The Thelma and Louise tour (without the messy ending) is now over and both adventurers made it home safely...no disasters!

The tour blog will be a  reflective one looking back over some of the gems of the month we were traveling. It will cover:

• Somerset and family links- Connections
• Return to Sutton Veny
• London vibe
• Chaucer's Canterbury
• Magical Worcestor 
• Elizabethan Stratford -upon -Avon
• Welsh pubs and the World Cup Rugby Final
• Travel tips 

The UK has so many delightful locations to explore and immerse yourself in that often travelers will try to cover too many places in the time they are on tour. It is to be hoped that you will discover just a few of the real treasures  the UK has to offer through the blog and maybe in time consider joining me on one of my future bespoke tours of this extraordinarily diverse country. I hope readers enjoy the accounts of Thelma and Louise and they made their way across southern England. 

The 'Thelma & Louise (without the messy ending!!) tour' takes off in two weeks....

FRIENDS ARE THE FAMILY YOU CHOSE...

The next touring experience for Julie Reece Tours is something very special. The 'Thelma & Louise (without the messy ending!!) Tour' is all about friendship and the power of travel to change your life. 

My now, very dear friend Jo Kirlew ( aka 'Louise') and I will be driving, walking and training it around the UK catching up with close friends and also doing some planning and meetings for future tours.

This friendship originally came about because of one of my W.W.1  adult commemorative tours to the battlefields back in 2011. I originally met Jo at a Lions Club meeting where I was a guest speaker and then later at a local school we were both doing relief teaching. We started talking and the topic came up about her grandfather Walter Kirlew who was killed in WW1 and buried on the Somme. I offered to include a visit to her grandfather's grave and to do a commemoration on Jo's behalf in the tour that year.

From that point on the amazing connection blossomed where in 2013 Jo came on the  'Champagne & Battlefields Tour' and for the first time she was able to visit the resting place of her beloved Walter. To add to the power of that visit Jo placed the ashes of her father Joe Kirlew with his father Walter. Since 2013 Jo has been part of three of my tours and hopefully there will be many more in the future.

WALTER KIRLEW'S GRAVE AT FRICOURT

 And so on October 7th 'Thelma & Louise' take off on the next adventure...

• Eight days in a cottage in Somerset
• Three days in Sutton Veny with dear friends Nicky and Rob Barnard
• Overnight to the university town of Cambridge to meet with the groups' manager at the Gonville Hotel (one of the hotels in the 'Garden Views' 2016 tour)
• One nighter in London...just HAVE to take 'Louise'  to the Camden Markets
• Onto Canterbury ..business + pleasure AND yet another meal at the oldest pub in Canterbury 'The Parrot' with long time mates Keith and Rosemary
• Several days in the Cotswolds ...Worcestor and Cheltenham
• Finally it is off to Liverpool to be with Ali and Phil McGinity and their kiddies+ a weekend in Angelsey...while Jo takes off to Hereford AND will meet her idol Jules from 'Escape to the Country' 

NICKY & ROB AT SUTTON VENY...TRAMPING THE FIELDS WITH THE EXPERTS! 



So stay tuned as we return to the place we both love to be with friends we hold dear plus to the new locales we are yet to experience.

Let's just hope the Thelma and Louise tour does NOT have a messy ending!!! Avoid all canyons and cliffs. xxx

THE BEST PUB IN THE WORLD..'THE WHEATSHEAF' WITH SOUL MATE ALI....

The W.W.1 centenary: the 'Anzac Industry' Published on 3/29/2015 2:34

In the last twelve months I have often been asked 'What will you be doing for the centenary? '

A not unreasonable question I suppose but in many ways it is frustrating as I will be doing what I have since 1999...and that is working with students and adults alike assisting them in their own research into the lives and experiences of those who went to war many never to return home.

The notion of 'doing something special' for the 100th year since Anzac troops landed at Gallipoli (along with the British/French/African/Indian and other Dominion nations) does not always sit happily with me. For many fine people I have come to know over the last 15 years the process of research, commemoration and visiting our war dead has been ongoing and significant for many years and in some case generations.

The incredible story of the tiny village of Sutton Veny and its school is just one such example. The powerhouse behind the annual Anzac children's service, Mrs Nicky Barnard, has been inundated with many requests and inquiries about the very same issue...what special things will the school be doing for the centenary? In many ways the question diminishes the work Nicky and the school have been doing for many, many years....going right back to the origins of this unique commemorative event in 1918 when a couple of lads from the village stole flowers to place on the 143 graves of the Anzacs buried there.

The school ALWAYS does something special for Anzac Day and throughout the year this tiny school permanently honours the memory of the Australian and New Zealanders who lie in the their soil by the names given to the seven classes at the school; the Auckland (FS2) , Brisbane (Yr 1), Canberra (Yr 2), Darwin (Yr 3),  Elliston (Yr 4), Geraldton (Yr 5) and Nelson (Yr 6) classes give daily recognition to the sacrifices made by our countrymen and women by their names. Every person in the village who attended Sutton Veny Church of England Primary School since 1918 all know why foreigners are buried in their village: this is what true commemoration is all about . 

So Sutton Veny school WON'T be doing anything special  in 2015 BECAUSE of the centenary as they are always doing something special. On Friday April 24 it will be the enormous privilege for the Connecting Spirits students and teachers to share their special day and to see how this beautiful little school and village have not forgotten our men and women who never come home.

(The school has given permission to use the images below. Photos of the 2011 Sutton Veny Anzac service were reproduced in the book 'Jimmy's Anzac Pilgrimage'. - published April 25, 2013. The toy kangaroo 'Matilda' who features in the story is now a permanent resident in the school's Anzac room)