Although our destination focus for this edition of Harriet’s Corner is Eastern Europe and Russia, here in “Travel Talk,” the conversation is mostly about our neighbor to the north: Robin H. wants to know why Grand Circle doesn’t send mail to Canada, while Val L., who recently returned from a trip to the Canadian Maritimes, wonders if our company’s name was inspired by a nightly ritual at a New Brunswick fort.
In 2008, my wife and I travelled to Russia on our first Grand Circle tour. It was a wonderful trip to Moscow, St. Petersburg, Estonia, and Finland. We are looking at trips for next spring and are interested in booking your Old World Prague & the Blue Danube trip. However, there is one enormous inconvenience doing business with you folks and that is that last year you would not mail to our home address in Canada. I had to have friends in South Carolina relay our mail and that was a great pain for them. Are you able to mail to our Canadian address now? If so, we would start again a business relationship with you, as opposed to going to a competitor.
Respectfully,
Robin H.
First-time traveler
Wolfeville, Nova Scotia
Canada
I’m glad you asked me about this, Robin—and I think you’ll be pleased to hear about some changes we’re making to our policy on mailing to Canada. Up until now, the issue hasn’t been that we wouldn’t mail to you so much as that we couldn’t—the database and automated mailing systems we use simply weren’t built to handle Canadian ZIP codes which, unlike American ones, contain letters as well as numbers. So our way of “working around” the issue was to ask you for an address here in the States we could send mail to instead. As you rightly point out, however, while this solution may have worked for us, it was terribly inconvenient for our Canadian travelers—and their mail-forwarding American friends. So I’m happy to tell you that we're working to resolve the issue and make it possible to send travel documents for 2010 departures directly to your home. So, hopefully, we’ll have the pleasure of welcoming you in Eastern Europe this spring.
My husband and I just returned from a driving trip to the Maritime Provinces of Canada. While at Louisbourg, New Brunswick, we heard the story of the evening routine at the old fort: The troops gathered in a circle and assignments were made for the evening guard duties. This was the “grand circle.” I wondered if perhaps this is where your company’s name originated? They were the one chosen to assure the safety of the others.
Val L.
10-time traveler & Vacation Ambassador
Camdenton, MO
Well, Val, while it’s true that our travelers’ comfort and safety are our top priorities, our company’s name has its roots in Europe, not New Brunswick (although, considering my last name, it would be great fun to claim a connection to “Louis”bourg!). You see, when Ethel Andrus founded Grand Circle back in 1958, she had a specific purpose in mind: She wanted to make it easy and affordable for members of her organization, the National Retired Teachers Association (which would later become AARP), to travel abroad. In those days, the most popular itineraries involved travel via ship—and consisted of a “grand circle” of major European cities. Since her travelers were all familiar with this concept, she decided it would make a great name for her new company—and Grand Circle has been happily serving inquisitive American travelers ever since!
On a much more poignant note, I’d like to share an email I received from Inner Circle member Marilyn F. On our Eastern Europe & the Black Sea River CruiseTour, Marilyn and her husband, Jim, visited the Croatian port of Vukovar, which is rebuilding itself after nearly being destroyed during the Balkan War. As a mother, I was moved beyond words to read about her emotional encounter with a local woman who’d lost her daughters during the conflict—and I hope I never have to endure such unimaginable loss.
While our ship was docked at the village of Vukovar, Croatia, my husband and I went for a walk in the port town. This town was the site of the worst artillery shelling from the Serbians during the Croatian-Serbian war in 1991. As we walked we would see a completely bombed out shell of a building and, next to it, a building with the ground floor renovated and open for business; however, the bombarded shell of the top floor still gave mute testimony to the rebuilding attempt.
We were standing in front of the bombed building looking through what used to be a window when a Croatian lady, probably about my age, approached and started to talk to me in her language. She kept touching her heart and then pointing at the ground inside the building and trying to make me understand. Finally she took my hand and led me around to the back of the building.
She very carefully stepped through weeds and rubble being sure that I had a clear path in which to walk. At the back door of the building I could see a stairway leading down to a destroyed basement. She pointed down the stairway, touching her heart and covering her eyes. Finally she said, in very broken English, “My two daughters die.” I then understood what she had been trying to convey to me. She and I embraced. Still embracing, we then gazed into one another’s eyes. I will never forget her face as we looked at each other with tears streaming down our checks … one mother to another.
Hand in hand, we silently walked back through the weeds to the street, and in departing she squeezed my hand and then slowly walked away. As she turned and waved to me, I personally experienced that mothers the world over share the sorrow of war. My heart was forever touched.
Marilyn F.
21-time traveler & Vacation Ambassador
Altoona, KS