Slawoszyno

It’s daylight here at 4.30 and a neighbours dog was dead keen we all knew it ! Anyway, we were so rested from the day off that we were fed, packed and ready to roll at 5.30. Imagine our dismay when we found that our dear hosts had kindly chained our bikes to theirs to keep them safe. I couldn’t wake them at that hour, they work damned hard, so I waited until 6.30 before I disturbed them . Thanks Renata. The burning question was, do we trust EV10 again? The answer is NO NO NO! Other cycle tourist we met today have all agreed , keep on the roads at this end of the coast. To be fair we only pushed for about a km but the rest of it was very rough alsoIt wasn’t actually a coffee shop but the lady went out the back and made us an excellent brew anyway, AND her cakes were homemade delicious 😋 The rough part was 10kms but now we’re on a quiet no.2 road. We’re sheltering from a passing shower at SasinoAt Choczewo we passed through 100s and 100s of acres of potatoes. These guys are laying out massive irrigation linesthere were about 15 of these big storage sheds. They must supply most of the EUThe prices are Polish Zlotys. About 2.5 to the NZ dollarThe showers came to nothing but the wind has increased to near gale force. FROM BEHIND 🤪 we were hardly pedaling but still doing between 25 and 35 kmh. Exhilarating but also bloody scary ! I must have been crazy to attempt this shotZarnowiec. This was once the border between Poland and GermanyUp until 1918 this was once Prussia . Between the wars 1918-1939 this was Polish Administrative States up to here ,and Germany on the west side. A little further down the road at the village itself is this sign on the school ( recently uncovered) Built by the Prussians in 1909. Just imagine , a child starting here, would have been educated first by Prussia, then by Poland, then by the Nazis, then by the soviets, and if he or she lived to 85 her grandchildren would be Free Polish again. Krokowa. We found a kebab shop with wifi so while we had lunch I looked up booking.com to see what was around. The only stipulation, it had to be downwind! No way could we bike across or into the wind today.Slawoszyno. Slav- osh- eeno. Conveniently 2.5 kms east where I’ve found a bungalow. Once a Knightly village under Polish law , in 1773 the Prussian authority’s confiscated it and other villages in the area as Monastic estate. In 1818 it was then divided up among only 18 owners, too bad about the inhabitants . Christines ancestors emigrated to NZ about 60 years later with a ship load of others from not far south of here so we are keen to learn what we can about their circumstances when we reach the Emigration museum in Gdynia.