The four of us by car from Nova Sol back to Zielona Gora to pick up the tree bike. Today Sanne and Daan bike with us, Richard drives the car, and the bus and trailer stay in Nova Sol. It is Sunday today, Mother’s Day, and here in Poland it is “First Communion Day,” a Catholic feast that, it turns out, is celebrated in every village and town here. Everyone neatly dressed in festive clothes, and restaurants have elaborate dinners with families after the church service. We spoke to a pastor and he had 67 children prepared for First Communion. That means that probably everyone knows someone who is making first communion and so everyone is sitting somewhere in their finest clothes at the festive dinner this afternoon. We had parked the tree bike yesterday in a suburb of Zielona Gora and fortunately it was still there. Always a surprise. We bike into the center and look for a place to lay out our large map. We find it in the heart of the center where the big statue of “Bacchus” stands, and where two promenades meet. It works well, many people come to look at the map, we explain our story and give away leaflets and trees. In this slightly larger city, we can make ourselves understood well even with English and German. Soon all the little trees are handed out. We have a good feeling about it. Very nice this interaction. We should do it more often, especially on Saturdays and Sundays, and especially in the slightly larger towns. We bike from the center, along roads that are actually too busy, back to Nova Sol. The advantage is that the asphalt is good so we can cover the distance of only 24 kilometers in record time. When we arrive back at our overnight stop, the first communion party for three communicants is drawing to a close. We were hungry because we had missed lunch and found Pizzeria Mama-Mia, with pizzas 40 cm in diameter, ten minutes from our spot. Excellent. We have the whole restaurant to ourselves. We combine lunch and dinner with a pizza and at a good six o’clock we are back at the hotel. With Theo I tune up the last details of the newsletter that goes out tonight. Tomorrow morning Richard leaves by train for the Netherlands for a job he has to do there; he will be back in about twelve days. Meanwhile, of course, the three of us have a challenge to continue the Tour. Especially we have to think through the logistics of moving. We are definitely going to miss Richard in the coming days. We’ll see.