Andrew_W_K's VirtualTourist Home Page

My grandfather was a man called Arthur Summerfield. Before the first world war he decided to try his luck in America like so many Europeans at that time. He ended up driving a taxi in Chicago and he became a favourite driver for some gentlemen that he later discovered were gangsters (the picture shows the "gang" with my grandfather on the far left). My mother tells me that he stopped driving for them when he discovered who they were, she also maintains that he looks the most gangster like of them all!
When the war broke out my grandfather managed to get a job driving someone to Canada where he intended to get a passage back to England to join up and fight. He met another Englishman en route who suggested he join the Canadian army and they would take him home for free.
So my grandfather ended up in the Canadian artillery and fought at the Somme where he was badly gassed. He survived the war but was in poor health for the rest of his life and died in 1936.
I never knew him but I bear an uncanny resemblence to him and have inherited his desire to travel.

Yes, it's great to see places that you have never seen before or only read about and imagined them. Different cultures, new food to try, interesting museums to visit, lively bars to have fun in, etc. They are all great reasons to broaden our horizons but the best reason of all is the people you meet when you travel. I have freinds all over the world thanks to travel and here's a few of them. Lovely people that have enriched my life just by knowing them and being my friends.

Up until the age of 12 the furthest I'd travelled to was Scotland and the most exotic was the Isle of Man (both fine places but still the country where I lived). Then my school planned a trip by road to Chiavari on the Italian riviera and my parents asked if I'd like to go. The thought of 2 weeks away from home with my mates was a no brainer and I didn't care that I was going abroad for the first time it meant nothing. The day we docked in France though something happened to me. I became aware of this other world that was so different to the one I knew. I was fascinated, curious, impressed, intrigued all at the same time. Suddenly being away with my mates was secondary to being in different countries. On that trip we went through Belgium, France, Germany, Switzerland and finally Italy and I loved every second of it. So thanks to my parents for having the foresight to pack me off for 2 weeks and planting the seed of travel in me.

Some of my friends travel a lot as part of their jobs. Most of them hate it, I used to think they were being blasé about it but when I looked at where they go on holiday I realised they really don't like travel and are not interested in other places. I think this is really sad. I have to do a certain amount of travelling in my job too as my employers have offices all over the place. If I'm sent somewhere for a meeting or have to work away for a couple of days I always check out what I can see there, what's en route, where can I make a detour, etc. So I nearly always plan my trip with an hour or two built in to go and see somewhere new. I don't do this at my employers expense, I'll leave home at a ridiculous hour or forego lunch or get home late but if you get the opportunity to combine the joy of travel with your job then you should maximise it. The picture of Dublin castle was taken around 5:30 am. I had to go there for work so I got up at 4:30 and spent 3 hours wandering the city - it was great, just me and the early birds.

If you get the chance to go and stay with friends you've made abroad then you should go and also return the compliment. We have been really lucky over the years and made friends from all over Europe and enjoyed their hospitality and enjoyed repaying it with our own. I have no idea why me and my wife make so many friends when we are away, we must just have friendly faces or something. Its a bit worrying to learn that when we've made friends with people they all say English people are not what they expected, they expect them to be cold and unfriendly, I often wonder how we have come to deserve this reputation.

Strangely I never saw my passport the first time I went abroad with the school, I think they did some kind of group documentation because I don't even recall having a photo done. So my earliest passport pic is from 1978 complete with dodgy hair cut and bad fashion sense (I guess some things never change).
I think it should be a condition of joining VT that you have to put a really bad passport photo on your home page.

Most of my life has been spent living in or near to some fantastic English towns full of history and wonderful sights that attract tourists.
I have lived very close to Chester, lived in Stamford and for the past 20+ years Bridgnorth in Shropshire which is one of the nicest towns in the midlands.
I feel very lucky to have lived in such places and unless I finally up sticks and move abroad I don't think I'll be moving again.

I live in a small village that although is part of Bridgnorth still retains a tiny vestige of independence. Actually village is too grand a word for us, we are more of a hamlet as we don't have any shops or pubs or any kind of services. We have a post box, a public telephone (an old red phone box I'm pleased to say) and a church.
On the wall outside the church is a plaque that commemorates 900 years of the Domesday book as our little hamlet is recorded in that great Norman catalogue of England.
Now, how many people can say that?