On one of my educational cruises we had three or four PE students with us to help conduct deck games when we were at sea.
On this day we were sitting in the shade enjoying a cold drink after visiting the pyramids: beside me one of the students a young lad of about nineteen, starting speaking. He didn’t realise he was expressing his thoughts aloud and his voice was filled with awe.
“I’m a young boy from the valleys in Wales and that thing over there is the Sphinx. This can’t be real.”
That moment has stayed with me very clearly for over 30 years. He was experiencing the kind of moment I hoped to bring to the children I took with me on our trips to a variety of countries. Hampshire is a lovely county, but there are many other landscapes and a multitude of fine structures out there. The children I took with me had their eyes opened in a variety of ways.
I was fortunate in being able to visit a number of fascinating places in Italy, Turkey, Greece, Cyprus, Crete, Egypt and Israel, usually with a group of 14-16 year olds, although on my last, fifth, trip it was a party of adults from Chandler’s Ford that I led.
On one occasion the government took our cruise ship, the Uganda, to serve as the hospital ship in the Falklands conflict. As compensation we were offered a land tour of Israel twice the length as normal – 16 days. We were taken to areas where visitors normally never tread as well as the usual religious sites.
Imagine the emotions when the view became that of Israel, the Holy Land – we trod the same roads that Jesus did. Bethlehem was no longer confined to Christmas stories, the Solent gave way to a blissfully serene Sea of Galilee. I hope to share with you some of my memories of this fascinating country, most of them having a religious connection, but not all. Shalom.
Note: Brian Green’s Travel Journal will appear in Chandler’s Ford Today weekly.
Brian Green was a teacher at the only school in the world called Montgomery of Alamein, in Winchester. (The school is now called Kings’ School.)
Related posts:
- Travel Journal: Whereto next?
- Israel – Ancient And Modern (Part 1 of 4)
- Israel – Ancient And Modern (Part 2 of 4)
- Israel – Ancient And Modern (Part 3 of 4)
Read Brian Green’s other posts here:
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Look forward to reading more of these posts.
I,too, took my children to places I hoped they would find interesting. They obviously remembered the best of them because they are now taking their children there.