Final Comments, and Thank You

Thanks to all the supporters of Walk to Beat Polio



I would like to extend my great thanks and appreciation to all those individuals, whether Rotarians or friends and family, who supported the "Walk to Beat Polio" project.

Whether your support was financial and/or emails with words of encouragement, they all helped to inspire me to complete the walk. And there is no better cause to support than Rotary International’s effort to eradicate polio from the world once and for all.

There is no doubt that I underestimated "mother nature" when I thought that the weather this year would be much the same as it was last year. All my research indicated it might only be a bit cooler and a bit wetter. I had no expectation that I would face winter-like conditions for almost 10 days and I was ill prepared to deal with it. You can deal with hot and wet weather fairly readily as it is mostly a discomfort but freezing temperatures with strong winds is something totally different when you don't have adequate clothing. Those were the times that supporters made the difference. I thank you all for making the difference.

Hans



NOVEMBER 10

Had a pretty good sleep despite the noise of being next door to the cathedral area and waking up to cough once in a while. It rained during the night and it is drizzling at the moment. Nothing new there. Seems like Galicia is under a permanent cloud.....must be too much sinning going on here and rain is the punishment.

I am buying a train ticket later today and will leave around 1330 on Tuesday, arriving in Madrid at around 2100. There I’ll spend a couple of days – hopefully the weather will be better there.




Cidade da Cultura de Galicia (Galicia’s City of Culture)


On one of the hills overlooking the city they are building a huge complex that will act as a place for study and and research of Galicia´s culture both past and future. It is based on the architectural design of American architect, Peter Eisenman. I had seen a documentary about it earlier this year and had hoped to be able to visit it. It turns out that the project which was started in 2001 is now scheduled for completion in 2012 and that the pace of progress has dwindled to a slow crawl due to cost escalation and political interference. They have a way to go before they challenge the amount of time it took to build the cathedral - about 125 years! So there are no tours and I can’t visit for a few more years.

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