No fog on the Tyne

Amongst those fortunate enough to be invited aboard HMS Tyne during her four day visit to London, were some Waltham Forest College students who are studying Tourism and the Public Services.

HMS Tyne is a River Class offshore patrol vessel currently carrying out fishery protection duties and she and her crew enjoyed a well earned rest in the Capital after four busy weeks’ duty up to 300 miles off Lands End.

Lieutenant Chris Benarr (pictured below) the ship’s Operations officer welcomed the students and led a tour to every part of the ship, which is home to some 30 officers and crew, explaining in detail their important role in the Royal Navy and life aboard and ashore.

The students were able to take their places on the bridge, try out the 20mm cannon (fortunately not loaded), were given a demonstration on the finer points of fire fighting and Lt. Benarr outlined the purpose of the function of the boarding of fishing vessels to carry out routine inspections and enforcing UK and EU fisheries legislation.
During these operations two man teams from the ship conduct boardings of fishing vessels inspecting net sizes, weight of catches, fish sizes, composure of catches and the vessel's logbook and licence.

Palma Paella

Where's the best place to go to try Paella?

We think it might be Palma Majorca.

Paella is just one thing we tried when BTEC National Diploma Travel and Tourism Year One went on a fact finding mission.

The main objective was to reseach and understand the marketing activities and and customer service provisions of a number of different travel and tourism organisations.

However, we admit that we did get time to visit the aquarium and to check out the beach at Can Pastilla.

Another brick in the wall

In the first of this term's trips, it was the turn of the BTEC National Certificate Public Services Uniformed Year 2 to go to the wall. The Berlin Wall.

Not only was the wall a focal point, but we were able look around the whole of Berlin itself.

We checked out Checkpoint Charlie, which, although now purely a tourist attraction, used to be the famous crossing point between East and West Berlin during the Cold War.

The Public Services teaching team joined us 11 students as we researched more into the history of World War Two and looked at how a modern unified Germany was building its tourist and leisure industry.

KGB and cakes

In the name of research, sub-zero temperatures of minus 10C were endured by the Travel and Tourism National Diploma Year 1 group.

That was the only down side when we visited Vilnius in Lithuania. We were out in Lithuania investigating tourism development in this evolving country, which is currently a case study in college coursework.
After settling in to our 3 star hotel we went exploring the sites.

We ate a traditional Lithuanian meal which consisted of Potato, Pork and Pancakes.

The next day we went on a sightseeing tour of the city and we were informed of the history and we managed to gather together many facts needed for the unit assignment.

We also got to visit the KGB museum which told the history of this former Russian state.

Some of us managed to get some shopping in as well. For 5 Litas to the Pound we made up the following list:

Soup 3,90

Chicken breast, chanterelle suace, carrot and cabbage salad 13,50

Cake of the day 4,50
Fresh made juice 5,00
Cocktails 8,50 - 10,50
Glass of wine 4,90
Pint of beer 5 - 6

(that's a quid!!!)

Lochness Monster scared by WFC students

Nessie, the Lochness Monster, decided to avoid students from Waltham Forest College despite us searching for her. We popped in to look for her during our trip to Inverness, but nothing.

We went to Inverness to undertake research for the BTEC 1st Diploma Travel and Tourism course.

We visited the Inverness College where the travel and tourism students did a presentation on the Highlands and Invernesshire.

Then it was our turn and we did a presentation on London and England as a tourist destination.

Afterwards we were served up Venison, Haggis and Shortcake in the form of a traditional Scottish meal.

It was served to us by the catering and hospitality students of Inverness college.

Then, before coming back to England, we managed to see more of the sights and take in a little of the evening life.

An Italian rival for the Mallinson

Can you believe it? Is this really a rival to the Mallinson Restaurant?

Well, it's very similar, just nearly two thousand kilometres away in Italy.

We discovered it when the BTEC 1st Diploma Travel and Tourism class recently paid a visit to Ancona, Italy. We went over to visit a college in Senigallia, a seaside resort, in the North of Ancona.

The college specialises in catering, hospitality and tourism.
When we first arrived we were introduced to the Principal of the college and the two Head Tourism teachers.

We did presentations on English food, lifestyle, culture and tourism issues and then the Italian students also did their presentations on similar matters.

After the presentations the catering students at the Instituto Panzini served us freshly cooked Italian food in their catering training restaurant - the one that looks a bit like the Mallinson.

We learnt a lot about Italian education systems and made some very good friends as well as getting to experience first hand, the Italian food and culture. All of this gave us some invaluable material for our assignments too.