Today May 16 is my twin brother’s birthday, Dominique congratulations. We are going to plant two little trees today, one for him and one for me. Because on your birthday you plant a tree! That’s the message we carry every day this Tour. We leave Legnica around nine o’clock. Sanne goes to recharge the E-bus and do some shopping, Daan and I start the new cycling stage, exciting because we have seventy kilometers and three hundred meters of altitude to overcome. From the city we enter the calm, two more days of Poland and then we cycle into the Czech Republic on Sunday. What is it that makes Poland different from Germany? There is more contrast between rich and poor, the dilapidated stately buildings, the distant glory, next to the many new buildings, mostly not my taste. The influence of the Catholic Church on daily life seems greater here. The clutter, the thirst for storage, every yard seems like a display, a museum, for you never know when you will need it again. The un raked, the dogs, the chickens. But also the scattered trash in the ditches and along the roads, and the quality of the neighborhood roads is more often poor. And then the more puzzled looks, in addition to the enthusiastic responses. It remains fascinating to try to make sense of the wealth of differences between countries. And it remains only an initial observation. It is chilly today 14 degrees, a beautiful route. Around noon we have done about thirty kilometers of the seventy and are in Jawor, with the characteristic colonnade around the entire square where the stately town hall with theater are in the middle. We walk into the town hall and again we are treated very kindly. We wait a while for Monika Zmijewska, the town clerk. The Mayor, Emilian Bera, is off to Luxembourg for a few days. Monika is super excited and takes a picture with the little tree we give her. We exchange information and she is going to inform the mayor, she is sure that he too will be very enthusiastic and wants to participate. Absolutely great. We cycle on, threatening clouds, it’s still chilly, the wind is picking up, we see the rain falling on the horizon and the hills are starting to appear. The tree bike starts to ‘sweat’, has a hard time, slowly in low gear we manage. When we arrive at the town hall in Swiebodzice, Sanne just walks out. They hardly speak any English but they think it is a wonderful project and are going to contact us. We wait and see. Wonderful that we have reached two municipalities today. As we continue cycling we pass Roztoka, there we give chance and discover a beautiful and dilapidated castle-like complex with a moat around it. Everything is closed off. What was this? “The Roztoka Castle. According to the website a neo-Renaissance castle. Decayed glory that’s for sure. It can be visited. Something for next time, it’s on the route. Before we arrive at our accommodation in Poniatow, a nice place with a garden right next to the big town of Wallbrzych, we cycle past the huge Toyota factory, what is it doing here, I wonder. Having arrived at our house, we prepare to pick up our E-bus and trailer from Legnica after all, even though we are quite tired after seventy kilometers of cycling. Into the car and off we go! Driving a good hour back to Legnica, I realize what a long way we’ve cycled today, and how hilly the landscape is starting to get. When we arrive around nine o’clock at dusk, Sanne definitely wants to make something to eat. After all, it is my birthday. A delicious risotto with a glass of wine. Very nice. Our trip is a great movie. You hardly remember in the evening what you did in the morning. I am glad I try to summarize each day what happened.