My kind hostess at the Darlowo B&B sent me off with a hearty breakfast, which included frankfurter sausages which I avoided because they would only repeat on me throughout the day.  Same with kippers.  I was able to make a few sandwiches for the journey which always taste far better than they look later in the day when I stop for a lunch break.

The Baltic coast was more of white sand beaches and various small holiday beach villages along the way.  I spend a quarter of an hour watching workmen pull up old wooden sea defences and replace them with new long trees trunks with a huge matchine banging them in to the sand with the utmost ease.  You know, those kind of defences to stop the sand moving along the shore.

Most of the route was along the forests by the coast with good tracks and surfaces.  It forms part of one of the EuroVelo system of routes, and the Poles have evidently embraced EuroVelo and put some money in to the routes, tracks and surfaces.  I only had one excursion inland to avoid some impassable sandy sections.

My destination was Rewal, still on the coast, and a very modern all glass, steel and grey small hotel with all mod cons and a very nice breakfast the next morning.  Up the road I found a restaurant and was served by Elsie, who was the first black person I have seen since arriving in Poland.  Elsie is originally from Zimbabwe and looks and sounds it.  She is here studying, telling me that Poland is far cheaper for fees and expenses than anywhere else in Europe.  She works also in the restaurant.  Brave girl.  How she has been able to learn Polish sufficient to cope with studies is impressive.  Being in a super minority in a mono ethnic uber white country like Poland must have its challenges also.

Food was breaded pork escalope and salad, and then apple pie with lots of raisons and spice in it.  Sorry, again no pictures. I just tucked in before I thought of take a photo.

Poles are breeders.  There are lots of young people, young couples, and babies and toddlers.  Couples with babies in prams look young, 20 somethings, compared to our late 30s and early 40s mums and dads at home.  I very much doubt that Poland has a labour shortage with all the babies and young people around, and certainly not now that all the Polish plumbers and builders have gone back home. Alas.  Elsie is in a minority of guest workers.  

I think that family orientated values and traditions are alive and kicking here - nuclear family, children, promenading along the seafront, walking together as a couple or family in the forest, all that kind of stuff.  Perhaps there is still an emphasis on conforming to a traditional and accepted set of values and way of life.  I don’t see much diversity or difference.  Maybe there is in some of the big cities.  The right leaning increasingly authoritarian government and the Catholic Church here still have great influence on how Poland presents itself.  Stable and dependable, no doubt, but maybe just a bit boring and predictable, also controlling. And increasingly more right wing and authoritarian, with restrictions on a free press and an independent judiciary.  Nice place, but not my kind of place.  Maybe for a visit, but not to live.

Accommodation:  Night of  16th  June - Holiday Siesta Pensjonat, Domki