ARie and Janice Conference Stories
TRIP TO HAMBURGArie and Janice travelled to Hamburg convention via Singapore and a Rhine River cruise. In Singapore they stopped with friends for 2 days and took time to go The Gardens At The Bay where they visited the massive hothouses - Flower Dome and Cloud Forest and took in the light and sound show in the grove of man made supertrees. This garden down by the waterfront is a must see for anybody stopping over in Singapore.
From there they flew to Zurich and took a 9 day cruise on the Rhine River to Amsterdam on the Avalon Expression. The trip was wonderful, the food and cabin very nice and the crew ever so helpful – nothing was a problem. There were excursions at every port stop but we also took time to catch up with German students who had lived in our home over the years and their families. Those reunions were very special.
Once in Hamburg they attended convention and a number of the breakout sessions but the special moments were when they caught up with two more students one night in Hamburg, and on another evening a group of 5 Australian PDGs and wives who were part of our year group of governors. That was a big night out at Roxie’s bar. Then on the last night of Hamburg convention we joined district 9920 at the last supper which they do every world convention. That was special - 50 Kiwi Rotarians in one place all wearing their black T-shirts eating and drinking and making a lot of noise.
Our rotary moment in Hamburg is when we got talking to an elderly German couple at the bus stop outside our hotel and the wife thought she had met Janice before. We explored further and her husband Bernard and Arie had been in the same year group as District Governors and we had sat next to each other for dinner on the second night of governor training in San Diego in January 2016.
The world is a small place when you part of Rotary.