Fri22Jul16: Rybaczswka - Warsaw, Poland (68.2km, 1,737.2km YTD)

Long restless sleep, but the eye shades kept things quite dark, so the time spent in the sleeping bag did restore my energy.  Up at 6am, packed all the camping gear, breakfast of French toast, and we’re all off about 7:30am.  Peter & Chris & I form a group of three (with Peter having programmed his Garmin for our destination) and ride echelon until the ‘lunch’ truck at 37.4km, arriving at 8:45am – an average speed of about 30kph amongst rush hour traffic heading into work on Road #635:  quite the buzz!  Fifteen minutes to make sandwiches for our ‘second breakfast’ and we’re off again.  This time the roads are getting even busier, we encounter the A44 and follow it’s general direction; pedestrians and cyclists have separate paths, separate ramps or stairs, but eventually we reach the south bank of the river and are into the city. 

Hotel Ibis Warsaw is a nice looking place, and we arrive about 10:05am; Peter knows that we are late for their 10am breakfast but asks the serving staff whether we can help finish off some of the dishes – they agree!  So, the three of us help ourselves to eggs, sausages, meat & cheese, juice & coffee, etc. until the cleaning staff make it obvious that they would like us to leave.

Registration lets us register at about 11:40am so we take our bags to our rooms, have a shower, do our laundry, and lock our bikes up in the parking garage.
George is in the lobby so we walk over to the New City and the Old City.  "New" and "Old" are strange names because the entire city of Warsaw was obliterated by either the Germans or the Russians in 1944, so every building has been built/rebuilt since then, using original plans or photographs for guidance.
We attend a 2pm organ recital at St. John's Church featuring some works by Chopin, followed by lunch at a streetside cafe:  George has ham & sauerkraut, but since I've already had three breakfasts today my choice is blueberry dumplings in sour cream.  We split up after lunch and I go shopping for a replacement buckle for my belly-pack, working my way back to the hotel slowly through back streets of the Old City and the New City.  There's just enough time for a shower and a bit of blog time, then its back down to the lobby for the 6am gathering for supper.  People get really 'clique oriented' on these group cycling rides, and nobody feels comfortable outside their established social circle:  George and I are today's "loners" so, after the rest have departed, we end up heading out for supper together.
We decide on supper at a sidewalk restaurant in the New City, but an interesting thing happens as we're finishing up and waiting for the bill - another couple asks us in English if they can join us and then have our table when we leave.  Sounds reasonable, but the man is speaking German with George when I leave, then when I return all three are speaking in English.  Turns out that George and the couple are Swiss, however, she's from Geneva and is only comfortable in French and English, the husband is from Lausanne and is comfortable in French, Swiss-German, German, and English, and George is from Zurich and is comfortable in Swiss-German, English, and German.  So when Swiss from different parts of their country get together, the common language is English.  Confused?  Well, I though it was a hoot! 

After supper we try and find the near-by free concert and succeed:  have you ever heard 'blues' sung by a group of 9 singers? in Polish?

Then a group of very pale-skinned Polish men sang songs with their own version of 'reggae' music and were the hit of the concert.
So, back to the hotel and get ready for our "rest day" tomorrow.