August 2004

We go to London, ENGLAND, as often as we can and always stay in Bloomsbury, as we like everything the area offers. We’ve stayed in many hotels there, but our favorite is The Thanet (8 Bedford St.; phone 020 7636 2869, 020 7580 3377, fax 020 7323 6676, e-mail thanethotel@aol.com). It’s small and friendly and serves a fabulous full English breakfast.

The 2004 rate for a single with bath and W.C. is £69 (near $124) and for a double twin, £94. Rooms have direct-dial phones and hair dryers.

by John C. Deppman, Fort Myers, FL (Second of two parts, go to part one)

Running until Sept. 19, 2004, in London’s riverside Greenwich, the exhibition “A Garden of Fans” displays floral motifs on fans from Europe and Asia from the 17th century onward. The Fan Museum, at 12 Crooms Hill, is open Tuesday to Saturday. £3.50 adults, £2.50 seniors. Phone 020 8305 1441 or visit www.fan-museum.org.

The world’s first major museum dedicated to the life of British statesman and wartime Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill will open in London in February 2005. The museum’s completion will coincide with the 40th anniversary of his death and the 60th of the end of World War II.

Including items from the Imperial War Museum and the Churchill Archives Centre at Churchill College in Cambridge, the permanent attraction is to be housed in the Cabinet War Rooms, the top-secret underground headquarters where Churchill and his government operated during the war.

Grand Bahama Island opened its $30 million international airport terminal on June 2, 2004.

What do YOU collect on trips overseas? That’s what we asked readers to write in about. We printed some of the responses in last month’s issue, and here are a few more. Have something to add? Write to Memorabilia, c/o ITN, 2116 28th St., Sacramento, CA 95818, or e-mail editor@intltravelnews.com (please include your surface-mail address).

(Second of two parts, go to part one)

Because of its curious location, Maastricht makes an ideal homebase for those who want to see something of this area of the Netherlands, as we found on our trip to Europe in 2000. We visited a specially placed stone monument that marks the spot where three countries meet: the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. Most everyone walks around this marker so they can claim to have visited three countries in under 10 seconds! Never one to miss a unique experience, I did it — amusing even in the rain.

KATHRYN LEMMON
Unionville, IN

Those of us who have visited the restored Catherine Palace outside of St. Petersburg in Russia have seen the photos of the destruction caused during the World War II “900-day” (actually “only” 872-day) siege of the city then called Leningrad.

by Arline Wills, Lynnfield, MA