This week, we had Special General Meeting and Business Meeting followed by a speaker. The meetings were held over lunch. Our speaker this week was John Stocker who gave a talk called Travels of an Octogenerian Backpacker. John told us about his very interesting trip around Europe using an Interail Pass (First Class). John’s pass allowed him 10 days of travel within two months, although he completed his travels in 22 days. The basic pass currently costs just over 700 euros, but he had to pay a 43 euro supplement to use Eurostar and there were some other supplementary charges. He used the Rail Planner app on his phone to plan his journeys. John started his journey at St Pancras in London travelling first to Brussels where he changed onto a German high speed train to Cologne. He then traveled to Wernigerode in Saxony-Anhalt in the former GDR. This town is the starting point for Harz Mountain Ralway a narrow gauge railway which travels to Brocken the highest mountain in the Harz mountain range. John showed us an interesting video of the train journey. At the peak of the Brocken are two towers. One of them was used by the USSR to spy on NATO and the other used by the East Germans to spy on their own people. After Wernigerode, John travelled to Warsaw via Berlin. While there, he visited the site of the Warsaw Ghetto, where 460,000 Jewish people were confined by the Nazis during WWII. About 92,000 died in the Ghetto and after it was closed, a further 300,000 were killed in Treblinka concentration camp. John was also able to visit the main buildings in the city, which were restored after the war, including the Old Town and the 237 metre high Palace of Culture & Science, which was built in the Soviet era. John next travelled to Budapest, which is situated on the Danube. This also has some very impressive buildings including the Parliament Buiding which is based on the Palace of Westminster in London. While there John went on the Children’s Railway. This is a narrow-gauge railway that is run by children aged 10-14 who provide all the staff, except for the drivers, including the guards and ticket collectors on the trains. John’s next stop was Catania in Sicily, which he reached by travelling through Verona and Rome. John will continue his talk next year. Graham Fagence gave the vote of thanks, thanking John for his fascinating talk and accompanying videos and photos.