Poland - mushy zupa mleczna

Simon surprisingly had no hangover however, I was suffering a little! All my own fault and way too much krupnik.

The campers around us were keen for us to enjoy a traditional Polish breakfast with them and so we wandered slowly (with me suffering all the way!) up to the canteen area. The breakfast was indeed traditional...and something which we both struggled to eat (and we will try most things!)

Breakfast was a so called “milky soup” (zupa mleczna) – milk, butter, Kluski(soft mushy) noodles, salt and sugar. I'm sure it was meant to be hot but it was lukewarm and reminded me of a slimy wallpaper paste. This, with a hangover, is a recipe for disaster! However, we did our best, especially as our breakfast partners ensured we had a large bowl! The dry biscuits with meat were much better and helped us to keep down the slimy, now cold milky noodles......bleh!

Later on we were told it was similar to rice pudding.....mmm...nope! Nothing like the rice pudding I have ever had because if it had been I would have loved it.

We packed the tent away distracted again by the many children who now wanted their photo taken whilst sitting on the bikes. I should add not only children, much to my amusement, there were also three ladies who wanted their picture taken with Simon whilst they were sitting as pillion on the back of his bike! With many ‘coy’ smiles and fluttering eyelashes, all the ladies had their picture taken whilst holding tightly onto Simon.  Why they needed to hold on was beyond me as they were not moving, but they definitely seemed to enjoy it nonetheless!

We were tempted to stay another night as we were reluctant to leave newfound friends but Warsaw was calling. Midday had come and gone before we set off and after a few more photos we were on the road heading for Warsaw.

The road was very bad, not with holes but with deep ruts where huge lorries had dug deep groves with their tyres. It was very reminiscent of the road from Moscow to St. Petersburg. Crossing the deep ruts was a problem as sometimes the tar had been pushed up so high it was like crossing a high kerb when overtaking. Definitely not my idea of fun!

It was another very hot and humid day and we had bursts of torrential rain with thunder and fork lightening, which strangely I love! The rain also made the roads very slippy and greasy adding to the ‘pleasure’ of riding today.

We thought we’d reach Warsaw with time to spare but, due to the weather and poor condition of the roads, the trip took a little longer than we had hoped and so on the northerly outskirts of the city we decided to stop when we saw camping on what looked like a beach. (GPS -N 52° 26, E 21° 00).

With no facilities but a beer tent and one toilet for the whole beach (or so it seemed) we gratefully put up the tent after struggling our way through fairly deep sand with the bikes.

Note to self: we need much more practice on sand before attempting the Sahara!