Story
DAILY BLOG: to see this, please copy and paste www.meirionharries.london/blog into a separate tab.
The Grand Depart took place on Sunday 22nd March from Berlin - with 101 hours of cycling around Germany. We finally completed the trip on Sunday 9th August, 2020.
Thank you so much to everyone who donated to the St Martin in the Fields homeless project.
St Martin in the Fields is a very special place. Dick Sheppard, Vicar from 1914 to 1927 began the church's support for the homeless; he described St Martin's as the "Church of the Ever Open Door". Under successive Vicars, that ethos has been maintained. St Martin's was open to Susie's father and the Academy as a place to find their unique orchestral voice and to Susie and me at our wedding there in 1979. The then Vicar, Austen Williams, saw no reason that homeless people sheltering in the church not stay on the side benches during the rehearsal for our wedding - or at the wedding itself: the doors are ever open to all.
In this pandemic, the homeless are particularly vulnerable and the work of St Martin's even more important. So, with Susie marshalling the route (but not navigating) and Jamie's map in hand, I pedalled, albeit on an exercise bike, for 101 hours notionally from Matthew and Anne's apartment in Berlin to Trafalgar Square in the hope of raising even a tiny part of the money that St Martin's needs. Thank you again, everyone!