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Not sure what to buy your loved ones next Christmas? Why not buy a Ryanair cartoon? This one, see: shows a picture of a man booking a budget flight. The booking agent is grinning frantically and says: the flight is only 99p but it will cost another £120 if you want to do it inside the plane. Yes, quite.

An interesting article in http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=68464 about a man in the US calling a help line to make a complaint to Ryanair’s head office in Dublin. Before calling he noticed that the charges were quite high – 1.75 euro from the Republic of Ireland or £1 from the UK to call. The message clearly stated that the number was for an Irish office. He called several times and each time spoke with someone with an Italian accent and at one point was told that he was calling Italy though other people he spoke to denied this. So he decided to ask what was the weather like in Dublin and not a single person could answer him, so he deduced that he was actually calling Italy. Eventually he managed to speak to a supervisor who also has an Italian accent and they admit that the office where all the calls were going was in Milan in Italy. The supervisor could not explain why the staff were pretending to be in Dublin while actually being in Italy. She would neither confirm nor deny that they had been instructed to lie when asked where they were. Anyone know why?

Oh dear, it seems that Ryanair is coming under scrutiny for poor working conditions. A new website has been set up in September 2004: http://www.ryan-be-fair.org/latestnews.htm to communicate with passengers and employees of Ryanair. From this, the website says, two key issues have arisen:

• Lack of respect and how staff are generally treated
• Salaries and working conditions being as bad as they are.

The International Union Federation said that the website has attracted over half a million hits and revealed what it described as a 'shocking catalogue of misery, low pay and oppression' among the airline's workers. Ryanair employees have used http://www.ryan-be-fair.org to talk about the climate of fear that surrounds them, of 12 hour days without breaks, and of how they even have to pay for the water they need to drink on flights. If you have any information you would like to share about Ryanair, contact the website – everything is strictly confidential, and the website assures that they will not pass your details on to anybody.

[Beetle: These links seem to be down at present, but you can read them via google’s cache here and here]

Another interesting article in the International Herald Tribune by a journalist who underwent the Ryanair experience.

Globetrotter Steve spotted this:

The new partnership between Ryanair and Terravision, the new low cost coach company, now ensures that Ryanair passengers will be able to travel between Rome Ciampino airport and Rome centre, Milan Bergamo airport and Milan centre, Pisa G. Galilei airport and Florence centre quickly and comfortably, but above all at a really low cost!

Look for the Terravision icon on http://www.ryanair.com to book and purchase tickets and avoid queues or alternatively go to one of the many Terravision booths located in 15 European airports. Watch out for new openings in other European city destinations on

Meeting news from our branches around the world.

Our original speaker Matthew Leaming unfortunately had to drop out at very short notice, so Dick Curtis filled the gap with an interesting talk on a trip he made to China . The talk was a bit random as Dick had 3 sets of slides marked A, B & C, and the audience chose the order! I was glad to see Dick produce photos not just of the Great Wall and all the other sights you would expect, but also photos of the people and landscapes of this vast nation. Well done Dick.

Our second speaker was Amar Grover who gave us another talk on Pakistan. We saw the Khyber Pass near Peshawar, and then to the north to Gilgit to see photos of the spectacular mountains. As with the previous talk we saw the people, many are fair skinned descendents of Alexander the Great's army, who came through the area over 2000 years ago. Amar also showed us rural life, including colourful pictures of Apricots drying in the sun.

January 2005

Globetrotters first meeting of 2005 got off to a great start as Martin Featherstone , showed us pictures of all the exciting places he went to during his army days, then he gave us a talk on Belgium! To be precise he showed us the battlefields and cemeteries of WW1 and told us the stories of some of the many allied servicemen who gave their lives. He then showed us the battlefields and told some of the stories from southern Africa, including Rourkes Drift, explaining how a tiny group of Dutch settlers put their carriages in a circle and managed to defeat more than 15,000 Zulu warriors. Martin has a way of bringing these stories to life with such as why a Zulu spear had a special name, it was supposed to be the sound the spear made when it was removed from its victim, well it made the front row wince!

Our second speaker was Kevin Brackley whose talk on Sinai was hot off the press having only returned 4 days previously. His journey took him from Cairo, where he took in the pyramids and Sphinx, under the fascinating Suez canal where he watched ships in the desert and into Sinai. Kevin showed us the wonderful, if chilly sunrise at Mount Sinai, before he went camel trekking (KFC in Egypt stands for Kentucky fried camel) and walking in the White canyon, before chilling out on the Red Sea at Dahab.

After the interval we had a quiz, those who only got two answers correct will not be named (but for this they should send a donation to the Tsunami fund or else!), the winner of the Wind up radio was John Goddard , congratulations John.

Jayesh Patel was our third speaker and he took us to the glaciers of Chile . Jayesh and his party trekked into the windswept landscape, camping when there was no room in the Inn. Jayesh showed us the spectacular glaciers, icebergs and to prove how windy it was pictures of trees bent over at right angles. We saw the wonderful Torres del Paine National park in Chile with its fabulous rock towers.

Julian Webster arrived in the nick of time to give us a quick tour of India , starting in the Himalayas, then into warmer areas of Rajasthan, we saw some super pictures of the rainy season and my favourite of all a lifeguard in Kerala with a comical “Go-faster” pointy hat! Julian's images brought the warmth of India to a chilly London in January.

Many thanks to all todays speakers who helped to make our first meeting of the year a great success. The day culminated with the annual New Years party, enjoyed by all, thanks to Nadia and her helpers.

We cannot finish without mention of the Tsunami that struck on Boxing day. The days takings at the door of £157 have been donated to the fund.

Next month, on Saturday 5th March 2005, Matthew Leeming will be giving a talk on Afghanistan and after the break, Terry Richardson will be talking about Turkey's new 500km long distance footpath “The St. Paul Trail”.

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 Non-members £4

New York meetings will resume in February – subject will be TBD.

Please contact me (Laurie) if you’re interesting in speaking or know of someone who is! 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 .

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.

Globetrotter meetings have temporarily ceased until further notice due to a bereavement in Christina’s family. If you can help Christina resurrect the Texas meetings, as she would really appreciate some help, please contact Christina on texas@globetrotters.co.uk'

For more information about the Texas Branch: please contact texas@globetrotters.co.uk or register for email updates at our website (click here) or call Christina at 830-620-5482

If anybody would like to enquire about meetings or help Christina, please contact her on: texas@globetrotters.co.uk

A few days holiday to use and the hunt was on for a cheap flight to a not too far distant city that I had yet to explore. The Internet came up with a £50 flight to Copenhagen, so I hit the buttons on the PC and the next morning that nice little ticket came through the letterbox.

Despite being a cheapie, the Maersk flight departed Gatwick on time and actually landed early. After collecting my bag, it was quite a walk from the gate to the baggage area. I bought a train ticket to Copenhagen Central Station, 25 Kroner, yep the Danes still use proper money, not silly Euro Roubles! The efficient train takes around 15 minutes to the city.

Next to find my hotel, the first thing to say about accommodation in Copenhagen is it ain’t cheap. My hotel The Cabinn was located a 10 minute walk south of the station and cost around £50 night including a good quality buffet breakfast. The rooms were small, but excellently designed, though the beds are a bit narrow, I did role out one night!

Well off to explore, first stop obviously the Tourist office. They are extremely helpful, lots of information and maps. The walking tours which leave from the Tourist Information at 10 am each day in the summer are excellent. They cost 75 Kroner and take around 2 and a half hours. They are in English explaining the city via its most famous son Hans Christian Anderson. One tip is that you are better off doing the tour on a week day as you can get into courtyards and see parts of buildings not open at the weekend. You also learn gems such as why the knee of the statue of Hans Christian Anderson is so shiny, its because tour buses full of oriental visitors pull up, and they sit on his knee to have their photo taken!

Nyhaven is what you see in all the postcards, a lovely area full of sailing boats and little waterside cafes.

Another tour worth doing is the 50 minute boat trip that leaves from Nyhaven (50 Kroner), you get a close up view of the new Opera house and you get to see the Little Mermaid statue from a different angle, you also get a riverside view of the new “Black Diamond”, this love it or hate it building is the National Library. The boat then heads into the canals of the Christianhavns area. Christiania as the area is known is home to an alternative community, which did have a reputation for drugs, but has cleaned up its act to some degree, though you can still walk down Pusher Street.

For a great view over the city it is hard to beat the climb up the tower of the Trinity Church (20 Kroner), some great views, but the protective fencing at the top does get in the way of photos.

If you want to explore further afield as I did you cant beat making the train trip to Helsingor up the coast to see Elsinor castle, famous in Shakespear’s Hamlet, it is expensive to enter, but the views around it are great. It was during a wander here that the lovely sunshine disappeared and a deluge of rain began, so I headed into Helsingor city and visited the town's museum, which is quite interesting, though there is little in English.

Another trip I made was west to Roskilde, this town is home to a spectacular cathedral, but of far more interest to me was the Viking Ship Museum (75 Kroner), there are Viking ships, well bits of them in the museum and out on the water are new ones built in the old way. You can walk around and see the ships being crafted, there are areas where children and the young at heart can try their hand at crafts from the Viking era.

Back in Copenhagen if you want to chill out after all that sightseeing The Rose Garden in Copenhagen’s second biggest park, Valby Parken is the place. There are quite a few themed gardens to wander round, number 3 has a maze and another has a Japanese theme.

Copenhagen is perfect for a long weekend and if any of you Globies are into Geocaching, there are around 20 to do in the cities environs.

The Beetle had told me Copenhagen was a bit boring when she had visited!

This is a picture of me in the Rose garden, Valby Park Copenhagen. Beetle: where are the roses, Kev?