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           Elderhostel Notebook  October 1997
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Elderhostel Notebook  is a production of The Senior Group, an
informal group of older netizens.

It provides a place for elderhostlers to share information about
Elderhosteling and other learning experiences related to travel.

I has a world wide web site at
http://discover-net.net/~jimo/eldnote/eldnote.html

To subscribe to the e-mail editon send an e-mail to
jimo@discover-net.net.

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Contents

    From the Editors Notebook

    Browsing with Victor

    Elderhostel Reviews

    Personals

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    Editor's Notebook
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This is the first issue of the Notebook since the opening of our
web site (see above for the url).

It is now possible to include some of those photos you took at
your favorite elderhostels for inclusion on the Photo Album page
of the web edition of the Notebook.

You can send them in electronic form by attaching them to an
e-mail or by just sending copies to me by regular mail.

E-mail me at jimo@discover-net.net for my home address.

I still get e-mail at my other internet e-mail addresses but have
moved the production of the newsletters and the web site to this
server.

Please do not hesitate to send in negative reports on hostels
gone wrong. I have a file for them in the data base I keep of all
reports. All reports go there and are available for search when
readers send in questions, even if they are not all published
here in the newsletter.

As you might guess there are not very many horror story reports
and the overwhelming experience of all hostlers is very positive.

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   Browsing with Victor
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 Interhostel

        Victor A. Schlich  vschlich@ime.net



The campus that introduced the Elderhostel concept, now offers a
first cousin called Interhostel. Based at the University of New
Hampshire, Interhostel sponsors more than 60 programs a year
targeted at active adults 50 and older.

UNH developed the program to "promote cross-cultural awareness
and international understanding." Interhostel provides an educational
exchange of mature adults around the world.

The 1997 Summer program of 23 programs focused on European desti
nations, although it also included Australia, China and Mexico.
Costs vary between $2,500 and $3,000+ for two weeks, but they
include everything - transportation, meals, accommodations, etc.

Here's a list of sites visited during this past summer:

- Austria (Vienna/Salzburg)

- Austria and Italy - Innsbruck/Verona/Dorf Tirol

- China (Hangzhou / Beijing / Shanghai / Xi'an)

- Prague/Moravia, Czech Republic

- Czech   Slovak Republics

- London, England

- Helsinki / Anjalankoski, Finland

- Toulouse/Dordogne, France

- Brittany/Normandy, France

- Paris/Loire Valley, France

- Alsace/Lorraine, France

- Bordeaux/Dordogne, France (Special Walking Tour!)

- Burgundy, France

- Holland - The Golden Age

- Budapest, Hungary

- Dublin, Ireland

- Galway, Ireland

- Italy and Austria - Innsbruck/Verona/Dorf Tirol

- Rome, Italy

Here is a sample program:

University of New Orleans and University of Innsbruck

Accommodations: Doubles, singles, private baths. Student residence in
Innsbruck, modest hotels in Verona and Dorf Tirol

Cost from Boston: $2975 includes airfare, meals, accommodations
Single Supplement: $75

Innsbruck, a charming city which became a cultural and artistic
center under Emperor Maximilian I (1490- 1519), is settled in a
valley surrounded by mountains reaching nearly 10,000 feet. From
there a short trip brings you to picturesque Verona and then on
to the small village of Dorf Tirol for an engaging exploration of
the Austrian and Italian Alps.

Where You'll Stay

4 nights in Innsbruck,

1 night in Verona,

2 nights in Dorf Tirol,

and 6 more nights in Innsbruck

Educational Focus

The history and culture of Austria with a special emphasis on the
Tirol and its alpine lifestyle

Lectures and Presentations

- History and Political System of Austria

- History of Tirol

Field Trips and Excursions

- Innsbruck, with its picturesque medieval "old town" including
the famous Goldenes Dachl (Golden Roof)

- Ambras Castle, splendid residence of Archduke Ferdinand II in
the 16th century

- Olympic ski jump and torch

- excursion to the Hinterhorn mountain for a guided hike through
an alpine meadow

- cable car to top of Stubai Glacier for magnificent views of
alpine scenery

- excursion to Hall, where salt was mined for over 700 years and
the first silver "thaler" was coined in 1486

- bus tour through the legendary Brenner Pass to Italy

- Verona, guided tour with panoramic view of this historic Ital
ian city

- Brixen, to see its stunningly well-preserved collection of
medieval frescoes

- Brunnenburg Castle, housing an anthropological museum dedicated
to the unique lifestyle of the Tirol

- Merano, a calm and relaxing South Tirolean town in the valley
below Dorf Tirol

- bus tour through the majestic Dolomite Mountains

- Wilten Basilica, considered the most beautiful rococo church in
Tirol

Museum Visits

- Tirolean Museum of Folk Art

- Alpine Farming and Agricultural Museum Armor Museum

Social and Cultural Activities

- Tirolean evening of musical entertainment

- Bizet's magnificent opera "Carmen" in Verona's Roman
Amphitheater

- Summer Village Festival in Dorf Tirol

- outdoor grillfest at an Alpine guest house

You can contact Interhostel by snailmail at Interhostel,
University of New Hampshire, Continuing Education, 6 Garrison
Ave., Durham NH 03824:  FAX (603) 862-1113:  E-Mail at
(learn.dce@unh.edu), or website (www.learn.unh.edu/Interhostel




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   Elderhostel Reviews
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Title: The St. Lawrence River: Heartline of Quebec.
Date: August 31, 1997 - September 5, 1997.
Location: Auberge du Mont in Saint-Gabriel-deValcartier, Quebec.

The welcoming letter from Jean-Pierre Deschenes, the elderhostel
coordinator, told me that this hostel would be special.  In
addition to the usual information about the hostel, he said to be
sure and contact him if there were any questions, then provided
four ways he could be reached - his phone number at the auberge,
his home phone number, his e-mail address, and his fax number.

When we arrived at the elderhostel, we were warmly greeted by
Jean Pierre, his wife Debbie (co-coordinator), and 18-month-old
daughter (cute). They were the best organized and friendliest
coordinators I've met in the four elderhostels I've attended.

The theme for the week was Quebec and the St. Lawrence River.
There were two field trips - one to Tadoussac, and the second to
Montmorency Falls, Ile d'Orleans, and Quebec City.

The trip to Tadoussac was for a whale watch.  Tadoussac is there
the Saugenay River, which is very deep, empties into the St.
Lawrence.  So it is here that the St. Lawrence, which is 18 miles
across at this point, becomes very deep.  There is an upwelling
of cold water and nutrients, so the whales come here to feed.
The whale watch was an enormous success - there were many whales
to see "up close and personal".

After the whale watch we went to a small restaurant in Tadoussac
that specializes in Quebecois food.  There was a buffet that
featured local favorites such as salmon pie and meat pie for the
main course.  For dessert there was a selection of some six or
seven kinds of home-baked pies.  I sampled the sugar pie
(fantastic!), vinegar pie (just a taste of that), and
strawberry-rhubarb pie (yum!).  Vinegar pie sounds a bit strange,
but it was actually quite tasty.

The second field trip began with a tour of Ile d'Orleans, which
is a lovely island just across from Quebec City.  It is quite
large, and there are prosperous farms and lovely homes plus nice
views of the St. Lawrence. Then, it was on to Montmorency Falls,
which is higher than Niagara, where we had a sit-down lunch in a
lovely restaurant overlooking the falls.  It is difficult to
adequately describe the velvety texture and subtle sweetness of
the maple mousse pie we had there.  We finished the day with a
couple of hours at Quebec City.

Some of the lectures we had in the main room of the Auberge were
about the St. Lawrence River - its role in Quebec's history and
its ecology. There were a couple of other topics that were
covered which, while not strictly about the St. Lawrence, were
very interesting.

One talk was about the Irish in Quebec.  If you look in a Quebec
phone book you will see mostly French names interspersed with an
occasional Kelly, Sweeney, or Flaherty.  In this talk we learned
that many Irish came to Quebec in the nineteenth century, and
that there were many Irish orphans; some of them had crossed the
ocean alone while others were orphaned due to disease.  The Irish
orphans were adopted by French Canadians but many of them kept
their Irish names out of respect for their Irish parents.  Thus
there are red-headed Kellys in Quebec who speak only French.  To
this day many Quebec women do not take their husband's name when
they marry.  Our elderhostel coordinators followed this custom,
being Jean Pierre Deschenes and Debbie Chakhor.

Another very interesting lecture was about the matter of Quebec
secession.  The speaker was originally from Vancouver and had
come to Quebec to learn French.  He received a masters degree
from Lavelle University in Quebec and had lived in Quebec for 15
years.  He did a good job of presenting both sides of the issue.
To sum up what he said: it's a very complicated issue, there will
probably be another referendum, the wording on the ballot was
confusing which may have accounted for the closeness of the
recent vote, if Quebec did vote to secede there would be whole
lot of issues to be addressed.  There were several "anglophones"
from the Montreal area who asked some interesting questions.  One
question they raised was what would happen if the English parts
of Montreal decided to secede. from Quebec.

The accommodations and food were very good at this hostel.  The
auberge is a former ski lodge and is surrounded by the Laurentian
Mountains, which made for some beautiful scenery. Our meetings
were held in a main room of the lodge, a most pleasant
comfortable room.  The meals were cafeteria style and very good.
There are several turkey farms in the area, so one night we had
roast turkey and stuffing - best I've ever had! The first dinner
featured a special Quebecois dessert - home-baked bread with
cream and maple sugar.  The maple sugar had been made by Jean
Pierre's father.  There was real maple syrup for breakfast
pancakes and lots of maple syrup pie, which is even better than
sugar pie.

There are several elderhostels offered at Auberge du Mont each
year.  I strongly recommend any one of them.

Jean Sterling

editor's note- This is the first elderhostel report to be
accompanied by photos of the elderhostel site. They can be
seen at the Notebooks web site by going to the Photo Album.

_____________________

Grand Manan, New Brunswick, Canada EH - Aug 31-Sep 6, 1997

An island of fishing villages with a population of 2500 and no
pretenses. It lies in the Bay of Fundy off the coast of Maine.

The Marathon Inn is an 1871shingle-sided lodge with pleasant
surroundings. A long porch connects to the 3-story annex where we
stayed. Rooms are plain but comfortable. At least two units have
private baths ($86 US extra per week). Remainder have shared bath
per three rooms. A large living room on the first floor of the
Annex and the small lobby and bar in the main building serve as
lecture rooms. The Inn is near the north end of the 15-mi-long
island, up a short hill from a fisherman's wharf and ferry
landing to the mainland. The food is good to very good; all meals
are sit-down service. Evening meals are a choice of meat or local
fish. An informal bar doubles as the check-in counter and a huge
TV with satellite reception dominates the lounge.

The program was given essentially by two instructors plus the
coordinator who's also the inn proprietor, John Leslie. John is
also the driver of the little blue school bus that supplies
transportation. The main topic of the week was whales; also
covered were culture and history of the island, ecology of the
shore areas, and a close-up view of the fishing industry. The
highlight was two days of whale-watching from the deck of a 49-ft
schooner. The rare Right whales were very cooperative, putting on
a good show of tail waving and courting maneuvers. The weather
could have been better, but even two nice days in the Bay of
Fundy are to be appreciated. The young director of the island's
marine mammal museum carried much of the teaching load and did a
super job. The second instructor was a retired school teacher, a
native of the island, and a very pleasant lecturer and guide to
the excellent general museum, which has a remarkable collection
of all birds frequenting the island.

Seventeen of 21 participants showed up, eight U.S. and nine
Canadian, three were single women and the whole group was very
congenial.

George and Sally Ulrich
BIRDWATCH@aol.com
___________



HAWK RIDGE PROGRAM (SEPT 10-16)

Hawk Ridge overlooks the city of Duluth and the shore of Lake
Superior. Each fall, hawks and other raptors migrating from the
north pass over the ridge in great numbers as they migrate south.
The shore of Lake Superior to the east acts as a collector as the
birds turn southwestward flying the thermals and updrafts along
the bluffs rather than flying directly to the opposite shore of
the lake wherever they happen to meet it, thus avoiding some hard
work. And so our group would go to Hawk Ridge after 10 AM when
the heat of the day had activated the thermals and watch the
hawks passing overhead, literally hundreds in a day. The highest
day count during our stay was over 2000. Ass many as 50,000/day
have been sighted at times. The sight of a hundred hawks whirling
upward in a thermal and then peeling off to glide to the south
was just beautiful.

The group went on general bird watching expeditions earlier in
the day as well, accumulating something over 100 different
species of song and shore birds etc. identified during these side
trips.

The program was conducted under the auspicies of Vermillion
College located in Ely, Minn. but we stayed at the U. of
Wisconsin Superior campus just outside Duluth very close to Hawk
Ridge. We ate in the student cafetreia and stayed in on of the
dormitories. The cafeteria made a special effort to accommdate us
in the morning by allowing us in15 minutes ahead of the regular
schedule The instructors were obviously enthusiastic birders
themselves making the experience a very freindly as well as
instructive one. Check out the water front park area in Duluth a
few evenings if you have the energy. .

A great experience all around.

Carl Fogelin CFOGELIN@aol.com
_________

Oakhurst Elderhostel

My wife and I just completed an elderhostel at the Episcopal
Conference Center hear Oakhurst, CA.  This conference center is
near Yosetime Park and so the setting in its self is a big plus.
The facilities at the conference center were very good.  The
living quarters were a little rustic, however, very comfortable,
very adequate and I would not hesitate to go back.  Meals were
excellent.  Support personnel were extremely courteous and
helpful.  The nearby village of Oakhurst is a very clean,
friendly place.  I give the elderhostel an 8.5 on the scale of
10.

FBennett@aol.com
__________________

Watson Homestead

We just returned from a wonderful Elderhostel at the Watson
Homestead near Corning, New York. Our subjects were Canadian
Humor, England between World War I and World War II, and Radio
Comedians. The courses were excellent - we especially enjoyed the
one on England - our instructor was totally involved with his
subject and clarified a lot of issues that we had questions
about. The Homestead is a retreat/conference center that isn't as
rustic as it sounds in the catalog description. Our rooms were
very nice with private baths, excellent food served buffet style
and with a nice variety of meals, no repeats on entrees the
entire week.

No television in our rooms which actually was an asset. A large
open all-purpose room was an excellent gathering place for cards,
games, jig-saw puzzles and visiting during free time. One
afternoon one of the Elderhostelers brought his keyboard on which
he entertained us and accompanied a sing-a-long by the rest of
us. There were 43 in attendance and 7 of them were repeats - two
couples were there for the fourth time. That speaks well for this
well-organized Elderhostel. Very suitable for handicapped. Also
the camaraderie is especially nice for singles. The Corning Glass
Center is just a few miles away and well worth taking the time to
visit. Steuben glassware is made here, also. Watson Homestead has
sponsored over 200 Elderhostels in the 18 years they've been
involved so they know how to do it right.

Jan Hutchinson -   JanClyde@aol.com

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   Personals
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From: SantaFe812@aol.com
Subject: Grand Circle travel

We have been receiving brochures from Grand Circle travel and
some of the trips sound good.  Have you, or any other
elderhostelers traveled with this travel group?  Do you know
anything about the trip to Guadelahara, Mexico?

Bob and Georgia Honeyfield

__________

From: "joe graves" 
Subject: Elderhostel program

We are interested in any info you might have on the Elderhostel
Programs at The University of Southwestern Louisiana in
Lofayette. We have applied for a March 8th. program and would
like to have any comments from people who might have attended
this location.

           Thanks,    Joe Graves
___________

Glad Dilly

My husband and I have attended 11 Elderhostels - all domestic. We
have enjoyed every one, although they vary greatly. We put a
great deal of emphasis on the courses offered, also watch for
accomodations with private bath, and hope for good food. We are
vegetarians (although not terribly strict about it when away from
home), but do like places that offer fresh foods and as much
choice as possible. I would like to share our experiences and get
some recommendations for places that others might have
particularly enjoyed. Our favorite so far was Oklahoma State
Univ. where we studied "Internet for the Absolute Beginner", Rt.
66, and History of Railroads in the Oklahoma Territory. All great
classes.

Send e-mail to dgdill@teleplex.net

_____________

From: Gavian@aol.com
Date: Mon, 22 Sep 1997 13:46:14 -0400 (EDT)

Elderhostel Notebook Information note

Just got back from the best Elderhostel ever (been to over 25 and
stopped counting). We were at the Denali Wilderness Lodge, which
has ONE Elderhostel a year..the last week in Sept. they're open.
If your mind likes wilderness and your body says "Private bath,
please", this is the place for you.  You can reach it only by
small bush plane (or horseback). 30 miles from the nearest road.
An absolutely luxurious, and comfortable former hunting lodge,
with heat, electricity and indoor plumbing, plus a gourmet chef,
sous chef, pastry chef, and marvellous meals (naturally).  The
surroundings (Wood River Valley, within Denali National Park) are
so beautiful, it was hard to concentrate on the teachings of a
truly inspired young staff of naturalists.

The trips in and out by plane, flying over glaciers, and valleys,
and magnificent scenery would have been worth the trouble even if
the rest wasn't so good...but it was great!  I can't say enough
about it all...even the Fall weather and foliage was striking.

_____

Marian Leach 

Marian would like information from anyone
having taken an Elderhostel Copper Canyon program in Mexico.


*** end Elderhostel Notebook October 1997 ***