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International Travel Group Meeting - Sunday 3/5 @ 9:30 Pacific Time

Do you like talking about travel and interacting with others who share the same passion? If yes, this is the place for you. Everyone is welcome, no matter where you live.

Every meeting there will be topics to discuss.

Topics for this month:

  • If you discovered you could only take one more trip, how would you decide where to go? Would you go to as many new places as possible? Would you revisit a place or places you loved? A combination of the two?

    • Have you gone anywhere that you disliked or that disappointed you?

Please let me know in a reply to this post or with a PM if you are interested. If you have participated previously I already have your email address. If you havenโ€™t you will need to send it to me in a PM. If you have told me you are interested and later find you canโ€™t do it, please let me know.

I will be emailing the Zoom link an hour or two before the meeting begins.

Please think of some topics for future meetings and share them during the meeting or you can PM me if you prefer.

Upcoming meetings will be:

**April 2

May 7

June 4

** We will be in Washington in April and will have a new grandchild, or possibly he wonโ€™t be born yet. I will plan on having the meeting unless due to circumstances we canโ€™t. If the meeting will need to be cancelled Iโ€™ll post it as soon as I know.

Posted by
4212 posts

We would love to join you all for the zoom meeting on March 5. Those two topics will take some thought!

Posted by
4558 posts

Interesting topics, sorry I have to miss it. We are traveling to Egypt, Jordan, and Israel March 2.
If you have the April meeting Iโ€™ll be available. And congratulations on your soon to be born grandson.

Posted by
9467 posts

Andrea, I will be able to come this time - thanks! And congrats on your upcoming grandchild!

Posted by
2197 posts

Please include me. I look forward to greeting you all & hope my zoom video has been fixed (it was before I left for San Diego.)

Posted by
21 posts

Thought provoking topics. Please count me in. Thanks

Posted by
4672 posts

Hi Andrea. Please add me in as well. It has been a while so let me know if you need my email address again. Thanks.

Posted by
10994 posts

Hi Maria - I still have your email.

Iโ€™m looking forward to seeing everyone!

Posted by
10994 posts

We are only a couple of days away from the meeting. Is anyone else interested?

Posted by
149 posts

Hi Andrea and Jim! Will be thinking of how fun the meetings are... I'm in Bologna and will have to miss. Yesterday we went to an incredible market in Modena. Every pasta, cheese, balsamic vinegar and pastry you could think of. Oh My!! Got pickpocketed in Milan the first day. (good thing I brought my camera and am not dependent on my cellphone to take pictures...). These topics sound so good. Hope everything goes well with the new grand! Hope to participate in April!! Ya'll take care!!

Posted by
4212 posts

Sorry to hear about day 1 in Milan Jody. My granddaughter will be there by herself for a few days this summer. Can you share publicly or in a PM what happened and where? Have the best time on the rest of your trip!

Posted by
10994 posts

Jody, Iโ€™m sorry to hear your trip got off on the wrong foot, but I hope the rest will be wonderful. I hope to see you next month.

Posted by
10994 posts

Last call if you would like to join us. Iโ€™ll be sending the zoom link to your emails in about one hour.

Posted by
10994 posts

The zoom link has been sent. Thank you to the several people who notified me they wouldnโ€™t be a to make it. I appreciate it.

Posted by
4672 posts

Andrea, I don't see the link in my inbox or junk. Assuming email address is same as in 2021, I sent an email.

Posted by
10994 posts

I just sent out a new link. Please let me know if you got it. ๐Ÿคž๐Ÿผ

Posted by
4212 posts

We got the link 2x and are looking forward to the meeting.

Posted by
6 posts

I'm still trying to join the meeting

Posted by
3054 posts

thanks to A&J for bringing us together again, today!
and care heart emoji x12 to Chani for her mishap and envy at how well she is taking it in stride (so-to-speak)

Posted by
3804 posts

It was great to put faces to names familiar from the forum!
Thanks, Andrea , for doing a great job moderating.
And yes, Chaniโ€ฆโ€ฆyou will be back on your way in no time!

Posted by
149 posts

Good morning travel friends. I'm currently sitting in McDonald's (great wifi) in Naples, IT. Sounds like you had a great meeting, as usual.... Mona asked me to post the details of my pickpocket event. (with great humility.....I thought I was always so careful). There is alot of commotion at the train stations. (All of them.) The ticket machine literally tells you to be on the lookout for pickpockets. There are people wearing red (the color of train representatives) who will try and help you buy a ticket. They told us the ticket machine was out of order (there are many, and one was...so an iota of truth) There was a dirty guy holding up a handful of tickets he was trying to sell (we later saw him digging in the trash for used tickets. Somehow I think he was involved...) In all that confusion, I unzipped my purse to get out a card to pay for the tickets. I must have left it open, because after the turnstile, I didn't have my phone anymore. It was probably a 30' path. We went to the train station from the airport, so I lost it immediately. What a pain. All my notes, all my direction information, all lost. Winging it without that information has been a little difficult. ANYWAY..... I saw someone wearing their phone on a lanyard. I thought was a great idea. Wish I would have done that, Mona. Tell your granddaughter. Phones seem to have great "grab appeal", I heard of others also losing their phones at the Milan train station, so it seems to be particularly risky. We've had no problems anywhere else. In fact, a couple times, people on the street went out of their was to return something we dropped. Of course, it's still fun being here, but I've really missed my phone. Thank you to all of you who offered sympathetic comments!

Posted by
5797 posts

Oh jody, I can feel my own stress level rising at the thought of having to do a trip without my phone. Thanks for sharing your tale to remind us all that it only takes a minute.

I suppose my backup phone may get to continue to ride along after all. People think I'm crazy, but like you, all my information is there.... fortunately, synched across devices. I have a lanyard on my Amazon wish list.... might be time to order that.

Posted by
4212 posts

Thanks Jody for posting your Milan pickpocket details. I just asked my granddaughter a couple of weeks ago if there was a spare old phone at home that she could take along and leave in her suitcase, just in caseโ€ฆ

Hope the rest of your trip continues to be wonderful. Sitting in anywhere in Italy sounds great about now.

Posted by
10994 posts

Jody, thank you for sharing your unfortunate experience. I hope it wonโ€™t adversely impact the rest of your trip and that you have a great time.

I believe that these kind of things most often happen when one is distracted, for example buying tickets as you were. On our 2nd trip to Europe I had my wallet picked in Paris on the RER on our way to the airport to go home. Thankfully it was at the end of the trip. I changed up how I protect my belongings after that. Now Iโ€™m thinking a phone lanyard might be worth having.

Posted by
2193 posts

Itโ€™s a terrible feeling when you are a victim of a pickpocket. It happened to me in Rome on a bus back in the 80s. This was before cell phones and the internet. Using a pay phone to call the bank was a nightmare. The call kept being dropped. It took five tries before I could have a five minute conversation with the cc company. There was an Italian guy near us who became very loud yelling at us. I finally figured out that he wanted to use the pay phone. My husband stood by and did nothing. I finally turned to him and yelled, just as loud as he had been yelling, โ€œ Bastaโ€™! He left.

The cc promised 24 hour replacement. Ha! It took three days before it caught up to us in Sorento.
$3 grand spent on it in 20 minutes.