Our guest speaker at our december meeting was Amy Gissen, who gave a great slide show and lecture about Myanmar, truly one of Asia's jewels.

For details of forthcoming meetings email newyork@globetrotters.co.uk or register for email updates at click here at our website.

New York meetings are held at The Wings Theater, 154 Christopher Street (btw Greenwich St and Washington St), to the right of Crunch Fitness, in the Archive on the first Saturday of each month at 4 pm.

Novodevichiy Convent (Nunnery) is one of the most beautiful Moscow convents. By studying its history we discover many facts about the history of the State, which is extremely interesting.

It was founded in the early 16^th century. Its main cathedral was consecrated in honour of the Smolenskaya Icon of the Mother of God Hodigitria. According to the legend, St. Luke himself painted the icon, and it is closely linked with the convent’s foundation.

So Great Prince Vassily 3 founded the Novodevichy Convent in 1524 in honour of the seizure of Smolensk. The Convent stood on the road leading to southwest, in the direction of Smolensk, a small town 300 km away from Moscow.

The convent is like a miniature Kremlin. Its cathedral church was built with the Kremlin Cathedral of the Assumption as a model, perhaps by the Italian architect Aleviz Fryazin, and in 1525 the copy of the Smolenskaya Icon was placed in it. The convent’s fortified, toothed walls and the towers were added at the end of the 16^th century in the reign of Boris Godunov, and their design was also based on the Kremlin. In the 17^th century the towers were decorated with splendid tracery crowns.

It was the richest convent in Moscow. Noblewomen of the time became noviciates in it- wives and widows of the tsars and boyars, their daughters and sisters – and on taking the veil they handed over their jewels, pearls, gold and silver. Women were secluded into this convent for several causes: either if they couldn’t get a divorce, which was impossible at those times, or if they became widows, also if they were to be devoid of their political rights, like it was the case with the sister of Peter the Great. It was here in 1689 that Peter the Great confined the intelligent and power-loving Sofia, who did not wish to concede the throne to her brother after he had attained adulthood.

The same fate was in store for Yevdokia Lopukhina, the first wife of Peter the Great and mother of Tsarevich Aleksei. In 1727 she was brought here from the Shlisselburg Fortress in St. Petersburg after Peter’s death, and not long before her own. Both of Peter’s relatives are buried in the convent’s Smolensk cathedral.

It was here, in the Novodevichy Convent, that Boris Godunov was «summoned to kingdom» in 1568. In the fire of 1812 the convent was nearly ruined. At the beginning of September numerous French soldiers were billeted here and later on Napoleon himself visited the place on horseback. Without dismounting he looked round at the convent and gave orders for the Church of John the Baptist to be blown up, then he departed. On the night of 8 October the French troops were getting ready to retreat. Before leaving they stuck lighted candles on the wooden iconostases and threw them on to the floor where they had scattered straw everywhere. In the cellar of Smolensky Cathedral the nuns discovered open barrels of powder with smouldering fuses. With only seconds before a terrible explosion, the nuns managed to put out the fuses and prevent a fire in the convent.

A picturesque pond with ducks just near the convent makes it a wonderful place.

Novodevichy Convent has been witness to many historical events in its time, but it managed to go through it, endure it and not only preserve but also multiply spiritual heritage with centuries.

After the revolution the convent was secularised, then it housed a branch of the State History Museum. Today it’s a convent with 2 museums but it has been given back to the church.

For information on Ontario meetings, please contact: Svatka Hermanek:

shermanek@schulich.yorku.ca or Bruce Weber: tel. 416-203-0911 or Paul Webb: tel. 416-694-8259.

Meetings are held on the third Friday of January, March, May, September and November. Usually at the Woodsworth Co-op, Penthouse, 133, Wilton Street in downtown Toronto at 8.00 p.m.

Whether it’s a Bank holiday or any other weekend, Layer Marney is the perfect place to take the family for a fun-packed day out. Situated down a quiet, single-track lane, well signposted from the historic town of Colchester, it is hard to believe that anything so beautiful could exist in the heart of the Essex countryside – that is until you reach the gates leading to the estate.

Seeped in history, the tower is the tallest, most elaborate Tudor gatehouse in England and an initial glimpse of the striking building will take your breath away. Constructed in the Italian design, popular in the period in which it was built and made from terracotta bricks, the gatehouse is a vibrant red colour and very eye-catching.

The house spans either side of the tower itself and is currently occupied and so not open for public viewing. Beautifully designed gardens surround the building and a signpost to the left of the tower indicates the presence of the church of St Mary The Virgin, where regular Sunday worship is still practised.

Lying to the South of the main gatehouse is the very long and very narrow, Long Hall. Features include a wrought iron fireplace on the right hand wall and black iron chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. The room itself is panelled with black wood and is the ideal venue to re-enact a Tudor banquet, where the staff will dress for the period and provide appropriate entertainment in the form of fire-eaters, jugglers or jesters.

On departing the hall you find yourself in a large courtyard, consisting of the Corsellis room (currently split into two housing the gift shop and the tearoom), and the barn that contains a collection of rare breed animals, many of which can be fed. There are also two farm walks, starting from the barn and varying in length, which include the chance to see the red deer that roam the grounds.

Entrance to the tower itself is via wooden double doors, passing a marbled jaguar cat on either side, into a small entrance room with archways to the left and right. All windows are arched and those in the entrance hall span the length of the wall. Dark curtains hang to the ground either side of the window and deer heads hang over each arch.

Those interested in Layer Marney’s history are advised to visit the History room – a large room thought to be the place where Queen Elizabeth I stayed on a visit to the tower in 1579 – which houses a model replica of the estate and also contains historical information. This room is found between the stairwells on the right and left of the tower and is reached via a well-maintained, spiral, wooden staircase. 95 steps lead to the top, where breathtaking views of the estate and surrounding countryside can be observed.

The estate is of interest to all ages and many events are held here, including craft fairs where there are activities and goods on offer for both young and old. It is also a popular venue for both civil ceremonies and wedding receptions and corporate events are often held here, where activities on offer include clay pigeon shooting, archery and jousting.

The tower has a colourful history and has seen many occupants over the years. It was built by Henry, the first Lord Marney, who wanted a home that would reflect his position as an important member of the royal court and it was originally intended to be a rival to Hampton Court Palace. By his death in 1515 only one side of the tower had been completed, however, the work was continued by his son until his death in 1525.

Though many others have lived at Layer Marney, the major restoration of the house was carried out by Sir Walter Zoete, who owned it from 1904. Following his death, ownership of the house passed to the Carrington family, descendants of whom currently occupy the property.

The history of Layer Marney Tower has led to it becoming a place of interest to those interested in paranormal activity. The voice of the first Lord Marney can often be heard echoing throughout the church that adjoins the tower and he may also be seen sliding down the banisters of the tower staircase as he attempts to scare those who interrupt his descent of the stairs.

All in all, if you’re ever in Essex with nothing to do, do pay Layer Marney Tower a visit. It’s a beautiful building set in beautiful countryside and is a little piece of history that should not be missed.

Layer Marney is open to the public daily from 1^st April till 5^th October 2003 and admission costs are £3 per adult or £2.50 per child. Further information can be gained from the website www.layermarneytower.co.uk

Clare is 27 years old and has a BSc in Anatomy and MSc in Forensic Science. She used to work at New Scotland Yard until she fell ill in December 2000 with ME. Clare is a first time mum to 8 month old Lauren and wife to Andrew. She writes freelance in any spare time and hope to begin writing a crime novel later this year (Beetle: PD James, watch out!) She is currently writing a children’s fairy story and various articles for mother and baby magazines.

Festive food and fellowship was shared at the December Texas branch meeting. The scheduled slide show of Portugal was postponed to the January meeting. In addition to the slide show we will share our 2003 travel goals during the January meeting. Hope to see you – same time, same place!

New Braunfels Public Library 700 E. Common Street, New Braunfels, Texas 830-620-5482, at 2pm, January 11th 2003

As the year 2002 comes to an end, the Texas Branch of the Globetrotters Club continues to flourish. If you have not yet joined the Globetrotters Club, now is the time to do so.

Go to http://www.globetrotters.co.uk/join/ and today! If it is time to renew your membership, do that today! Make sure you welcome 2003 as a member in good standing with the Globetrotters Club.

Dates of future meetings: January 11th, February 8th

The Globetrotters Club is encouraging anyone interested in writing articles

• without pictures for the free monthly Globetrotters e-newsletter, contact the Beetle on beetle@globetrotters.co.uk
• or with pictures, contact the editor of Globe on editor@globetrotters.co.uk

Learn more about Globetrotters at www.globetrotters.co.uk.

For more information about the Texas Branch: please Contact texas@globetrotters.co.uk or call Christina at 830-620-5482

Meetings are held at 2pm at the New Braunfels Public Library, 700 E. Common Street in New Braunfels, Texas. The meeting ends at 5 p.m. If you would like to continue travel talk on a more informal basis, we plan to adjourn to the Hoity-Toit, a local New Braunfels establishment. If anybody would like to enquire about meetings or help Christina, please contact her on: texas@globetrotters.co.uk

Edinburgh is making big efforts to entertain shoppers in the weeks before Christmas. It also plans to lay on what it claims to be the world's biggest Hogmanay party to welcome in the New Year. The Christmas illuminations will be switched on from Nov. 28, and there will be a German Christmas Market with more than 20 traders from Frankfurt, in Princes Street Gardens, which will also be the site of the Edinburgh Wheel (until Jan. 5) – the UK's tallest ferris wheel.

For the 10th successive year, Edinburgh's Hogmanay is a four-day programme to say farewell to the old year and welcome in the new (Dec.29 -Jan.1). Among the free highlights are the Torchlight Procession and Fire Festival, the Night Afore Fiesta (Dec.30, with massed pipes and drums and the world's largest ceilidh, a Celtic-style party), the Hogmanay Triathlon, and Huskies at Holyrood.

The vast Royal Bank Street Party (Dec.31) is free, but entry is by pass only: get one by joining the First Foot Club (£15). As well as entry to the party, this offers the holder discounts in shops and attractions, privileged booking for ticket events and a chance to enter members-only competitions. To join, call the First Foot Club membership hotline (0131 473 2056) or register and buy tickets on the website.

Whitechapel is considered by some to be the heart of the East End of London and over the centuries has hosted Jewish settlers, Irish dock workers and Bangladeshi workers in the 'rag trade'. It’s a street market right opposite the Royal London Hospital, and you’ll come on to it from Whitechapel underground station as you exit from it. The road is so-named because it led to the white chapel of St Mary Matfelon, made from white stone around 1250. In the 19th century, Whitechapel Road was the most important market in the area.

So what can you buy there? It is run predominantly by Asian traders and this is sometimes reflected in some of the goods on sale e.g. sari material and herbs and spices. You can find bedding, jewellery, clothing, tools, fresh fruit and veg, electrical goods – all sorts, open six days a week from Monday to Saturday from 8.00 until 18.00.

A space team in Canada is looking for three people to help pilot a rocket into space. This is part of a competition modeled on the 1927 contest to fly across the Atlantic Ocean, won by Charles Lindbergh. Canadian Arrow is one of two Canadian teams participating in the contest. Another 20 international teams are also racing to send the first manned commercial rocket into orbit. The first to get their three-person vessel 100 kilometres into space and back wins the title. The winner will have to repeat the flight again within two weeks to win a $10-million US prize. Geoffrey Sheerin, the leader of the London, Ont.-based Canadian Arrow project, said he is looking for smarts, a sense of adventure, and bravery.

“It's open to absolutely anyone. The possibility for anyone to fly is there,” Sheerin said. “We would like you to have some aeronautical experience, understand of aviation, and also hopefully to have some knowledge of rocketry.”

Wandering amongst Pisa’s famed sights, I found myself eased culturally back into Italy and following the big, rounded taste of the evenings Rosso Di Montepulciano I felt readied (or should be that steadied?) for the imminent return. The year that had passed seemed all too long to be away from such a good friend as Firenze…

No alarm call was needed to wake me from the darkened Sunday slumber of Pensione Rinascente – the bright, cool morning had already been disturbed by medieval equivalents! Whilst masses filed through splendid church facades, my own calling came from Pisa Centrale and as I found myself being drawn across the Arno a thought occurred – would the famed Italian trains be on time? My answer was forthcoming as the 9.18 was only a couple of minutes late and was already busy transporting people going about their Sunday lives. Moving away from the platform a certain sensation I had felt when travelling on warm, early morning trains across India flitted through my consciousness once again – a good omen for the journey I smiled!

Stops such as Pontedera disappeared behind the train as a hazy sun opened up a landscape of smallholdings, allotments and vine trails. Surrounded by the languid Italian chatter of our fellow passengers, I felt suitably drawn away from everything of the previous working week – a fleeting travel moment to be cherished. Further along the journey, the archetypal Italian station of Empoli and the ever changing faces of fellow passengers also reminded me of previous travels – this time of Inter-rail journeys. Playing that old game of guessing people’s destinations, I wondered whether the young Scandinavians were heading south or and whether the Africans were heading business like to northern destinations. Our route to Firenze narrowed through a rising valley as it progressed and as in many photos and films, I glimpsed some of the traditional Tuscan imagery – hill top villages connected by winding roads that twisted through lush green countryside and trees stretching skywards. Almost as the quickly as the track had risen did we descend down through the last few suburban stops and onto the final destination…Firenze!

I hadn’t thought what I’d wanted to see of my old friend again, but first thoughts were drawn along a slow loop through the heart of the city, across the Arno and up to the panorama of Piazzale Michelangelo. Familiar sites greeted me as Kate and I sped across the expanse of the rather unvisited Piazza Dell’ Unita Italia– the still petitioning HIV charity, the market where I purchased a most expensive wallet and then onto a renewing glimpse of the Duomo’s bell tower and Battistero. What struck me this time about the magnificent cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore (to give the Duomo its consecrated name) was not the beautiful façade but how the turret like bastions sat atop, allowing all comers to be seen. Being a Sunday we couldn’t undertake the winding climb to dome’s top (thankfully appreciated by my apprehension of heights) and the slower start to the day allowed us more space and time to enjoy the walk across Piazza del Duomo and onwards.

For those that cherish Firenze, Via De’ Calzaiuoli’s opening up on to

Piazza della Signora grandly displays much of what should be seen – the splendid Palazzo Vecchio with its dominating tower, the near perfectly copied statues of David or the beheading of Medusa by Perseus and the Uffizi’s columned walk ways sheltering its snaking queues! Though much of this grandeur owes its origins to the power of the Medici and their egos, its subsequent evolution into a marvel of civic planning underscores what the renaissance is depicted as representing. Even the mounted police seemed proud to be part of this elegant cityscape. We had little desire to enjoy the Uffizi’s always crowded galleries and somewhat cramped displays and instead Kate diverted us off to the quiet of Santa Croce. Previously I had strolled around this intriguing church with its incomplete facade and had found that many of two hundred plus monuments commemorated famous past lives – Michelangelo, Galileo and Dante I believe are of the many. The adjoining convent turned museum and its cloisters echo this silence and is a relatively unknown yet worthy destination for its visitors.

As the climb upwards began, I noticed another of those travelling oddities that catch my imagination – certain cities feature a building or place that my wandering always seems to take me through or past! In London it is the Embankment underground station, with Dublin it is O’Connell Bridge and with Firenze it is the Biblioteca Nazionale! Whatever view or late night revelry I have been party to, these buildings always seem found themselves within view and I have no idea why! As we swiftly crossed the modern Ponte Santa Niccolo we again had to pass this squared jawed building before moving over to the quieter side of the Arno.

The steep route up through the steps and gardens of Guiseppe Poggi lifts the walker onto a supreme vantage point! This perspective offers an unbeatable right to left panorama – the view sweeps back across the trail I’ve just described, over the Arno hunched Ponte Vecchio and through to the old Forte Di Belvedere. From here I could imagine no better way to present the city to visitors. Like many I sat awhile, allowing the warm breezes to brush across my face and savour my return to this wonderful city. Somewhat later our thirsts were indulgently quenched before moving on by visiting one of the hilltop gelateria and selecting a double-portioned cone. Here less cream and more ice is definitely better, with my favourite being strawberry overlain with pistachio! Whether any sports dietician would approve of such recharging remains to be seen but we were certainly ready to move on…

If you’d like to contact Matthew about his time in Firenze or any of his other travels, please e-mail him on: matthewdoughty@totalise.co.uk

source: Woody’s Travellers Watch

Travel@woodyswatch.com

It's great to see more and more business travellers using 'Outlook Web Access' (OWA) on the road. This is a webmail way to access corporate mail systems using Microsoft Exchange Server.

When you open OWA in a browser it looks much like normal Outlook. You can read, delete, reply and forward email plus manage your contacts, calendar, notes, tasks and public folders. There are some limitations (you can't move a message from one folder to another) but it works pretty well.

If your company uses Exchange Server but you don't have Outlook Web Access, ask your network administrator. OWA is installed by default on Exchange Server so it's probably ready for you even if the network gods haven't told you. If you're sneaky you can try finding it from a browser linked to your intranet by trying urls that have a company server name plus '/exchange' (the default folder) such as http:///exchange (e.g. http://mailmachine/exchange).

Outlook Web Access can be used inside a company network too. If you're away from your work desk or computer has broken you can access your mail from any browser. But OWA is mostly used by staff accessing mail from outside company premises. Provided your mail server is accessible from the Internet you can use OWA from any net terminal anywhere in the world.

The link to access OWA will probably be different away from the intranet, something like http://mail.dagg.com/exchange but your network gurus will give you the exact link.

However you access OWA you'll be prompted for your login name, password and possibly domain. This not only gives you access to the company mail server but also tells Exchange Server which mail account to display.

Security Tip: when you're using OWA from any computer not yours make sure you DON'T check the 'Remember this password' box. If you do so anyone could access you email from that public terminal after you walk away. When using someone else's computer on your intranet the same thing applies, you don't want someone else looking at your email.

With OWA available from anywhere, you might not have to lug your laptop! If you don't have much email or it's just a short trip then many business people have decided to leave their laptop computer at home and just check their email at public Internet terminals (cafe's, hotel business centres and some airline lounges).