Sixteen members from the Mark Province of North Wales recently attended a District Meeting in Spain. The following trip report was submitted by the PGM himself. It is clear that a good time was had by all.

Brethren, what happens on tour stays on tour, or so the saying goes but here is a brief resume of the triumphs and tribulations of the intrepid 16 who attended the District Meeting of Spain from 31st January to 3rd of February.

The arrangements made by our travel coordinator, W. Bro. Colin ‘Alan Whittaker’ Lemin could only be described as ‘perfecto’, we are all appreciative of his efforts on our behalf and if we are ever looking for a Provincial Travel Agent he stands a fair chance of getting the Office.

After settling in to the Hotel on Thursday afternoon 13 of us made our way to Benidorm  old town where one group of five sitting at a dinner table proceeded to try to eat the whole of the contents of the Mediterranean in one sitting, the inevitable happened and one of the party was rather worse for wear when we got back to the Hotel, it was either the food or the alcohol, we are not sure which. Most of the party got Taxi’s back to the Hotel that evening but three sturdy explorers, and I will name them, Peter ‘Shackleton’ Talbot, Ian ‘Edmund Hilary’ Perkin and Steven ‘Scott of the Antarctic’ Tilston braved the hurricane winds and walked back to the Hotel.

On Friday morning the three explorers persuaded 8 of the team to walk the distance to the Old Town, we stopped for a coffee on the way which included a beautiful piece of cake, lovely. The two who could not walk the distance as they were carrying injuries from a previous expedition took a taxi to the Old Town, fed some birds, the feathered kind and then returned to the Hotel were me met up for a little drink before attending the meeting of Torrevieja Lodge No. 1745 where members of the Sussex Province gave a demonstration of a Ceremony of Advancement first carried out in the 1800’s, one of our party reported that he was at the meeting when the original Ceremony was carried out, the rest of us did not think he was that old but there you go, he must have aged well.

After the meeting we were entertained at a reception which included Canapés, these although delightful had no chance of satisfying some of our more ravenous members so we retired for Pie and Chips, Mushy Peas and Gravy and watched the glorious Welsh rugby victory over France in the presence of some bewildered English Rugby fans who must have gone astray and lost their GPS signal, somewhat similar to what the English Rugby team are likely to do when they visit the Millennium Stadium next month. One of our party, not satisfied with the Pie and Chips bought us all cakes, lovely.

Up early on Saturday for the District Meeting, bit of an Administrative error in the signing in system caused a delay in the start but no one seemed to be worried, least of all the District Grand Master and his DC. Good meeting followed by lunch which commenced at 2pm and finally came to a conclusion just before 5.45 by which time one or two of the Team were rather worse for were, I think it was the Wine but they say it was something that they had eaten the night before !!

Just a few more drinks in the evening before we all made our way to our rooms, some needed guides but they made it. A rough night’s sleep due to the weather, some thought it was a hurricane and when you are on 20th floor it can be a bit of a worry. However up for a full English Breakfast this morning, well some of us got to the restaurant, bus to the Airport and the flight home.

Great break, well organised, as the saying goes, ‘I counted them all out and I counted them all back’