Into Poland (Barely)

We left Berlin today (Thursday) on a 57 mile ride. At mile 56.5, we crossed into Poland, where we'll be for the next 8 days. There were two notable events during our ride:

Carol took a spill while riding and dislocated her fifth finger proximal interphalangeal joint (the joint closer to the wrist on the pinky, for non-medical readers). We immediately returned it to normal position, bought medical tape in the next town, and used the tape to make a splint holding the finger in normal position. Carol will keep the splint in place for the next few days, and should emerge with no problems.

On highway B1 (the German road we did most of our biking on today) in the countryside a few miles from the border with Poland, we saw several prostitutes standing at various points along the road. We've never before seen hookers beckoning drivers on a highway, but looking it up online when we reached our hotel we learned that it's a problem that the German authorities are trying to eliminate (http://www.thelocal.de/society/20090908-21777.html). The women apparently come from Eastern European countries, mainly from Ukraine, Bulgaria, and Romania, and work in the Germany near the Polish border.

Cycling out of Berlin

A nice German town on our route

Hookers on the highway in Germany, in the countryside near the border with Poland

This is what Carol's pinky looked like after a spill. (It's not Carol's finger, but a picture we found on the web of a dislocated pinky after a bike accident, looking precisely the same as Carol's finger. We returned Carol's finger to normal position quickly, not wanting to delay to get a picture.)

Carol's finger after immobilizing it with medical tape

At the border, entering Poland

One of our first sights in Poland