We retrieved our bikes in the shed behind the hotel which kept them quite safe with the "Fort
Knox" lock on it. We get an early (9am?) start today and head north for the 3rd largest city in
Poland-Lublin, due east of Warsaw.
What a city it was-more than one square and known for their alleys. It is an industrial city, but
the old part is very quaint. After a good pasta lunch in an outdoor cafˇ on the main square, we
walked up the tower above the town gate for quite an amazing view of the city. I shopped for a
skirt and top but had no luck. It was quite frustrating trying to figure out the European sizes and
the dressing room in this huge department store was only a curtain to close. I decided I needed a
skirt since NO women wear shorts, they do wear slacks, jeans and skirts that come up to their
crotches. However, men can wear anything, including no shirt! We visited their castle but opted
out of visiting their church as it was 5pm and we needed to boogie on down the road.
A front moved in and cooled things down so we thought we "had died and gone to heaven," with
the cooler temps and the wind at our backs. W were thinking of going even farther than what we
had planned since the riding was such fun. But we were worried that there might not be a hotel at
the end of the longer ride so we opted to stay with the original plan. We stopped by to check out
another castle on the way but it was closed for the day. We arrived at the town with the hotel
only to find out from some nice gentleman that it had closed 2-3 years ago-so much for our great
map and guidebook! He said there was a motel about 3K away so we made off for it. If it didn't
look too promising, we were going to go with Plan-B.
By the time we finally found it, Aaron
asked if I wanted to see the room and I said, "No-I'll take it sight unseen!" The young couple
who owned it had 3 little ones. The oldest, a boy around 5, eyes lit up when he saw us, and he
didn't waste any time to check out our bikes which we stored in their shed. The guy's mother
lives in NY-go figure; usually the kids leave Mom in Poland as they go off to live in the good ole
USA!
Supper in their restaurant consisted of Polish soup, ham and bean, and tomatoes and fries, with
ketchup. Tomatoes are quite plentiful, sold at roadside stands and growing in greenhouses and
fields along the way. They eat ketchup on everything, even as pizza sauce!
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