The last meeting was on March 15: Bruce Weber talked about Yucatan.

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.

Music and travel have been synonymous since the hippies took their music along with them in the sixties. Certain pieces of music have the ability to remind of places we have been and the experiences we enjoyed there. Here are my top 5 that evoke cherished memories of my travels.

Istanbul – “Mea Culpa” by Enigma, it was the first time I had heard this piece, as it woke us from our sleep as well pulled into Istanbul in a January snowstorm. It was a wonderful way to arrive in a place I had long wished to visit.

Iran – “Silk Road, God is Good” from Lonely Planet. This haunting piece will remind anyone who has travelled in the Middle East, but for me particularly of Iran, of the early morning call to prayer resonating from the towers of the ornate mosques.

Yangshuo – “Linger” by The Cranberries. One of my abiding memories of this lovely Chinese town is this song wafting out of virtually every Restaurant and backpacker hotel in the place. Whenever I hear this song on the radio at home it always evokes memories of China.

Australia – “Highway” by Gond Wana Land from the album, “Let the dog out”. Our bus driver played this super album as we crossed Australia’s Red Centre, the didgeridoos providing a fitting accompaniment to the landscape that passed outside the window.

France – “Anni Rose” by Tulka from the Buddha bar album by Claude Challe. This piece will always be a reminder of happy days and warm evenings in the south of France, while doing an Astanga course.

Write in and tell us your musical memories and associations! the Beetle

6th April Kevin Morgan kicked off with a wonderful slide show of dolphins, whales and other marine and bird life ranging from Antarctica to the Bahamas! We all left feeling wiser and almost confident of being able to distinguish bottle nosed dolphins from spinners! His slides finished with an evocative tape of the sounds made by whales.

After the break, Cass Gilbert showed us some fabulous pictures of Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Kyrgyzstan (and other places ending in “stan” that the beetle cannot spell!) Amazingly, he completed this incredible journey by tandem, through parts of the old Silk Route, past ancient cities, churches, mosques, and markets, occasionally, with his female tandem partner cycling in veil and long trousers, much to the bemusement of many locals.

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, except that due to public holidays, May’s meeting will be on Saturday 11th May at 2.30pm. June’s meeting will be held at 2.30pm on June 8th.

For more information, you can contact the Globetrotter Info line on +44 (0) 20 8674 6229, or visit the website: http://www.globetrotters.co.uk

The May 11 meeting will meet at the library at 3 p.m., if you were not able to make the April picnic. The picnic went swimmingly – great weather, great company, good food – thanks to Christina for organising it!

Meetings are held at 3pm 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

In the 15th Century, Dick Whittington, who was the Lord Mayor of London at the time, designated this site as an official food market and it has been serving the people of London ever since. Archaeologists say that the site is on what was once a Roman Forum.

It even gets a mention in Charles Dickens’ Nicholas Nickleby, as a place to buy new laid eggs.

The market's name was taken from a fourteenth century mansion with a lead roof. Traders from outside London were first allowed to sell their poultry here, then in 1377 cheese and butter. The City Corporation bought the house and estate in 1411, and in 1445 the newly built granary became a general market for poultry, victuals, grain, eggs, butter, cheese etc. The market and the mansion were both burnt down in the Great Fire of 1666 and the market was rebuilt round three large courtyards. The first yard was mainly a beef market, but it also sold leather, wool and raw hides on certain days. The second yard sold veal, mutton and lamb; but fishmongers, poulterers and cheesemongers had stalls here too. The third yard was a herb market selling fruit and vegetables.

Today, with its iron and glass architecture, an excellent example of Victoriana, Leadenhall has been the location for many a film, much to the bemusement of many a city slicker as this market is in Gracechurch St, close to Lloyds of London, in the heart of the City, London’s financial district. Today's market has high quality butchers and fishmongers, greengrocers, chocolate shops and bars, with high prices perhaps to reflect its location.

The market is open Monday-Friday daytime, some shops and bars remain open into the evening. The nearest tube is probably Bank, but others close by include Liverpool St, Aldgate and Tower Hill.

Next month: Petticoat Lane

While I spent last week in the shadow of Kilimanjaro the thought occurred to me, “Is anywhere still truly remote?” Though we were in the middle of Maasailand and a five-mile walk from the nearest town, Britney Spears still wafted through the air as we worked to lay the foundation for a Maasai health clinic. Though we have ants here so big they are used to close wounds (let them bite it, then twist their heads off), we have also brought modern surgical staple guns. Though people in the neighbouring shamba (village) were trampled by elephants last month, I saw one Morani warrior who kept his ear hole open with an Estee Lauder lotion bottle and used a dismantled Bic lighter as part of his headdress. In short, Rombo, in the far south of Kenya, is very remote and yet shockingly global. Likewise are the other Global Citizens Network volunteers with whom I am helping to bend metal for the clinic’s framework.

Source: Building Clinic in Kenya Opened Volunteer's Eyes about 'Remoteness'by Sean Maurer / Global Citizens Network (via GoNomad.com)