It’s been nearly five decades since George Butterfield, his wife Martha and Martha’s brother Sidney Robinson led a group of 43 students on a 59-day trip from Naples to London. And while Butterfield & Robinson has come a long way since that first fateful trip, we never get tired of gazing back to remember our humble origins. So as you can imagine, we were thrilled to receive this email from past traveller Bob Collins, who embarked with George and Martha on a European excursion in the summer of 1969. We’ll be the first to admit we were still a little green back in those early days, but as Bob’s letter can attest, that didn’t stop anyone from having the time of their life.
Attention George Butterfield,
My name is Bob Collins. Janey Cruise (pictured with me at right), my sister Linda and I were all with you and Martha back in 1969. That was still, for all of us, the best trip of our lifetimes—and we have all travelled a lot since then.
We remember Janey and her friend in their baby doll pajamas out on the balcony of the Hotel Rossio in Lisbon causing a near-riot in the plaza below, Bob Wright breaking his foot leaping off the Victor Emmanuel monument, Martha blackmailing that poor kid from Newfoundland so he would arrive home with a beard and watching the first moon walk from the bar on the cruise ship in the Mediterranean—it goes on and on and on.
Just wanted to thank you once again.