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.
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There was no New York meeting in October, but we will resume in November – Subject will be Tibet by Ken Axen!
For details of forthcoming meetings email newyork@globetrotters.co.uk or register for email updates, click here at our website.
New York meetings are held at The Wings Theatre, 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. Admission: $8.00 for members and $10.00 for non-members.
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The Burma Campaign UK has released its latest list of companies that invest in Burma, or Myanmar as it is called by the country’s military dictatorship. You may be interested to know that high class UK travel company Abercrombie and Kent are on the “dirty” list. For more info, see: Burma Campaign
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Work on a tunnel and rail system under the Bosporus Strait connecting Europe and Asia in has just started in Istanbul. The tunnel will be 13.7 kilometres long, (8.5 mile) tunnel and 1,400 meters of the tunnel will be underwater. The Bosporus Strait, a 32 km waterway connects the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara, separating European Turkey from Asian Turkey. It bisects Istanbul as it flows by historic Ottoman castles, mosques and parkland. The tunnel will become the third link between the city's European and Asian sides.
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If you have a travellers tale that your aching to tell. Then why not visit the “Travel Sized Bites” section of the Website and share it with the world. Travel Sized Bites
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Spain, which attracts 50 million tourists a year, is building its first private airport 200 km (125 miles) south of Madrid in a bid to lure budget airlines away from the capital and develop a deprived mining area. The airport is expected to be operational from the second half of 2006, is being built on the plains of La Mancha, best known for Cervantes's Don Quixote and will be named after the windmill-tilting knight.
The new airport has been nicknamed “Madrid's Luton” after the British airport outside London which challenges London's Heathrow and Gatwick, particularly in the budget flight market. The Don Quixote airport will try to woo low cost airlines with lower tariffs and flexible timetables. A high-speed train link connects Ciudad Real with central Madrid in 45 minutes, making it a viable alternative to the capital.
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Spanish police are targeting tourist resorts in a crackdown on holidaymakers who drink and drive. Until this summer, penalties for drink-driving applied only to full-time residents with tourists being let off with a caution and a small fine. But now visitors who commit the offence will face fines of up to £5,000 and a three-year ban from driving in Spain. Those involved in accidents resulting in the death or injury of others will be jailed. Despite its modern road system, Spain has one of Europe's worst safety records, with one person killed or injured every 11 minutes.
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Meeting news from our branches around the world.
Our first speaker was Simon Casson, who took us on a journey in the footsteps of his hero Butch Cassidy, riding the Outlaw Trail. Simon’s pictures portrayed the barren deserts through which the outlaws managed to stay one step ahead of the law. It was not an easy journey, made more challenging when Simon managed to buy a horse that was blind! Over the course of his trip Simon and his two companions got through a number of horses and also lost a couple. Simon finally managed to reach Canada some months later than planned.
Our second speaker was Calum Macleod, who took us Uzbekistan. The country only gained its independence from the USSR in 1991. We saw the beautiful cities of Khiva and Samarkand with their minarets and spires and wonderful blue tiles. Simon explained that the country is allegedly becoming easier to visit, so hopefully more of us will get the opportunity to visit these cities.
Mark your diary for forthcoming meetings:
Sat. 6th November
Sat. 4 December
Sat. 8th January 2005 (the second Saturday)
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. There is no London meeting in August, but we will be back in September. For more information, you can contact the Globetrotters Info line on +44 (0) 20 8674 6229, or visit the website: www.globetrotters.co.uk Admission: Members £2.00 Non-members £4.00.
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Budding British travel operator Don Lucey is proposing to offer tours to Iraq. Never mind the troops, killings and kidnappings, Don Lucey, a former soldier and policeman who worked in Iraq in 2003 has set up Bann Tours in Swindon, western England. “It has a lot to offer, a lot of history. It's not just all war and people killing each other. Obviously terrorists scare a lot of people, but people like myself want to prove that they are not in control,” he said in a telephone interview.
Lucey said tourism in Iraq had to start somewhere, and that he and his clients were determined to be the catalyst. The 10-day trip, which will take in some ancient sites, costs 1,200 pounds ($2,192) per person, not including insurance.
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