leisurely) day we made haste and cycled 300km in 2 days to Gdansk. On the approach we were slightly tired after 2 long days and looking forward to a shower but we were greeted at the campsite with a CLOSED sign. Not open until June or some nonsense. In the depression and hungry rage that ensued we ate 3 packets of m&ms from the emergency chocolate supply and moped in front of the gates for a while. Pulling ourselves together we went in search of a hostel stopping only to put the hunger to bed with a kebab.
Our final 2 days in Poland were similar in the sense that we had to sleep rough on both occasions. The first night in Ketrzyn was because there was just no campsite where the sign said and the night in Stary Folwark because the campsite appeared to be no longer in use.
We decided to use the facilities of the latter but it was quite a bad experience. They still had running water but it was all cold and you could feel the dirt underfoot as you showered with the insects. We were invited on this evening to a fire by the lake with some local youngsters. They said to us "come and drink with Polish peoples, it could end badly." We talked with them and drank Polish spirits which burnt the throat. Some absynthe followed but it didn't end badly I am pleased to say.
We got up late on our last day in Poland and whilst we were getting our things together an older Polish man offered us some coffee. We declined and he returned 2 minutes later with a bottle of Polish vodka and two shot glasses. After our morning drink we set off in search of the Lithuanian border...

Border Germany

Thomas at the border. It all goes a bit "footballer giving an interview after a game" towards the end.

ONE BIG MONSTER POST

Days 7-15
22.04.2009 - 30.04.2009

7- Heringen to Weimar
8- Weimar to Leipzig
9+10 Stayed in Leipzig
11- Leipzig to Lutherstadt Wittenberg
12- L. Wittenberg to Berlin
13+14- Stayed in Berlin
15- Berlin to Mostyn-POLAND
The thing which is immediately obvious about the information above is that we had 4 days off and the reason is not laziness but rather enjoying the places we were in. Leipzig and Berlin were 4 great days where we went to the beach visited some amazing attractions and spent time with some of Thomas' friends.
During this period we had our first, and hopefully last, encounter with the police. As it turns out the German police don't really like it when you are in the middle of a central reservation of a road you are not supposed to be on. We were basically lifting our bikes across to get on the way to Witternberg but they caught us red-handed. We came to the conclusion that in and around Wittenberg the police have very little to do as one of them got out of the police car to stand on the empty road and hold his hand out as though he were stopping traffic. There were no cars coming.
Anyone visiting Weimar should look out for a very good hostel which cost us only 10euros a night each. They recommended that we shared a shower to save water, an offer we politely declined.

The big exciting news is that we are now in Poland! We crossed the border sated with German culture and language and ready for something we were not ready for.
I have been trying to upload a video of Thomas at the border but at the moment the computer isn't letting me so hopefuly the next opportunity will bring a successful outcome.
We hope you enjoy these few pictures of our time in Berlin

Days 4-6. 19.042009-21.04.2009
4-Ingelheim to Idstein
5-Idstein to Schotten
6-Schotten to Heringen

I have had to compress these days into one bitesize post as we are falling behind with updates and very soon there will be little chance to update at regular intervals.
These days were very hilly but the weather was wonderful for northern Europe in April. On the first of these evenings we were invited to stay with a nice family after they overheard us looking for a campsite which didn't exist. They said we could camp on their lawn, but the offer quickly turned to a spot in the children's playroom which we accepted. We stayed up late talking and drinking and then ate breakfast with them in the morning. We were very grateful to them and we now know the true value of speaking loudly on busy streets when looking for a place to stay.

Nights 5 and 6 were our first nights camping together whcih we had been looking forward to for some time. They were two of the worst nights' sleep i have ever had. All of our heat was lost to the cold hard ground. The only time that we could really sleep was when it became sunny again in the morning at 8am or so.

...Continued

Day 2 17.04.2009 Königswinter to Ingelheim
We rose early to a big breakfast and to get away early as we had another place to reach in the evening. The breakfast lasted 2 hours in the end and we ended up leaving at about 11:30. The consolation of the previous nights cycling was that the first 4 or 5km were very easy and all downhill. We were anxious to push on so we decided to make our first stop of the day in Koblenz, about 65km away. We made really good time, apart from a section of one of the main roads towards Koblenz. It was not a motorway so we were certain that we were allowed to ride on it. From the moment that we got onto it the drivers were beeping their horns and waving and shouting at us. We ignored them for a long time, just wanting to get a move on and get to Koblenz. We were on that road for about 10km and after a while it became very unsettling and made it difficult for us to concentrate on cycling. We left the road to pursue other routes but were very angry with German drivers.
On arriving in Koblenz we stopped at the first bakery we could find and went inside to sit down. What happened next is a bit of a blur, but what I can tell you is that we spent 14euros on food and left feeling very satisfied. 14 euros in a bakery is something we would frown upon normally, but we are growing boys.
This part of Germany, Thomas took pride in telling me, is the part that he knows well. Within 5mins of leaving Koblenz we were back on a large road being beeped at by German motorists.
Once Thomas had found his bearings we were back on track.
We followed the Rhine almost all the way to Ingelheim stopping only to refuel(bakery).
As we approached Ingelheim Thomas felt that it was a good time to confess that he had perhaps told our hosts the wrong date of arrival.
He was indeed correct, they had expected us a day earlier and were relieved to see us alive, having heard nothing from us. There was the minor detail of the dinner which they had prepared for us the evening before. Thomas was apologetic.
130km.

Day 3 18.04.2009 Day off
0km

Belated first post

Sorry to everyone who has been waiting to hear if we are still alive or have been beaten by saddle soreness and the company of only one person for days on end, but we have not had the chance to use the internet for a peirod long enough to update the blog with everything that has happened. The longer we leave it, the longer we need to put everything down which is a bit of a dilemma. We have thankfully found time today to write about everything that we have done so far. This is officially the first post 'On the road'.

Day 1 . 16.04.2009 Essen to Königswinter.

A good friend of mine, Gerald, volunteered to let us stay at his mother's house in Königswinter on this evening, so we set off from my flat in Rüttenscheid knowing that we had a definite destination and a warm bed for the night. After a blitzed flat clean and a short photo shoot we were off...

...for breakfast at a bakery 200metres from my flat.

We finally got on the way at about 10:30am, and we were very quickly out of the Ruhrgebiet and heading in the right direction.

Somewhere around Wuppertal we had to ask for directions as it turns out that our map of Germany is slightly too small to be able to actually see minor roads at all. A man came to the road to help us and he told us several different ways we could go, always ending his sentence with the words 'you could go this way...but you really have to know it well.' After 15-20 minutes of him arguing with himself I walked away because i was getting restless, leaving Thomas to listen to his repeated directions over and over and over. Eventually he decided that it would be better if he showed us the way himself and he told us that he had plenty of time to kill(It wasn't immediately clear what he was doing when he came to help us. We think taking pictures of streets and gardens, but we couldn't be sure.) So he got into his unmarked orange van(filled with photographic equipment) and said 'meet me at the end of this road'. We obliged and met him one or 2km up the road. There he gave us directions for 3 or 4km more and said that he'd meet us at the top of a hill. This went on for about and hour. He would drive off, turn on the orange lights on his orange van and meet us at some point down the road. Every time we arrived at the meeting point he was taking photos of the streets and gardens. After he was satisfied that he had taken us far enough we parted ways and continued on.

We followed the river Wupper from Wuppertal to Leverkusen and there it joins the Rhine, which we followed for the rest of the day really. Between Leverkusen and Bonn via Cologne it was relatively uneventful, apart from receiving free baseball caps from a lady and acid rain near Bonn which burned our eyes so badly that we almost couldn't see.

Crossing the Rhine at Bonn by evening was wonderful, and we were a bit disappointed that we didn't have time to spend some time in the city. We wanted to be at the house in the light as Gerald's mum was preparing something for us to eat and we didn't want to keep anyone waiting.

We had reckoned that from Bonn it would only be 15km maximum and so we could easily do it before dark. How wrong we were.

We were indeed in Köningswinter at about 9pm but we arrived at the house at a quarter past eleven. We had taken a longer route from the centre of Königswinter which took us on a 5 or 6km climb up a steep hill through a forest in the pitch black dark. We could not see anything at all. I could barely see Thomas a metre in front of me. And the hill just kept on going, steep and horrible. To this point in the trip that is still the only time I have had to get off the bike. I had no energy left at all. We still had a little bit of food left and the half litre of rhubarb yoghurt gave me the extra push I needed to finish the hill.

When we arrived the evening was very nice and we were glad to be there and to have delicious cooked food.

130km for the day.

Post 1

This is the first post on the blog of Thomas Surgeon and Shane Kilgarriff.

Just a short description for those who do not know what it is that we are doing:
We intend to travel around the world by bicycle taking in the sights and sounds and smells and feels and tastes of Germany, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Russia, Mongolia, China, Alaska and finally Canada. Hopefully we will be able to post a link to a map whereon you can see the route more exactly.
We thought that we would use this trip as an opportunity to raise some money for a good cause, namely WaterAid. You can find a link to our fund-raising page here:

http://www.justgiving.com/tomsurgeonandshanekilgarriff?from=UKSponsorExit

The trip itself actually begins on Thursday 16th April. We hope that with this blog you can track us all the way round, internet cafes permitting.

And so ends post 1