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Poland


The first building in Poland is apparently a hairdresser's. Dusk. McDonald's in Poland sells apples! Szczecin. A grand Post Office in Szczecin. Szczecin. Szczecin. An Indian restaurant. This hotel has a place for used batteries. I don't know why guests here might get through a lot of b... Another Post Office. Szczecin. Szczecin. Szczecin. One branch of the River Oder in Szczecin. Another branch of the Oder. This was a very good cycle path, which ran for miles until suddenly ending here. A lovely quiet road. The other wonderful thing is that the wind had reversed again so today it's bei... There seems to be a convention that pink tiles are used for cycle paths. There are no signs but I th... A closed bar. There may not have been a sign for the Greenwich Meridian but there is one here, 15 degrees East. Of... Air and road temperatures. I've seen signs like this before. That's a good cycle path on the right. Getting to it is a little tricky though. The rain has now started and will continue almost continuosly for the rest of the day. This picture ... For most of today, the road was like this, with good wide shoulders. There seem to be a lot of hairdressers in Poland. Perhaps the odd thing is that they just say "... Some large pieces of metal going somewhere. All day, I would be passing roadside honey salls. Some would also sell wild mushrooms. Two birds which I found in the road. A wind farm under construction. My lunch stop. A 19th Century granary. There's a notice board which says so. Karlino. Karlino. Karlino. Odd sculpture. On a dull day like today, these animated signs are visible from a long way away. According to another sign, this is a modern reconstruction of a 19th Century building which was orig... Still raining. This is Koszalin, where I will be staying tonight. Thanks to the wind, I have got here remarkably qu... Koszalin. Koszalin. Cakes! That looks like the old Pope. I would guess that he probably came here at some time. Whatever went on here tody can't have been much fun in this weather. Koszalin. That's not what I'm doing. Tonight's hotel is built above a car dealership. This is what I see when I come out of my hotel room. My room. Koszalin. Koszalin. Koszalin. Dinner. Koszalin. Breakfast time. Thisplace had a lot of military hardware. I think this is used for storing road maintenance equipment. I thought the reeds in the river were pretty. That looks like most of a church. The pedestrian crossing buttons here are transparent. Lunch time. Slupsk Town Hall. Slupsk Town Hall. For a while, I was on very quiet roads. Scenery. A small village. There's a fête going on in the village of Gogolewko. I think it has something to do with sunflowers ... Gogolewko fête. I'm afraid the dark colouring in the bottom left is due to a slight fault with my ca... A dsiplay of baton twirling. Gogolewko fête. Local television news. Smoke from a barbecue. Just houses. Roadworks on the edge of Gdansk. I've just been on a wonderful smooth new cycleway. Now it's gone a bit wrong. I used this road for a while until signs said that I couldn't. I went down this cobbled road instead... ... then down a series of ramps here. Gdansk. Gdansk. Gdansk. Gdansk. Gdansk. Gdansk. If only that Haribo stall was the other side of that wall, I would be allowed to use it. An underpass, where it looks like there are shops in the daytime. Gdansk. Gdansk. The electric sightseeing bus has stopped so that the man on the far left can get out and take a phot... My parking place for tonight. The view from my window is fantastic. I have to admit though that I did use a lift to get up here. T... My view of Gdansk. My view of Gdansk. My view of Gdansk. The orange thing on the left is a cable-stayed bridge. The bright light above the... I spent a while admiring the view. It's a Polish coach but it's being used by the Salamanca Deaf Association. Salamanca seems a long wa... Gdansk. Gdansk Station. A monument to the Jewish children evacuated to Britain from what was then the Free City of Danzig be... This restaurant is inside the railway station. Gdansk. Gdansk. Gdansk. Gdansk. Gdansk. The boat with the masts gives signtseeing tours. It's actually driven by an engine and I was amused ... Gdansk. Gdansk. Gdansk. Gdansk. Gdansk. Gdansk. "TOWER FOR SALE" More modern buildings in Gdansk. Big stained glass windows on that church. The car in the middle is one of many British cars I have s... Gdansk. I now see that the flares which I was watching last night from my window weren't out at sea at all b... A flare. This road has grand ideas. The main road, the one which goes to Budapest, had a diversion but I carried on in the hope that I c... I was heartened to see these cyclists coming the other way, suggesting that there was a way through. The route took me through this construction site, next to where the cement mixer is. I don't know what that poor bike had done to be discarded in a ditch like that. Funny place for a swan. My first and, it turned out, only lunch stop. This is the first place in Poland which has served the... Lunch. These noise barriers are common wherever a main road goes through a village. Each pane of perspex ha... Elblag, on the river of the same name. I thought the church tower looked like a spiky wooden tower w... Elblag. Very succinct signs, although I don't know what "WORD" is. In the background is somewhere ... ... a broken spoke! These caused me a huge amount of trouble two years ago, although then they all b... There are two unusual sights here. One is the first advert I have ever seen for 4G mobile phone syst... I just thought we hadn't had any pictures for a while. On the way into Olsztyn. I see I'm finishing my ride in the dark again. This is the trouble with hav... My hotel is immediately behing the restaurant, although it isn't at all obvious. I was a little worr... This hotel is pretty smart. It only opened two years ago. The date is included in the crest in front... Olsztyn. I have been to this city before, five years ago, but I don't recognise anything yet. One problem with Poland is that it seems to be chips with everything. I haven't seen anything to say... The hotel is the left part of this building. It's a bit odd in having sections of different colours ... My bag packed for another day's ride. I was amused by the little logo on the apple pie peeping throu... Above the door of a school. Sunflowers in front of Olsztyn Station. A McDonald's and an onion-domed church. This wonderful road went on for about 30 km. There are also smaller roads along both sides, which I ... A neat but rather empty-looking garden. I couldn't see a road passing over this unusually broad bridge so I think it might just be there to ... A park in Mragowo. Mragowo. Mragowo. Little pedal cars for hire. Mragowo. The bike path went through some shady and marshy woods. I have been seeing gym equipment in parks ever since Portugal. Ducks near Mragowo. One of the many lakes in the Masuria region. Ryn. On a very quiet back road, I passed a collection of buildings with, amongst other strange things, a ... The place with the stones even had its own bus stop. Then bench and pole are carved and there's a me... I encountered these cows filing along the road. There didn't seem to be any people with them. Scenery. The road here is slightly sandy, which wasn't brilliant. an earlier section mush have once ... Scenery. In a small village. Every village has one of these. This area was occupied by the Russians around the end of the war. I'm now only about 35 km from the ... Another lake. It looks like there's amajor road being built just behind me but I don't know what this excavation i... The blocks of flats in Olecko are colourful. This is the first time on this trip when I'm going to be away from sources of food for over 24 hours... This sign confused me a bit. It shows a closed road and a diversion, but then the closed road symbol... When I came here before, about five years ago, this cycle path was just being laid. Here are the ovals, which start to appear on signs whenever you get near to the end of a country. The cemetery seems rather full. Suwalki. The park in Suwalki. A broad cobbled street. Another view of the park. Polish flags in the park. There was a sign advertising public WiFi around here but I didn't try it. I stopped to see where I was and found that I was right outside the hotel where I stayed last time I... A shopping centre. I don't know what the old-looking building in the middle is. The handy placing of that bike rack, and the fact that it's sunny enough to eat outside, mean that f... This restaurant has a bit of a bird problem. Suwalki. Scenery. That man has a dangerous job. He's one of a team surveying the road. The Lithuanian border post. I would expect to find a red and white Polish one nearby but I can't see...