I decided I should try to do 130 km days - that used to be my average day in Europe - for this part of my tour. It is a little harder to do them in A-Fib, but I now seem to be able, when the terrain/wind isn't too challenging. to do close to the average speeds I used to do. Todays destination is, according to Autoroute, is about 115 km from Lubin. With a strong wind from the west, and some real hills in the middle, that seemed like a better distance than the 140+ km required to get me to the German border ;-}. It is also cheaper, and, in some ways more fun, to spend the night in Poland.

I had two good choices for my route today. One was based on the great shoulder that started in Lubin on E65. I figured that shoulder would last to Zielona Góra, and it would make the riding less stressful and faster today. The other route was based on the topo information in Autoroute and GoogleMaps. If I went up to Glogów, I'd be riding flatter country and, although the route would be a little longer and not have the great shoulders, it would be faster because it was flatter.

This morning when I left my hotel - right next to E65, but you can't go west on E65 from the hotel - I rode down to the near the center of Lubin and then decided to take the, very nice, Lubin bike path west and ride E65. It was a good decision, even though the route was considerably hillier than I expected.

Most of the climbing today was gentle, but there was a long series of ever higher hills before Nowe Miasteczko and a, very nice, long downhill into Nowe Miasteczko. That climbing really slowed me down and tired me out, but I recovered OK.

E65 - that is an official European highway designation - becomes 4 lane expressway with a median in Lubin and stay that way till Polkowice. In Polkowice it is two lanes with a bike path, and after Polkowice, it is two lanes with the same great shoulders as the four lane road. It becomes no-bikes where the road to Kozuchów - 289 - starts. That was no big deal for me since I wanted to go west there. If you wanted to continue north to Zielona Góra, there are small roads that parallel E65.

There were two kinds of riding today. The first, on E65 was great 'get on down the road' riding. I had little or no stress about the many vehicles, including lots of big trucks, that were passing me. Because of the strong cross wind, I did get some wind buffeting when trucks passed, but that also helped my average speed, at least on the four lane section, because they sucked me along after them ;-}. It was fast and pretty riding on smooth pavement with little debris. The second kind of riding was on little roads after I turned west. It was very peaceful and the road surfaces were usually good. On parts of that section, I'd ride for ten minutes or more without seeing another vehicle. It was slower riding than E65 because it was into the wind, but it was a very good example of the excellent back road riding north western Poland. There are few places I k now of that are better for peaceful, pretty back road riding.

I stopped for a snack at a service station on E65 - Coke and Snickers bar - and first lunch at a Vietnamese fast food place on E65. I stopped for second lunch on 289 at a cafe near Nowogród Bobrzanski where 289 is merged with 23 - the road from Zielona Góra to Zary, both big towns - which was the worst riding of the day. That section is only a mile long, but with heavy traffic and no shoulder, it is quite unpleasant. My total food cost was less than $10 for snack and two meals, one with a large beer. My total cost for the day will be around $30. Poland is back as an inexpensive place to tour ;-}.