Hallo to everyone again
We had a really great meeting again, with 2 fantastic speakers! If you couldn’t make it we have written a short review of the talks so you get the gist of what went on!
Hope to see you for our next meeting again, Saturday May 19th and the talks are as follows:-
- My time in Australia speaker: Matthew Proe
- From Kathmandu to Tibet speaker: Dominique Schickele
See you on the 19th of May
Kind Regards
Hanna, Angela and Eve
Chester Globetrotters meeting on Saturday 17th of March 2012
The first talk was by Madeleine Anderson who had made a journey to South Africa to do the Garden Route by bike. Madeleine has been a Globetrotter for many years and loves to travel off the beaten track.
Having arrived in Port Elizabeth, via Johannesburg, they transferred to Tsisikama National Park to commence the cycle ride, via Knysna to Mossel Bay. The roads were well off the beaten track and bumpy at times but they had good mountain bikes which carried the small group further on to Cape Agulhas, the most southerly point of the African continent, next stop: Antarctica!
Back on the bike sharing the terrain with the local wildlife along the coast, over Chapman’s Peak onto Haut Bay where the cyclists shared an amazing sense of achievement to have arrived at their end point. On the way they stopped to include a whale watching trip but no whales to be seen at that time, they were rewarded later on in the trip off the coast in Simons Town where they saw whales and porpoise frolicking in the sea.
A visit was made to the Langa Township where a tour of the place gave some insight into the way of life there. Madeleine felt that it could be seen as voyeuristic and different opinions exist on this subject.
The whole journey was a wonderful success and Madeleine met up with a friend who lived locally and together they had a helicopter flight over Cape Town before the moment that she had to return back to Blighty !
The second talk was by John Sunter about Lisbon, the cheapest city in Europe – John travels as much as he can and loves a good bargain trip!
John had £150 to spend and the first thing he did was going on the website Moneysaving flychecker to find the cheapest deal available to him, he managed to get a flight and hotel for 3 nights for under £150.Planning is important for John and he visited the more important sights such as Baixa, Avenida , Alfama in the morning so that gets the most out the trip. Mornings are cooler and you have more energy! John found that wherever you are it always pays off to ask a builder for cheap places to eat so look out for a building site!
Baixa and Avenida are in the centre of Lisbon and close to the water, there is a lovely atmosphere with the old buildings and some of the time of the Moors. You can sit by the water and relax, there is always something going on there.
Alfama is the very old area with all the alleyways, very steep and many houses still with the blue/white tiling as decoration. The top of the hill houses Castle Sao Jorge, which was build originally in 1147 and rebuild a few times over the years, the latest rebuild in 1938.
John talked about the history of the city, the spice trade and ships sailing from there to the Cape of Good Hope, which is a link with Madeleine’s talk. He managed to visit the maritime museum which was worth it and enjoyed every minute of his stay in Lisbon!
The info he got from one of the builders in the city paid off, Burger and Chips £ 2.80, Pizza enough for 3 people £8 and a Chinese Buffet £ 3 each, so a lot of good advice and tips to spend a great time in Lisbon.
We had a good turn out again and lots of stories to share in the tea break. We went to the Golden Eagle afterwards where we shared a pint and more stories and friendships were made. Chester Globetrotters gets better every time!
Chester meetings are held at The Grosvenor Museum, 25 – 27 Grosvener Street, Chester, CH1 2DD.
Tickets £3 including refreshments.
For more information contact Angela, Hanna or Eve for further information of this & future events at Chester via email at chesterbranch@globetrotters.co.uk