Lochow, Poland 549 km

We knew today was going to be a long one so made an early start. We gained an hour when crossing into Poland too so that helped.

This morning we got on a very nice freeway leading from Klaipeda to the interior. Not much traffic but there were fog banks that had rolled in from the sea/ocean/bay? That helped keep the temperature a bit cooler. We needed to ride east to go south, as sort of a dog leg, as there is a small piece of Russia – their Baltic seaport: Kaliningrad - that requires pre-obtained visas and is all sorts of hassle to travel through. Although the GPS was quite willing and tried to take us there, it was overruled. Stopped at a rest stop near some Harley riders from Lithuania so on an impulse Doug walked over and gave them each a Canada lapel pin. The picture shows them putting on their pins. They seemed really pleased.

Now we have entered another planet. Welcome to Poland. It seemed that as soon as we crossed the border the traffic slowed and backed up. Up until now we have been treated by signs in English and speakers of English. In this part of Poland there are no such things. We are booked into a modern Polish Spa for the night. I’ll bet we are the only foreigners (English speaking) here. The two gals at the reception did the best they could – even to offering to “hide” the motorcycle when we asked where we should park. So we "hid" it with the bicycles.

We have difficulty getting noncarbonated bottled water in most countries we have been in on this trip. Usually you can see the word still or stilla or some such indication but no luck here. So today when we went to a garage to get some snacks, water, pop, etc., the only way we could ascertain the water was not carbonated was to mimic opening it with a loud hiss. Pssst! It worked.

The hotel is relatively new. It has a couple of man-made lakes, pools and a bowling alley. The room is very spacious and is decorated with a modern concrete wall. Poland so far is just weird. . .

Hotel

Manmade lake

The feature wall in the room

Okay, so call us wimps but as we just can’t understand the language and there is no indication of any meanings and the staff don’t know English we opted for the buffet for dinner. At least, even though the words mean nothing, you can get a visual of what you are going to eat. Not that a visual helped in all cases - there are still a few dishes we are debating about. It was all very good, though.

We’ll see what tomorrow brings as we get into a more international tourist area.