Chalfont St Giles & Graft–De Rijp

Twinning Association

(Chartered in 1979)

Chalfont St Giles Twinning Association 1979 - 2012

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Next Event:

Thursday 1 March 2012 - Talk & Plate Supper.

Charles Dickens and London by Tony Williams - cost £4.00 per person.

(Drinks will not be supplied - please bring your own).

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The next Coffee Morning will be on Saturday 3 March 2012, in the Reading Room, between 10.00 am and 11.30am, where you will be made most welcome.

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Skittles Evening for Charity: Saturday 3 March 2012 - 7.30pm at the Memorial Hall. Street Dreams is a charity dealing with disaffected young people and helping get them back into training and work.

Please give your support.

For further information and poster please click here.

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Visit to Graft-De Rijp 9-12 September 2011.

On Friday 9 September 26 members boarded the coach at 6.45am from the Village Green at the start of the journey to Holland. The crossing was by Sea France ferry from Dover leaving at 9.40am to Calais. After a couple of rest stops along the way we arrived at the New Town Hall in De Rijp at about 7.00pm (local time) where we were greeted by our hosts.

Saturday was spent in Purmerend, a neighbouring town with plenty of opportunity for shopping. The visit started with an excellent guided tour lasting one and a half hours after which everyone had the time to themselves before returning to De Rijp. The evening was spent with hosts, many joining up to form small parties.

On Sunday morning we visited ‘Fort Veldhuis’, one of the 42 fortresses built as part of the defence ring around Amsterdam. The museum displays the results of 25 years of detailed investigations by a group of volunteers into research and recovery of aircraft from the Second World War. There are over 30 rooms in the Fort, each housing many exhibits ranging from aircraft engines, wings and numerous small items recovered from crash sites. This visit was one of great nostalgia and brought back memories for a lot of people. In the afternoon we visited the village of Schermerhorn to join in their annual festivities. The streets and houses were adorned with many flags and bunting, making a very colourful picture. Streets were lined with stalls selling a variety of goods and one producing pancakes was very lively with the ladies cooking the pancakes singing and dancing to the music. Another area provided a variety of entertainment. In the evening we went to a restaurant for our traditional end of visit dinner which was attended by 60 members.

On Monday we left De Rijp at 8.00am for the journey home. Much of the way was very windy and on arrival at Calais we found that this was severely affecting the ferry crossings. After a delay of about three hours we finally got on board for a very windy and choppy crossing. On arrival at Dover we had to wait for another hour to get through the entrance to the Port for the ferry to dock. The delay had caused our Mike, our driver to exceed his permitted working hours and this necessitated a change of driver which was arranged at a slip road to the M25 at Reigate. We eventually arrived at Chalfont at 11.30pm, some 3-4 hours later than scheduled.

Nevertheless, this had been a very enjoyable visit once again.