Police in countries beginning with 'U'

On the motorway between Kiev and L'viv we got fined for speeding again. It seems that the Ukrainian police are exactly the same as the Uzbek police. So it goes like this; we are heading along the motorway at 68 mph at the most, usually going at about 65 (the limit is 68 /110 kph), we then get waved on to the hard shoulder by a policeman with a big wavy stick and a whistle who tells us that the limit 38mph, and that we had just driven through a village! There really was no evidence of a village and certainly no speed limit signs. So we did the usual, smiled a lot looked shocked and sorry, spoke a lot in English (which the officer did not understand). Luckily it was very easily resolved by paying the fine. We were told that the fine was a minimum of 350 and a maximum of 550 local currency ($26-37). Andy opened his almost empty wallet and showed the officer the money that was left (not much, as our main stash was hidden in the tent bag). The officer then pointed to the $20 note, and in one slick transaction the officer opened his notebook and Andy slipped in the $20 note, and the notebook was flipped closed. All in a blink of an eye!

We did our routine ride straight to McDonalds to sit outside and use the free wifi so that we could decide where to stay in L'viv. We found a great spa hotel with spaces on trip advisor where we decided to stay for the night. Upon arrival we were told that the price was far higher than quoted on trip advisor and that they only had suites left! Needless to say that the receptionist backtracked very quickly when I showed her my phone with trip advisor on the screen and offered us a big discount and a double room.

Whilst in the hotel it was rather alarming to watch the news and see how the problems between Ukraine and Russian governments were worsening. There was a lot of footage of tanks at the boarder between Russia and Ukraine!

The following morning we left L'viv and headed for Oswiecim Poland. When we reached the border we found a 1 1/2 mile queue of solid stationary cars which trailed all of the way to the boarder crossing! Thankfully being on a motorbike meant that we were allowed to queue jump directly to the front of the line. Once there we proceeded through customs in about 20 minutes. I would imagine that the poor souls trapped in their cars at the back of the que had a very long day /night of waiting in stationary traffic before they were allowed to enter the border zone.