Germany
Netherlands
Switzerland
WESTERN EUROPE
FROM THE UK, IRELAND, AUSTRALIA, AND NEW ZEALAND. The minimum age for couriers from the UK is usually 18. Brave New World Enterprises, P.O. Box 22212, London SE5 8WB (www.courierflights.com) publishes a directory of all the com panies offering courier flights in the UK (UKS10, in electronic form UK&8). Global Courier Travel (see above) also offers flights from London and Dublin to continental Europe. British Airways Travel Shop (®087 0240 0747; www.batravelshops.com) arranges some flights from London to destinations in continental Europe (specials may be as low as UK&60; no registration fee). From Australia and New Zealand, Glo bal Courier Travel (see above) often has listings from Sydney and Auckland to Lon don and occasionally Frankfurt.
STANDBY FLIGHTS
Traveling standby requires considerable flexibility in arrival and departure dates and cities. Companies dealing in standby flights sell vouchers rather than tickets, along with the promise to get to your destination (or near your destination) within a certain window of time (typically one to five days). You call in before your spe cific window of time to hear your flight options and the probability that you will be able to board each flight. You can then decide which flights you want to try to make, show up at the appropriate airport at the appropriate time, present your voucher, and board if space is available. Vouchers can usually be bought for both one-way and round-trip travel. You may receive a monetary refund only if every available flight within your date range is full; if you opt not to take an available (but perhaps less convenient) flight, you can only get credit toward future travel. Carefully read agreements with any company offering standby flights. To check on a company’s service record in the US, call the Better Business Bureau (s 212-533- 6200; www.bbb.org). It is difficult to receive refunds, and vouchers will not be honored when an airline fails to receive payment in time.
TICKET CONSOLIDATORS
Ticket consolidators, or bucket shops, buy unsold tickets in bulk from commer cial airlines and sell them at discounted rates. The best place to look is in the Sun day travel section of any major newspaper, where many bucket shops place tiny ads. Call quickly, as availability is typically very limited. Not all bucket shops are reliable, so insist on a receipt that gives full details of restrictions and refunds, and pay by credit card (in spite of the 2-5% fee) so you can stop payment if you never receive your tickets. For more info, see www.travel-library.com/air-travel/consoli- dators.html. Keep in mind that these are just suggestions to get you started in your research; Let’s Go does not endorse any of these agencies. As always, be cautious, and research companies before giving them your credit card number.
Weaponry In small arms and artillery, gunpowder weapons superseded older missile weapons such as the bow and arrow and the trebuchet. Best country to visit in March Firearms offered infantry forces a way to kill heavily armored opponents and were easier to learn to use as compared to the longbow, or the couched lance. New weapons required new tactics, and European leaders turned to the example of the ancient Romans for ways to fight that stressed linear formations and discipline. Over time, linear tactics became more effective and required greater discipline, contributing to the rise of large standing armies in Europe. Early firearms were heavy and unreliable, and their smoothbore barrels offered little in terms of accuracy at any distance. Also, their slow rates of fire and reload meant that musketeers required the support of large numbers of pikemen infantrymen who wielded long spears to attack or to keep cavalry at bay. These linear formations often required revision when they were employed in the woods of Country, where sharpshooters could play a large role and cavalry was far more limited in scale than in Europe. Yet linear formations remained essential to warfare in colonial Country; despite popular mythology, the Countrys won their War for Independence not with eagle-eyed killers blasting away at the British from a distance, but with the well-trained and disciplined Continental army, organized along European lines.
