And as the Alt-Right tries to wage a Second American Revolution in the US a look at the revolutions we do need.
The air
United we atand
And clearly the challenge is carbon emissions where EasyJet can take a bow.
The budget airline topped a London School of Economics report in a top five which also includes Alaska Air, Qantas, my old friends at United who flew me to the Deep South and JetBlue.
The seas
Norway wood: In the Norwegian fjords
And high up for the haters in this Covid and Climate crisis are our cruise ships.
And I’ll light a candle in unison for a Happy Hanukah though, in truth, The Scary One and Daddy’s Little Girl have the place looking like a Meatloaf video already.
Hanukah’s status has grown in modern times.
Mainly in North America as part of a better recognition of other cultures and religious observances in December.
So it’s commonplace now, and rightly so, to wish your Jewish friends Happy Hanukah.
Which, in fact, Matisyahu does more tunefully than I ever could, even if I were swollen with sweetened Israeli wine.
Matisyahu’s song touches all the right points, to be fair, King David, Maccabee, Mount Zion, and, of course, candles.
Matisyahu means ‘gift of God’ .
He has, as you might expect from one who terms himself thus, a confidence about himself.
Gift from God
Matthew Miller is actually a Pennsylvanian who is a foremost proponent of Jewish rock, Jewish hip hop and fusion reggae.
We all have our images of Judaism.
And, in truth other than my own home address the place names in The Promised Land’ from the Bible were the most familiar of my childhood.
Anne Frank Statue, Amsterdam
The Jewish story I learned in my early years has infused a lifelong interest in the Chosen People.
Alas that has mostly meant visiting Holocaust markers, Dachau concentration camp on a booze bus trip to Oktoberfest in Munich.
I’m channelling my inner Oleta Adams (the darling of the Gulf War soldiers) by saying I don’t care how I get there I’ll get there if I can.
And so I’m flagging up airplane, sailboat and maybe even camel too today although Oleta it’s not just an Arab man who uses the ‘ship of the desert’.
Canary Orange
The future is orange
And obviously this caught our attention. Prosaically because the latest map for the European Centre for Disease control has classified Ireland and the Canaries orange.
Which means that anyone returning from the Canaries doesn’t have to restrict their movements upon their return, having done a pre-departure test 72 hours before departure.
Unlike the canary Aer Lingus isn’t flying out there until December 27.
But from then you can be sure of availability out to Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote and my old fave Tenerife.
A word on canaries and the Canaries and, no they’re not named after the birds but after the latin name for dogs because they had big mutts.
And as for orange canaries, well they’re really Red Canaries which can have an orange hue. Now you know.
French fancy
We are sailing
France, we’ve missed you. Like so much else this year I had my bag packed ready for an arts and culture trip to see you when this pesky bug got buggier.
But we and my ferry friends aren’t going to let this beat us and Irish Ferries are preparing for a better year next year.
Irish Ferries will operate daily overnight sailings from Dublin to Cherbourg with their new cruise ferry WB Yeats (or WB Yachts as I call it) throughout next summer.
I’ve met WB, the ship that is, but that was in Dublin Port… next stop Cherbourg 2021.
And it truly is a pleasure to sail around French shores
Cruise away to 2022
Enchanted Princess
And the thing about cruises is that you usually have to save up for them.
So Princess Cruises are giving us plenty of time to do just that with their 2022 brochure.
They will have five ships on the seas.
Pick of them (heck they’re all mouthwatering) is Enchanted Princess which will be sailing around Russia snd Scandinavia from Copenhagen.
While we’re intrigued about their festival packages.
So you can take the Crown Princess to the Edinburgh Military Tattoo,
Because I didn’t feel it was right to leave my work without me for that length of time!
It’ll take you from Amman whose charms and that of Jordan I did enjoy, to Jerusalem and every stop in between. From £1954 (was £2999). Valid from January 15.
And as I now know after making new Israeli friends at the World Travel Market you’re just as likely to need a camel here too.
Because the land of milk and honey is a half sand.
And on this, World Kindness Day, a shout-out here to those who have shown me random acts of kindness on my travels… and sometimes me them.
And firstly a recommendation… if you ever leave your mobile phone back in your Mississippi hotel on my American Trilogy in the Deep South.
You only realise it when you’re 50 miles along the highway then here’s your go-to guy.
Hit the road Zach
Zach is back
Zach arranged to get a courier to bring it from Jackson to Cleveland and the Two Mississippi Museums.
The next year Zach sought me out at the American Travel Fair, IPW, in Denver when I left my mobile phone down as I went for a coffee and he tut-tutted. Legend!
Zuhair, a hero
Ramadan the Man….Zuhair
And a shout-out here to all who observe Ramadan which puts a Christian’s Lenten fast into sharp focus.
Zuhair, our G Adventures host on our trip to Jordan, was the ever-welcoming face for his country.
Despite not being able to let a drop of water or morsel to his lips despite the travel and 30+ temperatures and desert until early evening.
When even Petra camels could.
Rachel, a ray of sunshine
Sometimes when you travel the world for a living you forget how lucky you are.
And that’s when you need a star like Rachel to pick you up.
Often it’s wine and a prehistoric South African valley which will remind you that whatever’s happening at home can wait.
And which is why I’m delighted for her (and me in the future) that South Africa is opening up again for international travellers with a negative test.
Your honour, Onur
I’m going where Onur goes… in Istanbul
And I’ve reserved this place for my favourite Turk, Turkish Airlines’ Onur, and very nearly favourite person in our industry.
Which is why he, like me, is also a past recipient of Irish Travel Media’s Pleasure To Work With Award.
Now if there was an award too for Most Accidental Tourist I’d win that too… every year.
I’ve enjoyed Onur’s company on the little island of Kuramathi, too small even for me to get lost.
Though Istanbul is and when I did get waylaid somewhere around the Blue Mosque who cane to collect me?
And I’ll carry your cross
And Finisterre after the Camino
And sometimes I’ll be your hero on your travels.
Just as I was when I carried a tearful American’s backpack on her final steps of a stretch of the Camino with CaminoWays.
Only for her to have to remind me to give it back.
And the last word is from Donald, a bit of a scoop from your favourite Travel blog.
While the rest of the world has been trying to talk to the Big Mouth we got him… well, we are old pals.
And Donald has a message for the world: ‘I love you all and I want you all to come and see me again soon in America.’
The Happiest Place on Earth is now also the Safest on Earth with reservations, social distancing, alternate rollercoast carts and new hospitality measures.
While Mickey, Minnie, Donald and the Gang aren’t about to let the virus turn their smile into a smell.
And are dancing, waving and welcoming us all in their own inimitable way.
Watch this space for new Disney features coming along soon.
I had all planned to take a whizz around the Florida Keys before the other Donald closed America off in March but hope to put that right when I get the chance.
And it’s those areas with natural distancing like the Keys and island nations (and yes a lesson here to the UK and Ireland too) who have an advantage.
Sail away in Croatia
Water wonderland
And when you’ve got 1200 islands then there’s ‘one for everyone in the audience.’
As they like to say in the world’s longest-running TV chat show, Ireland’s The Late Late Show, or whatever the Croatian equivalent is.
But here is a country which, as a Balkans state, dealt better than the rest of Europe with the virus.
And which is perfectly placed to host the tourist’s new requirements during and post-Covid.
One area is in small boat holidays and yachting around the islands, another adventure in the Great Outdoors.
Kayak attack: In Croatia
My go-to people in Ireland for Croatia are Croatia Tours, and I went on pilgrimage with them to neighbouring Bosnia & Herzegovina where I started out on the road to Dubrovnik.
They have a seven-days Rivers by the Sea package, making the most of where the area where the Krka River enters the Adriatic, on June 26 £1255pp.
Where you’ll get to sea kayak, cycle, canoe, rock climb, hike and raft.
The Tuscan Islands
And Firenze too
We’ll also be spreading our wings more next year even when we do visit our favourite cities.
And that’ll help hotspots like Firenze breathe as we explore greater Tuscany, its adventure trails, cycling opportunities and thermal waters.
And its seven islands, chief among them Elba, the first island of exile for Napoleon, and Montecristo, it of Alexandre Dumas’ Count.
Able was I ere I saw Elba.
As every schoolchild, well, at least those of certain age and lexical bent, will tell you.
And Tuscany was, and is, ere able to thrive in ‘il novo normal’.
And, of course, the Caribbean
Daddy’s Little Girl, as all our little girls do these days, is wont to show me amusing things she finds on the internetty thing.
And one we both find funny is a Jamaican tour guide who extols the benefits of inhaling the island’s plants.
I grab every chance to hook up with my Caribbean friends, Barbados,Tobago, Anguilla (heck, all of them) albeit these days over Zoom, if only to hope that I can draw some sun out from the screen.
And as usual their warmth came flowing us out as they reminded us that in their island their neighbourliness has helped them through this crisis and referred in passing to London where ‘people don’t know their neighbours but had been getting to know each other this year.’
Los Filipinos
For those of us too who in the second half of the century of years some of us are blessed to live, our cultural touchpoint for the Phillipines is the Thrilla in Manila, the nation’s capital which hosted Ali-Frazier III.
And of course the Philippines are knockout and our old friends at G Adventures are all over it.
Manila is on the island of Luzon, one of 7,641 in the archipelago.
And you’ll not be surprised to learn then that out of 7,641 islands that it should have boasted the world’s most beautiful island, courtesy of Conde Nast Traveler in 2016.
The exotically-named Atty. Maria Anthonette C.Velasco-Allones, the Tourism Promotions Board’s COO has an equally lyrical way about her.
As she described her islands and what they have to offer.
‘When the dark night is over and the sun rises, wake up in the Philippines.
They have just released their 2020-2021 Treasures of South America brochure.
And they have put in some incentives just for us.
Their Essence of Argentina & Brazil is a 12-day tour from £4,090pp with flights which, of course, includes Rio, Buenos Aires and Iguazu. Pure redemption!
Hit the peaks in South America
Twelve days, of course, is never long enough, 28 is a bit more like it.
That’ll give you more than enough time to see…
Lima, Urubamba, Agues Caliente, Cusco, Puno, Huatajata, La Paz, Uyuni, San Pedro de Atacama, Santiago, Mendoza, Buenos Aires, Iguazu and Rio.
Fancy a waterfall?
And if some of those names are new to you it’s because they reduce the size of those countries on your map.
Ultimate South America, 28 days from £8,690pp, including flights.
Who hasn’t whiled away a coffeetime looking at our atlas, and picking out African names, say?
G Adventures will take you there… they laid me on my back in Jordan and came back for me.
And I promised to come back for them!
Now having dipped my toe into the Muddle East, and North Africa on a memorable trip to Morocco.
The pride of Africa
And realised a dream by visiting South Africa, I just have to do the bit in between.
So picking out Tanzania here which as you can see would dwarf Germany if we would only let it…
The sun also shines: Kilimanjaro
It’s all about the safari, the Serengeti and Kilimanjaro but there are beaches too, and exotic Zanzibar.
They have 19 days Kilimanjaro, Serengati & Zanzibar from £3356.65.
Tanzania was calling me in South Africa when my hotel in Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape played Toto’s Africa on a constant loop.
Wild beasts of South Africa
I know that I must do what’s right. As sure as Kilimanjaro rises like Olympus above the Serengeti.
Famously, writer David Paich had never visited Africa when he penned the song….
Perhaps he too had been looking at his atlas with a magnifying glass, of course, to pick out the names!
Seeing we’re back on the road. and spurred by the excellent PBS series ’10 that changed America’ https://www.pbs.org/show/10-changed-america/which also includes monuments and bridges among others…
I give you my favourite streets I know from around the world…
The Beale Deal
That’s Handy…. Memphis
Beale Street, Memphis, Tennessee: And naturally I channeled my best Marc Cohen, took a selfie next to WC Handy, partied the night away at BB King’s Jazz club and scoured Elvis’s tailors Lansky Brothers.
History under your feet. Photo by Anna Urlapova on Pexels.com
And a walk I would regularly and will yet do again. At the top of Edinburgh’s High Street is the Castle, in the middle St Giles kirk where Jenny Geddes threw a chair at the preacher.
Then there’s the spot where Deacon Brodie, the inspiration for Jekyll & Hyde was hanged on the gibbet he invented where locals spit on the ground in disdain. Before you get to the foot and see the new Scottish Parliament and the Queen’s residence, the historic Holyrood Palace.
When in Rome. The Scary One and Daddy’s Little Girl on the Appian Way
Appian Way. Rome: What did the Romans do for us? Well, they built roads to last.
We didn’t get to the Appian Way and the Catacombs when Mrs M treated me to a 40th Birthday treat but it was all the better for taking the kids half a dozen years later.
Via Dolorosa, Jerusalem: And the one I have still to visit when I will walk in the footsteps of Our Lord. The winding route from the former Antonia Fortress to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is about 600m.
And particularly as I put work first and turned down and joint Jerusalem and Jordan trip because I didn’t want to leave my employer in the lurch for a fortnight. See https://www.itraveljerusalem.com.
So I’ve missed out your favourite. Let me know and we’ll share. And I won’t tease you. I’ve got another five More on the Road coming hot on the heels.
Food for thought: A tajine
And Finisterre after the Camino
And with the Peabody Duckmaster in Memphis
