hello, and greetings from Wroclaw in Poland, where we arrived today, the 15th of July. officially today is day 42 and the milometer says that we came 1785 miles, so we are approaching our 2000 mile celebration! we have put the tent up 29 times, our longest day has been 79.63 miles and our maximum speed 44mph achieved in the peak district on our second day. highest elevation 1245 metres in norway. anyway, enough statistics... after berlin, and the love parade, we hit the east german countryside, which was a trifle crap to be honest. we made for the border at frankfurt am oder, where i put a new luggage carrier on my bike cos the other one snapped (it was cheap halfords crap). toms bike being 18 months old already, has had a new chain, block, and derailer as well as 2 new tyres, but its still going. he needs new bearings in the wheels before he leaves town.
camping in germany was in forests with big campervans and half naked germans, and reception was always closed when we got there, so we camped anyway, and snuck off in the morning ( a little naughty i know). we were happy to cross the border into poland and make a diagonal line for wroclaw, our first gratuitous zig zag, so we could check out poland. the phrase book has come in very useful, although it takes us about an hour to order food in restaurants. everyone seems to know a little german rather than english, so its a little tricky. we messed up our camping arrangements the day before yesterday, and ended up in a hotel. it was pretty posh, and a porter carried our bags upstairs, however it was only 10 quid per night including breakfast, a bargain indeed it was.
last night we camped outside town, in a campground with noone else in it, and we discoverd why, when we got back to our tent, and about 20 yards a way there was a gang of about 20 teenagers playing loud rave music to 1am. it was like camping in a disco, tent walls are very thin!!!!
we have been in poland 4 days now, and everyone is really friendly, we sheltered from rain in a bus stop yesterday, and a bloke chatted to us for 20 minutes in polish, and we didn't understand a word, but he kept talking anyway!!! its a little difficult communicating as hardly anyone speaks english, but its a bit of a laugh. weather has been hot, except for rain yesterday. there is a festival of buskers in town this weekend, keeping up our fine tradition of arriving in towns during public holidays and festivals!!!!
have been in this cafe for 2 hours already, must check my mail more often!!! after the weekend we head through the mountains over the czech border and on to prague. should be about a week or so, if the bikes hold out!!! the film is going fine (we think), and we decided that we like talking to the camera!! we have also patented the special 'cyclecam' technique where one of us rides our bike with one hand, holding the camera in the other to film scenery (we have the camera on a cord, just in case we drop it) we have decided our film company is called 'elstar loser film corporation', named after a german apple. i have the sticker on my bike, just in case we forget the name. well, i really outta go, hope things are fine in your part of the world, and more from prague.... paul