Superannuated teachers go virtually to Europe
Sunday, January 26, 2014
by Timothy W. Shire
Sunday, January 26, 2014
by Timothy W. Shire
Monday January 20 at 1:30 in St. Matthew's hall the Tisdale chapter of Superannuated Teachers of Saskatchewan met for a short twelve minute meeting before going on to the main event as Bob Donnan took us along on he and his wife's trip in the summer of 2012 to London, Bath, Edinburgh and Dublin.
Mr. and Mrs. Donnan had made their trip with a tour group, but the pictures they brought back revealed a much more interesting trip than the usual cliched snapshots of the known landmarks that everyone seems obliged to record. Instead, we got the opportunity to see the sights through Bob's camera and those sights took us to parts of London that are not the usual tourist fair. Parks and monuments, but not from the same angles all of us have seen, instead we were treated to a personal look at London. There were a few pictures as the trip went out into the country far west of London to the ancient Roman city of Bath.
In rural England everything seems to be measured as a distance from Reading, but in Bob's pictures, we dove into this remarkable city in Somerset, a United Nations Heritage site and the pictures of the place gave us more than a glance at this remarkable historical location.
We then had the delight of seeing Stonehenge as Bob saw it, then off to the far east of the midlands to Newcastle then Bob gave us a full course of Scotland, Edinburgh style.
Edinburgh is the capital of Scotland since the fifteenth century and of course was the notorious home of one of the most important Queens in the history of Scotland, Mary Queen of the Scots, cousin of Elizabeth I and the victim of that same lady. Though the city has a population of about that of Winnipeg, Bob showed us castles and churches a full thousand years old.
From one capital to another, Bob took us to Dublin Ireland, where we toured the streets, seen the city as it is without the tourist hype and just like Edinburgh, he found places to show us that both demonstrated its roots as a Viking city settled in the ninth century and a fully modern society with a bright future in high tech industries. One of the things that those of us who had the privilege of teaching English literature, was the surprise that so very many of the greats, whom we all know as English writers, were in fact Irishman, who grew up and made their name in letters in Dublin. Bob was able to show us several parks and monuments dedicated to some of these remarkable people, who continue to shape the minds of all who delve into the world of good literature.
The afternoon soon was spent and we had all made the journey to Ireland and the United Kingdom and back again through this set of outstanding pictures.
Our next meeting will be on Monday, February 17.
Mr. and Mrs. Donnan had made their trip with a tour group, but the pictures they brought back revealed a much more interesting trip than the usual cliched snapshots of the known landmarks that everyone seems obliged to record. Instead, we got the opportunity to see the sights through Bob's camera and those sights took us to parts of London that are not the usual tourist fair. Parks and monuments, but not from the same angles all of us have seen, instead we were treated to a personal look at London. There were a few pictures as the trip went out into the country far west of London to the ancient Roman city of Bath.
In rural England everything seems to be measured as a distance from Reading, but in Bob's pictures, we dove into this remarkable city in Somerset, a United Nations Heritage site and the pictures of the place gave us more than a glance at this remarkable historical location.
We then had the delight of seeing Stonehenge as Bob saw it, then off to the far east of the midlands to Newcastle then Bob gave us a full course of Scotland, Edinburgh style.
Edinburgh is the capital of Scotland since the fifteenth century and of course was the notorious home of one of the most important Queens in the history of Scotland, Mary Queen of the Scots, cousin of Elizabeth I and the victim of that same lady. Though the city has a population of about that of Winnipeg, Bob showed us castles and churches a full thousand years old.
From one capital to another, Bob took us to Dublin Ireland, where we toured the streets, seen the city as it is without the tourist hype and just like Edinburgh, he found places to show us that both demonstrated its roots as a Viking city settled in the ninth century and a fully modern society with a bright future in high tech industries. One of the things that those of us who had the privilege of teaching English literature, was the surprise that so very many of the greats, whom we all know as English writers, were in fact Irishman, who grew up and made their name in letters in Dublin. Bob was able to show us several parks and monuments dedicated to some of these remarkable people, who continue to shape the minds of all who delve into the world of good literature.
The afternoon soon was spent and we had all made the journey to Ireland and the United Kingdom and back again through this set of outstanding pictures.
Our next meeting will be on Monday, February 17.
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