"Eat, Eat! You're too skinny!

 We've spent the last week and a half in Tymowa, the village where Marcin's grandma and granpa live, also where Marcin spent a lot of his childhood. Martin's family was always hospitable, inviting, and never left us hungry, ever. We are dinner at 2:00 pm and supper was at 5:00 pretty much every day. Food was what you'd expect in Poland- lots of sausage, pierogies, and potatoes. From what Marin told me, his family would say to me "eat, eat! You're too skinny!"  

The house where Martin grew up is a farm house. The backyard has a view of field, once used for cow pasture. The surrounding houses had chickens, roosters, dogs, and goats. Martins grandparents live unlike their neighbors. Water at their house was precious,so precious that the water pump broke the day before we left. To get someone to replace the pump will take weeks, and this water battle has been going on for months (this is not the first time the water pump died). The house is big and gives me slight reminders of my
Grandma Yenik's house.

During our visit I learned a lot of polish. I'm going to commit to learning when we are back and settled down in the states. It's really hard not knowing what Martin's family is saying. Martin had some chores to do like mow the law and cut up wood. In addition, we visited Martin's grandmother in the assisted living home often. It was a 27km bike ride one way, so  we were able to start training.

Today we rode back to Wroclaw, which was about 85km total. I've made a couple observations while biking in Poland:

1)  The back roads are terrible.
I'm not talking about the main roadways, but the small village roads, which I usually prefer to ride. These roads are worse then dirt roads, they are worse than New Orleans roads,and Poland doesn't have hurricanes! It is easier to ride on cobblestones than it is on these roads. okay, enogh about the terrible roads. There are a lot of roads with really great bike paths!

2) Everyone Bikes!
I've noticed this aboutt a lot of the other countries I've been to, but its not as common in the US. Everyone bicycles to get from point A to  point B, and I mean everyone. elderly men and women with cane in hand while riding their old circa 1945 bicycle. It's impressive!

We are back in Wroclaw today, staying with Marcin's aunt and uncle for one night. We got tickets to take a train to Prague and hopefully tomorrow afternoon we'll be on our way from Prague to Germany! Next plan is Nuremberg or Munich in Germany, depending on train schedules from Prague, and then offically start our bicycle trip via the "Romantic Road".   

Marcin and his grandma

Marcin and his grandpa

The home in Tymowa

View of the backyard. 

ADT security would do great in Poland! All the houses, and I mean every single house, has this sign which means " warning! Bad dog"

In order to heat water, We had to stoke this about an hour before we took a shower. 

Our bike ride to see grandma. 

In Wroclaw!