Hello all,

Time for a catch up from busy London 🙂  We’ve had Easter, a Royal wedding and a very pleasant spring all arrive since I last wrote…and now as I walk about, I can realise I can hear so many voices & accents from further afield.  I’m so lucky to live and work in such a varied, stimulating & vibrant city.

Part of that enjoyment is participating in the Globetrotters Club and putting this eNewsletter together…I like hearing about peoples’ adventures & enjoyment.

Anyway, enough of waxing lyrical – read on & enjoy…

What else is happening across the wider travel world?

• Follow the progress of the “It’s on the meter team” and their round the world journey by London taxi at http://www.itsonthemeter.com/blog.htm
• Follows the progress of Sarah Outen’s “London2London” adventure at http://sarahouten.co.uk/london-to-london-via-the-world/

That’s all for now, enjoy the read and keep sending me more of your stories, adventures and articles 🙂

The Ant

theant@globetrotters.co.uk

James Littlewood & Tracey Dornan – Boy girl bike road.   “She dreamt of seeing the world, but couldn’t justify the carbon. He had always dreamed of the challenge of cycling to Hong Kong. With no previous experience of cycle touring, lycra or life together this is the adventure of one couple and their view from the saddle on an attempt to circumnavigate the globe by bicycle and boat.  A cycle ride of 18,000 miles through 23 countries.”

Lord Ian Strathcarron – Byron and the Grand Tour.

“Two hundred years ago, between 1809-11, Lord Byron completed his Grand Tour of the Mediterranean. He was 21 when he left London. After catching a packet from Falmouth to Lisbon, his entourage rode down to Sevilla and Cadiz. He then sailed from Gibraltar to Sardinia, Sicily, Malta, Greece, Albania, back to Greece then Turkey, Malta again and then with a heavy heart home to England. His voyage was exotic and poetic, erotic and eccentric.

On June 14th 2008 Solent sailors Ian and Gillian Strathcarron boarded their Freedom 40 Vasco da Gama at Bucklers Hard and sailed off to recreate Lord Byron’s Grand Tour. Their own voyage was propitious and perilous, mysterious and mischievous – but seldom abstemious.”

Read more about Ian in the steps of Byron at http://web.me.com/strathcarron/ByronGrandTour/Welcome.html

The London branch’s future meetings are detailed at London Meeting Programme.

London meetings are held at The Church of Scotland, Crown Court, behind the Fortune Theatre in Covent Garden at 2.30pm the first Saturday of each month, unless there is a UK public holiday that weekend.

There is no London meeting in August, but we start afresh each September.

For more information, contact the Globetrotters Info line on +44 (0) 20 7193 2586, or visit the web site: https://globetrotters.co.uk/local-meetings.html.

Hi The Ant

We had a great meeting in Chester last Saturday the 19th of March, we are getting a regular stream of people now between 35 to 40 on average and we certainly hope that this is going to continue so by the end of the year we will have a little money saved up to go into 2012.

We had two wonderful speakers again, the first talk was about a cycle journey from Scotland to Italy for charity – Saol who is originally from Mexico and now lives in Chester had lots of interesting and funny stories about his experience on this trip.  Saol had wonderful photos to show and everyone really enjoyed his adventure.  The money that was raised during the ride went to help with schools in Nepal and Mexico.

The second speaker, last year’s Globetrotters’ travel award winner, Doreen Taylor did her talk about the journey she made to India – it was a journey back in time, following in the footsteps of Rudyard Kipling. The journey included the Golden Temple and some interesting train journeys, especially into the mountains.  Doreen kept us captivated with her personal experiences and quiet a few tips on where to go and things to see, it was a very enjoyable afternoon and while chatting to other Globies after her talk it seems that she has wetted a few appetites.

We had a good turnout again with lots of people meeting in the tea break, talking and exchanging experiences and tips.

Our next date for your diary is 28th May the talks will cover “My time in Hong Kong” by Madeleine Anderson who has lived there for some time, plus African Brew HA-HA a Motorcycle Quest from Lancashire to Cape Town by Alan Whelan

We look forward to welcoming fellow travelers and others on that day!

Thanks again for your help

Kind Regards

Hanna

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 atchesterbranch@globetrotters.co.uk

Tentative future presentations include:-

• Friday 27 May : “Egypt and Jordan” by Jay Wopperer & Linda
• Saturday? July : summer picnic, details to be confirmed
• Friday 16 September : “Argentina” by Eduardo Barnett
• Friday 18 November : “Guatemala with Horizons of Friendship” by Bruce Weber

Toronto meetings are held at 8.00pm on the third Friday of January, March, May (4^th Friday), September and November, at Old York Tower, 85 The Esplanade, in downtown Toronto.

Everyone welcome especially visiting travellers 🙂

For more information contact Svatka Hermanek at hermanek@yahoo.ca, Bruce Weber at bruceaweber@hotmail.com / on tel. 416 203-0911.

What a night, such a night, a night out a couple of days before a big party at my daughter’s, to celebrate her returning to see friends and family, as she now lives with hers in China.

A small café bar by the border of Belgium and France called “A Mou Morel”, at 15 Rue de Wervicq ‘Comines’.  On the Flemish side of the border,   but most people also spoke French.  A bar in the owner’s house, with the warmth of a place that is used by locals, as if it is their front room, rather than the owners’, with card players and friends chatting away.  On entering this small bar all glanced up and looked at us as if we came from the planet Zog !  Hardly ever did tourists arrive at this bijou place but when they did, they always returned again if they were anywhere in the area.  A very warm welcome to all of us as we came in for an aperitif before moving a few doors down to eat at a more than excellent restaurant.

Slowly like an old meandering river, the red wine flowed out of the bottle swirled slowly around, into this very large glass and the owner said, “Free for you, if you finish it” !

“I’m British”, I said, in my very best French and thought I saw her face blanch !  The locals all stopped their card playing and chatting, to watch this group make a fool of ourselves.  My daughter and her friend joined in the fun and shared a large glass of white !  Half way through drinking this good red wine, I began to wonder if I would make the restaurant and the bar began to feel as if it was my front room with lots of friends of mine enjoying themselves.  Considering this was very close to little Francesca’s party, I thought of it as training for the big one.  We did get to the restaurant and food was sumptuous and I only drank a little but even so, I think I was well oiled and the way home was thanks to my son in law, Bernard.  By the way I did finish the large glass of red and I think the landlady will check the nationality of the tourist next time – Just in case they turn out to be Brits.

Tony Annis 8^th Feb.2011

All – Committee member Jacqui Trotter received this kind email from charity Arthritis Research UK, following on a from a talk by sailing adventurer Sarah Outen at the London branch.  After being entertained so well, the audience contributed to an ad-hoc collection that has been well received by Arthritis Research UK 🙂

The Ant

Dear Miss Trotter,

On behalf of everyone here at Arthritis Research UK, thank you again for your very generous donation of £165.00. Your support is so valuable to us as it means we can continue to fund the vital research that’s needed to take away the pain and distress of arthritis.

It is very kind of the members of The Globetrotters Club to choose to support our cause following a talk given by Sarah Outen who did a sponsored event in our favour, we greatly appreciate this generosity.

Your gifts are helping to fund research to stop the pain of arthritis and hopefully prevent future generations being affected by this devastating condition.

Our pioneering research is helping to identify the genetic factors that lead to conditions such as osteoarthritis, which affects over 6 million people in the UK alone. Your gifts are also helping our top scientists to look at how taking supplements, like vitamin D, could stop the progression of life-changing conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis and osteoporosis.

If you want to find out even more about arthritis and what can be done to ease the pain, please visit our website www.arthritisresearchuk.org.  If you suffer from arthritis yourself, you can share your experiences with others.  And you’ll find a wealth of useful information about our research projects, different types of arthritis and much more.

Many thanks once again from all of us here at Arthritis Research UK for your kind donation.

Best wishes

Joanne Unwin

Supporter Services Administrator

t: 0300 790 0400

e: J.Unwin@arthritisresearchuk.org

w: www.arthritisresearchuk.org