The Great 500 (and us)
Anna, Isabel and George Vinton is raising money for Marie Curie
Participants: Anna, Isabel and George
Story
We did it! We cycled 513kms from Krackow to Warsaw. It was a challenge, but also very enjoyable. The weather was superb, and the countryside delightful. Poland is still highly agricultural, with many small farms. We rode through miles, sorry kilometres of apple orchards, the apples ripe on the trees, through market gardens and saw more old tractors than I have ever seen in my life.
We had our aches and pains, sore knees etc., and the really odd ailment owing to the pot holes in the road, was our hands and fingers went numb. I have still not totally regained the use of my left hand, but I am expecting to do so!
George knocked Isabel off her bike on the last day ( trust a brother), but even so we still all arrived at the Warsaw Palace of Culture triumphant. Finishing a ride like that does make you feel a bit smug.
Thank you all so much for your support. Marie Curie has raised well over 1 million pounds from the Great 500. It goes to support the work Marie Curie does looking after people at the end of their lives. All of it is needed to fund the work Marie Curie is doing this year, in its hospices, and with its nurses and scientists.
With my Polish roots, not only was it wonderful to see my Father's home town, Lvov, but it was also inspiring to see the progress Poland has made since I was last there, some 20 years ago. It no longer looks like a communist backwater, and is almost looking like a Western European country. Both Krackow and Warsaw have been cleaned up, painted or rebuilt, and are lovely cities, despite Warsaw's tragic past.
The countryside is delightful, but how long it will continue with its old fashioned farming ways is hard to tell. I am so pleased for the Poles, they did not deserve what they got in the 20th Century, and now they have the chance to show what they are made of. My Father would have been proud of them.
The photograph is of the group who cycled from Krakow, we are on the far right in the centre of the group
Thank you so much for the support you gave us, and also the support you gave Marie Sklodowska Curie.
We had our aches and pains, sore knees etc., and the really odd ailment owing to the pot holes in the road, was our hands and fingers went numb. I have still not totally regained the use of my left hand, but I am expecting to do so!
George knocked Isabel off her bike on the last day ( trust a brother), but even so we still all arrived at the Warsaw Palace of Culture triumphant. Finishing a ride like that does make you feel a bit smug.
Thank you all so much for your support. Marie Curie has raised well over 1 million pounds from the Great 500. It goes to support the work Marie Curie does looking after people at the end of their lives. All of it is needed to fund the work Marie Curie is doing this year, in its hospices, and with its nurses and scientists.
With my Polish roots, not only was it wonderful to see my Father's home town, Lvov, but it was also inspiring to see the progress Poland has made since I was last there, some 20 years ago. It no longer looks like a communist backwater, and is almost looking like a Western European country. Both Krackow and Warsaw have been cleaned up, painted or rebuilt, and are lovely cities, despite Warsaw's tragic past.
The countryside is delightful, but how long it will continue with its old fashioned farming ways is hard to tell. I am so pleased for the Poles, they did not deserve what they got in the 20th Century, and now they have the chance to show what they are made of. My Father would have been proud of them.
The photograph is of the group who cycled from Krakow, we are on the far right in the centre of the group
Thank you so much for the support you gave us, and also the support you gave Marie Sklodowska Curie.