Almelo trip

For more than 40 years now, Barney Rotary has enjoyed a twinning relationship with a Rotary Club in the eastern part of Holland.

Every four years they come here, and in the intervening two years, we go there.

The Club is called Ambt Almelo, and is in Almelo, a very attractive modern town, previously with a substantial textile industry.

This time it was our turn to visit, and seven members of Barney travelled by plane and train, (the trains are brilliant and on time!), and for the next couple of days we were royally treated to dinner at their usual meeting place in the town, a trip to a modern brewery in Ootmarsun, an old town near the German border - our route home took us in and out of Germany - do we need our passports now? Dinner on the night was in a Rotary member's comfortable farmhouse, deep in the countryside. They'd done a quiz for us - all in English! They said we'd won, but I think that they were being hospitable!

Oh, by the way, the roads in Holland are smooth and pothole free!