Finally the day was here to begin the ride! We were in the north of a country called Poland at a port town, Gdansk, which is famous for ship building for over a thousand years! We practised on our hired bikes by riding 30km to a beautiful beach and back. Mine was good with enough gears to help me get up hills.
The next day we cycled to Godkowo, Poland. 121km but i got in the car for the last 4 due to rough roads. We stayed in a beautiful hotel which was a centuries old mill restored as a hotel. It had a hot outdoor spa for us to sit in!
Next, we cycled 100km to Reszel. When got into the town I had to cycle up a very steep hill made of cobblestones so it was very difficult! Here we stayed in an old castle which they claim is haunted!! I didn't hear or see anything strange. In the afternoon, we walked around the cobbled streets and climbed a very tall cathedral tower for a magnificent view!
Day 3 took us 106 km to Gizycko which is still in Poland 1 km in the middle of the day was a dirt road but I did not fall off! During today we stopped at a historical place called 'Wolfschance'. This is where Adolf Hitler planned the German Army's battles during Workd War Two. He lived there for about 900 days, hidden in grass/tree covered 'bunkers'. The Allies (the countries that Hitler was fighting against) never found his bunker! The Allies were fighting him because he was invading countries such us Poland to make Germany bigger and more powerful. When he lost the war, he used dynamite to blow up the buildings so the Allies couldn't use the buildings or find out his secrets. We could still easily see how it would have been. We do not know how he could have fed himself and his soldiers secretly for about three years in a hidden isolated place!
The next day we cycled for 124km to Suwalki. We cycled past many beautiful lakes. Storks like to live near here in Summer. They live way up high on poles with huge nests. In some towns we counted up to 20 stork nests!
Our last day in Poland was next. We cycled 50 km to the border. There was two km on either side of the border as neither country wanted to spend money on the road! It is fun to cross a border. Now we were in Lithuania. We cycled another 115km to a town called Alytus.