Tag 14 (Atterwash near Guben, DE; Saturday 99.04.24; distance = 180.3; time
= 8:43; odometer = 1639.2) -- I got up nice and early and packed up very
fast since everything was ready. I was on the road by 6:00. I did my last
Czech climb (and my last climb period) into DE. The descent into Zittau was
long and gradual -- perfect. That town was nice, but it had those damned
cobblestones -- a common problem as we will reveal. Riding out of Zittau, I
had great roads, FLAT terrain and not too much traffic. Perfect. Also, I
was following the river -- a route so simple that map checks weren't
needed. So I CRANKED! North of Gorlitz somewhere, I stopped for breakfast
with 50 km done. I bought rolls at a bakery. The woman there was very nice
and friendly. Warm weather, warm people -- good biking ... since it was
near perfect conditions, I pressed hard, trying to minimize breaks. I never
did find a suitable grocery store, which could haunt me since tomorrow is
"dead" day. Hmm. Anyway, onward I cranked. Since I was interested in Poland
(and right across the river from it), I spotted on my crappy map a
possibility for an exploratory detour through it. I crossed the border and
changed 20 DM and talked to the nice Poles working the $ changer. I learned
the greeting and the thanks words. Onward. There was no traffic on this
route along the river. Not much of anything else either. Eventually, I came
to the reason there was no traffic here: THE WORST ROAD SURFACE in the
world!! I thought that the Wellebleche of Death Valley was bad, but here
was a perverse specimen of road paved with pointy stones. It was like
riding on a railroad bed, but without the "give" of such stones. I thought
about just shredding my lame bike just for fun and quitting, but something
made me baby it across about 5 km of this stuff. Imagine 2 jackhammers
attached to the axles of the bike. That's it. Stunning. I realized that I
didn't have the stomach to be up this creek with a broken frame or back, so
I knew my Poland riding was done. It sure looks interesting, though --
better bike, better preparation, maybe I'll be back. I couldn't read the
signs at all, of course, and the towns on the road signs NEVER matched my
map (that's unnerving). My course was so simple, though (along the river
which is the border), that I found the next bridge and returned. On the way
out, I stopped in a "grocery store" to have a look at how their economy is.
It seems in between German (bad) and Ceska Republic (horrible). Just for
fun, I bought some drink crystals -- the first I've seen in Europe.
Tomorrow is show down -- Poland takes on world champion Canada for best
drink crystals. I returned to bad Muskau -- a very busy, crazy border zone
with a lot of Germans walking over the bridge to do shopping. The roads
were the same as Zittau's cobblestone -- not quite as bad as that Polish
road, but pretty evil. I was cranking away. The weather got cloudier, and
the wind picked up in an unfriendly way. I'd done over 100 km and I was
ready for lunch. I had some genuine "German" food, which I felt was
overpriced, especially since I don't really like genuine German food.
Onward. Eventually, I got to a labeled bike path that promised to take me
to Gruben. I was rightfully skeptical, but I fell for it. The first bit was
really nice, but it then turned out to be merely a gravel road. Then, it
turned into a massive construction zone. They were redoing the bike path
and it was only packed sand for a few hundred meters. A kid with a BMX bike
could ride it, no problem, but when I tried, I sunk up to the rims and
dropped the bike. Grr. As I finally made it to solid road, it started to
rain. Strange, since it was sunny and blue skies overhead. Then it was grey
overhead and then it rained a lot. Not too long, but long enough to get my
bread wet. Grrr. I saw a sign for camping and since I'm such a good sport,
I tried it. A km away was indeed a "camping"-type place. To my mind, it is
just a mobile home park with tiny RVs. Well, the manager doesn't appear to
be here. There was general confusion among the regulars about what to do
with me. Gee. A campground that can't accommodate a camper. They finally
agreed that I should set up wherever and they'd let me use their bathroom
key, etc. Ya. Whatever. So here I am. I should charge admission, since
everyone wants to stare at me. I'm also VERY pleased to report that my
German is good enough to know when people 50 m away are talking about me!
One couple were pretty nice. The guy gave me a bratwurst he'd grilled.
That's nice.
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