Meeting with Alan and Pauline, and a farewell meal

We've met up, had a meal together and get ready to part tomorrow.

J&J will escape early, before breakfast, while Alan Pauline, Liz and I will breakfast first, before we go our separate ways.

Aaaahhhh, Liz and I get a day off from cycling tomorrow, while the adventure continues anew as J&J experience Ukraine, and how different that will be from what weve seen in Holland, Germany, and Poland.

Bon Voyage !

Another hot day in the 30s but I think we are getting use to the heat! Our last day with Garry and Liz they have been a great support team and I don't think we would have made it here without their back up!

Alan and Pauline arrived this afternoon so we are all looking forward to a good meal together tonight before we cross our final border in the morning!

Thank you everyone for the comments it is really good to hear from you!

The arrival of Alan and Pauline this afternoon in Chelm.They have a van and trailer full of aid for the revival center - this is what it is really about, and this is what we are raising money for so if you would like to donate you can by visiting www.justgiving.com/jamiejudymackay thank you very much and thank you to everyone who has already donated!

Day14.

Hot cycle ride from Radom to Lublin a distance of 74 miles in temperatures around the mid 30s still everyone has been so generous with sponsorship we have got to suffer a bit! Crossed the River Wisla at Pulawy and then cycled down the river for a bit. We noticed very fertile soil here and were amused to see hop gardens!
Another record broken today- our longest cycle ride John O'Groats to Land's End 1078 miles has been exceeded today total so far on this ride 1086!

A welcome sight for exhausted cyclists a "sklep" to re-fuel- excellent grocers every village has one - and they sell scrummy doughnuts for Jamie so no withdrawal symptoms from Dorringtons so far!

The bridge at Pulawy praps the Polish version of the Forth Road bridge!

The tandems hotel room!

St Thomas a Becket church, Sulejow

Day 14 - Naleczow - Jamie has Bratwurst

The girls had ice creams from the shop next door, and, feeling we were a bit naughty to have set up camp here and not spent anything at the burger van, Jamie orders bratwurst for lunch.

But its mid-30's and that's very, very hot for cycling !

Day 14 - Naleczow - lunch in a brick yard

Garry's choice for a lunch stop. A brick yard with a burger van.

Naleczow is quite a nice town, but every parking spot is manned by a clutch of little old ladies, and the admin involved in attempting to park (everything in triplicate) meant I sought out the only free spot in town.

Liz and Judy described the town as 'like Surrey'. On seeing my choice of lunch venue, Liz said "you can take the man out of Essex, but you can't take the Essex of of the man". Must try harder.

Day 12 - Sulejow

A walk around the monastery after dinner

1000 Miles

Today we rode past the 1000 mile mark since we left Essex. We have now arrived in Radom after a number of stops for cows in the cycle lanes. People walk their cows with them chained to bicycles out here and each family seems to have their own cow. A nice man who thought our tandem was 'superb' gave us a reflector for one of the pedals.

Jewish ghettos and concentration camps

Having a meal at this wonderful old hotel (built in 1176, just a couple of years before Felsted churuch!), we got chatting to a young family, and the wife (in her mid 30's) grew up here in the town of Opoczno, which we will be cycling thru tomorrow.

There were many towns here that had Jewish quarters, and in 1940 a Jewish ghetto was formed and many thousands crammed into that area before all being murdered.

She told us that, as a consequence of the communist era, such history was hidden and her visits to the cinema as a child were actually in what used to be the old synagogue. Only in recent years are the local populations rediscovering their own history, and starting only now, to establish memorials to all those who died.

Very poignant story. Garry & Liz will be returning to the UK in a few days, but plan to see some of that part of Poland's past by visiting Auchwitz and possibly Schindler's factory.... a dark part of our trip

Still cycling east! Or we hope we are! Left hotel this morning which was situated on the edge of a forest we say red poles and siskins. On the ride we passed a number of storks nesting on top of the telegraph poles and we saw a couple of harriers. We have seen a number of butterflies but nothing very exciting the odd peacock.

Our hotel a converted castle!

As we cycle through small settlements people seem to have one cow in the front garden!

Storks

Heading for the border...

Four more days and we hit Chelm....Alan and Pauline are setting off tomorrow (Weds) from Felsted in their van and Chelm is where we'll all meet up (Polish-Ukrainian border) Friday evening.

As we head further east, the likelihood of internet connections lessens, yet we've been pleasantly surprised at the hotels we've landed up in - Poland is a country in which an amazing amount of investment is going on.

But if we're off the radar for a couple of days, its lovely to keep receiving your comments, and your prayers are really important. God bless, Garry

Liz and I have just spent 45 minutes with the phrase book deciphering the Polish menu for Garry and Jamie -went to order only to be asked would we like the English menu!!!!!!!

19/July

A day of road works! Started well and a really wonderful smooth track so I decided to photo it and send it to David Cameron to show him what the Poles do for cyclists! However later in the day we cycled through a large town called Sierradz the whole place was one huge road work! We had to navigate over a half made bridge with no railings! Indeed the barrier was lying on our pathway so we had to climb over it carrying the tandem! All part of the adventure Jamie tells me!!!
The fields are much smaller in this part of Poland more strip farming - a strip of wheat, then beet, then of course cabbages, courgettes, and big glass houses full of tomatos.