As promised more Black Friday offers (and like all the best Fridays they stretch into the weekend).
It’s always nice to share your favourite hotels with your friends.
Dublin’s delights
in with the fixtures: At the InterCon
And I’m glad to have passed on the charms of my favourite Dublin hotel, the iconic InterContinental in Ballsbridge, with my old pal and multi-award winning Travel writer Yvonne Gordon.
You’ll save 25% off their best flexible rate and enjoy:
A spacious deluxe guest room or a choice of luxurious suites with many with balconies.
And a special recommendation here from my own mermaid who rave about their 14m heated indoor pool and relaxation area.
And their 10% off ESPA products.
There’s limited time to book through Friday, December 3.
And the offers are for stays between Monday, November 29 this year and September 4 next year. And book three days before arrival.
Lusty helpings
Lusty Beggers… can be choosers
And you’ll have lusty helpings all right with the famous hospitality in Northern Ireland.
The deliciously named Lusty Beg Island Resort in Fermanagh is giving you 40% off a B&B courtyard stay for two for £105 per night.
Or book two nights B&B courtyard for two for £265 and receive. £70 voucher to use during your stay.
The offer is open from January 1 to March 31 and is open through tomorrow.
Donegal Mammy
Search and replace: That couple could be you
And, yes, no dip into Ireland can be complete without a namecheck for its northernmost county… my Donegal Mammy would never forgive me.
The scenic Harvey’s Point, set in the idyllic surroundings of Lough Eske and with the Bluestack Mountains as a backdrop, is just where you want to be at this time of year.
Or any time, to be fair.
Now if you book your gift voucher online before midnight on Monday you will get a 10% discount.
That’s towards the stay offers or can be used to enjoy an Afternoon Tea or a meal in the Lakeside Restaurant or Harvey’s Bar and Terrace.
So, even though it’s Saturday, I make no apologies for giving you Craic Friday.
Now the screw was peeping, as the lag lay sleeping. Dreaming about his girl Sal. And that auld triangle went jingle-jangle. All along the banks of the Royal Canal – The Auld Triangle, The Dubliners
Luke Kelly drolled that ‘in the female prison there are 75 women and among them I wish I did dwell, and that auld triangle could go jingle-jangle all along the banks of the Royal Canal.’
And if you know this song, penned by Brendan Behan (and if you don’t then you’ve been missing out) you’ll walk along the Royal Canal in the north of Dublin singing it aloud.
Or if you’re cycling too as I have done, all the time hoping that the broken bottles wouldn’t puncture my tyres.
The Beardie Boys: The Dubliners
That was then, and this is now, and the announcement of the €12m scenic 130km Royal Canal Greenway is to be welcomed.
If you do the lot you’ll have chalked off 90 bridges, 30 locks, 17 harbours and four aqueducts.
And take in Co. Dublin, Kildare, Meath, Westmeath and Longford.
So as a preamble let’s get on with our Rainy Days and Songdays six of the best songs with Irish landmarks.
What a Corker!
Jim and Alan at the Phil Lynott statue in Dublin
As I was goin’ over the Cork and Kerry Mountains, I met with Captain Farrell and his money he was countin’. I first produced my pistol, and then produced my rapier. I said ‘stand and deliver, or the devil he may take ye – Whiskey in the Jar, Thin Lizzy
Musha rain, dum a doo, dum a da.
The Cork and Kerry Mountains have always held a special affection for me as the first travel assignment when a cub reporter in Reading.
Going over said mountains in our Citroen cars was not helped by a bout of seasickness going over on the Swansea-Cork ferry.
But nothing that the local tipple, Murphy’s Stout and the craic didn’t put right.
Low lie those fields
Those low-lying fields: Athenry
Low lie the Fields of Athenry, where once we watched the small birds fly. Our love was on the wing. We had dreams and songs to sing. It’s so lonely round the Fields of Athenry – Fields of Athenry, The High Kings
Lowing, or maybe braying, around those Fields of Athenry were our four donkeys which came with the rented cottage.
I can’t remember what la famiglia called the three others but mine was Oaty as in Donkey Oaty!
I was maybe just tilting at windmills.
And as for stealing Trevelyan’s corn… we just bought some from the Centra for the donkeys.
The Band is back together
Neat little town they call Belfast
In a neat little town they call Belfast, apprentice to tradeI was bound…, a sad misfortune came over me which caused me to stray from the land, far away from my friends and relations, betrayed by the Black Velvet Band – Black Velvet Band, Peaky Blinders
It was more good fortune that came over me… to take me away from my friends and relations to the States after university.
And work, no not on the Black Velvet Band’s pitch, Broadway, but Boston where I inevitably served tables at an Irish pub.
Where every night among the most requested songs was Black Velvet Band.
And yes, of course, like our gullible hero of the song ‘many an hour’s sweet happiness I spent I spent in this neat little town Belfast.
As for a black velvet band, or any colour for that matter, try as I may I never persuaded one… i wonder if she’ll be there when I return.
Where the Dark Mourne sweeps…
London’s got nothing on this
Oh Mary this London’s a wonderful sight with people here working by day and by night, they don’t sow potatoes, nor barley, nor wheat. But there’s gangs of them dogging for gold in the street. At least when I asked them that’s what I was told so I just took a hand at this diggin’ for gold. But for all that I found there I might as well be in the place where the Dark Mourne sweeps down to the sea – Mountains o’ Mourne, Don McLean
Mourne Mountains, Co. Down: It’s always a thrill to see the Mountains of Mourne, my Dear Old Mum’s home province, when driving either north or south.
Mountains of Mourne this sweeping range, has a special place in our hearts as the lullaby I would sing to Daddy’s Little Girl.
It was round by Brockagh’s corner
Harkin’s Bar, Donegal
It was down by Brockagh Corner one morning I did stray, I met a fellow rebel and this to me did say, he had orders from our captain to assemble at Dunbar. But how were we to get there without a car – The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem
Beockagh, Co. Donegal: And still on lullabies this gentle little ditty about the Irish War of Independence is an alternative to nursery rhymes.
If your mother is from Nationalistic north-west Donegal that is.
Well it got me through childhood… give three cheers to the Teasy and Johnson’s Motor Car.
Meeting of minds in Wicklow
Moore Wicklow please
Sweet vale of Avoca! How calm could I rest. In thy bosom of shade with the friends I love best. Where the storms that we feel in this cold world should cease. And thy hearts, like thy waters, be mingled on peace. – The Meetings of the Waters,John McCormack
And my beloved old homestead of Co. Wicklow and its poet laureate, Thomas Moore.
The Meetings is a family favourite, going back to the days when my Donegal Granny and Grandpa honeymooned here.
We would often return there in our Thirteen Years in Ireland on family day trips.
And skim stones which can be more of a danger sport than you might imagine.
Particularly if you’re that young boy on the other side of the bank who ducks just as a stone is jumping up out of the water.
We may never know why Vincent Van Gogh lost his ear, though here is a fine crime fiction on the subject, but who is to say it wasn’t after a row about Monopoly?
With the release of their own Vincent board game for Christmas.
Becoming one of hundreds of Monopolys around the world.
With at the latest count, the game being licensed in 103 countries and printed in more than 37 languages.
The Van Gogh version substitutes the Great Man’s art for the traditional streets.
Just painting
While among the pieces naturally is a paint tube though perhaps tastefully no ear.
Monopoly for most of us is as much part of Christmas as Santa, who often brought it fir our stockings, and Christmas turkey.
But it was also brought out when friends came over, or relatives, from home or abroad.
And this was when it got really exciting to see the names of their streets and public transport.
O’Monopoly
So when my Irish relatives got their Dublin board out it had such names as O’Connell Street, Shrewsbury Street in Ballsbridge where I got to stay, and the Busaras on it.
It was very much a point of honour that your country had its own Monopoly.
It was a sign that you were not under the English yolk.
Most spectacular of all was the New York edition where you could say you owned Broadway.
All us poor Scots had to dream of was buying Mayfair, Park Lane or Old Kent Road.
Until the manufacturers stumbled on the rather obvious idea of giving us all what we wanted.
McNopoly
And so we got Edinburgh, and the Royal Mile, Princes Street, the two football stadiums, Easter Road and Tynecastle Park and the rugby ground, Murrayfield.
Now, of course there are now football clubs, film and TV franchises Monopoly merchandise.
D’Ohpoly
In fact you name it and Monopoly have probably adapted it to your needs.
Of course Monopoly, while having a deeply suspicious Property speculation message in its origins back in 1935, has really become a vehicle for imagination.
And discovering about foreign destinations…
By plane, ship, car… or my personal favourite, a wee Scottie dog.
Dublin’s most famous son (move aside Bono) famously chronicled a day in the life of an everyman in the fair city.
But he, of course, fell out with its burghers and went into exile in mainland Europe, falling in love with Trieste.
Where he is still remembered with affection as much as in his home city.
Mediterranean Man: Joyce in Trieste
So much so that they erected a statue to the Great Man there too while for a step by step guide of Joyce’s Trieste check out this site.
And dander over to the Joyce Museum in the famous old town to get up close and personal.
Of course the best place to channel your inner Joyce at the Cafe Stella Polare.
Joyce’s bolthole
Be sure you take your pen and pad for your Ulysses (or write it on your iPad).
While you should also check out the titular Caffe James Joyce.
So what is it about Trieste and coffee?
Well, it was only the gateway from the East Indies and the Middle East to the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Say again.
Well, Trieste was a Habsburg port back for centuries before the empire broke up after the First World War.
Which means Naval Captain Von Trapp’s town was actually an Italian and that was key to him getting out of Nazi Austria.
Which you know already from my Austrian travels but here’s a reminder.
Anyhoos Trieste is the jewel of the Friulia Venezia Giulia whose joys I have been enjoying, from mountain to woods to sea in the Virtual Italian Zoom Week.
I’ll be bringing you more in tomorrow’s Hungry and Thursday and all your favourite features.
Forget about that ridiculous ubiquitous Ed Sheeran,, Country star Steve Earle’s Galway Girl is the definitive tribute.
Some of my earliest longings and fumblings were for Galway girls, on holiday to a Salthill mobile home park.
Of course, in the late 70s and early 80s, the tradition for awkward, gawky Glaswegians was to sit in the corner and well, just gawk at the girls.
The Salthill Strand
Galway, this year’s European Capital of Culture, tops a Conde Nast Traveler Readers Choice Awards list of favourite cities.
And they’ll just love beating Dublin into second place.
The two Irish cities push the jewel of the Med, Valletta, into third.
The Maltese city boasts, for me, the most gorgeous harbour in the world.
And memories… I bent down there to tie my shoelaces 26 years ago, Miss F shouted Yes and one year later became the Indomitable Mrs M.
While my readopted city of Edinburgh also makes it onto the list at No.7 and the epic Athens at No.9.
Green Mickey
Ears to you, Mickey
Maybe y’all missed No Coal Burning Mickey, the eco-friendly alternative to Steamboat Willie, but Da Mouse is right on point with cleaning up the planet.
Mickey has come out on top of an Uswitch eco-friendly poll of the leading tourist spots around the world.
Who knew? Well, you do now.
Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney in Florida boasts a 270-acre 50+megawatt solar facility which operates enough sun to operate two Disney parks.
The solar facility has the power to reduce annual greenhouse gas emissions by more than 52,000 metric tons.
Which is equivalent to removing 9,300 cars from the road each year.
Of course the warmest thing you can get at Magic Kingdom is a Mickey hug. And here’s to when we can all repeat this.
And, of course, his is a hug that wraps around the world, from Florida to California, to Paris, to Hong Kong.
Ryanair has always retained its Irish quirkinesses on its way to conquering the world as the major low-fares airline.
Its harp, its name after founder Tony Ryan and its home passengers saying rosaries. playing the lottery and clapping on arrival.
Some unpronounceable name below
And they never forget where they came from and want us to visit, offering seven days in Cork, £17.23pp return, Monday, September 28-Monday, October 5.
Five days to Shannon, Sunday, October 11-Friday, October 16. down from £24.23 and five days in Dublin, Sunday, October 11-Friday, October 16. See terms, conditions.
Another great aspect of Ryanlife is introducing you to places you’d never heard of to keep the costs down.
Ergo the sale which offered among others, Lublin 106 miles south-east of Warsaw then I’ll let you know of the next i e.
They were offering €9.99 one-way in your Ryanair September sale. It ended midnight last night, Tuesday, September 15.
More Aer time
This is your captain speaking
And Ireland’s national airline carrier Aer Lingus want to fly us away too… for the price of a night out.
With prices from €29.99 they’ll whisk you away to Athens, Alghero and Alicante.
Now that’s the As I’ll give you a ‘V’ as in Verona and let you run through the other letters.
The offers end variously between September 29 and 30.
Lost in France
Everything you need
I may paint a picture of a Dickensian upbringing but, in truth, my Dear Old Mum did spoil me as the baby of the family.
And I’ll forever be grateful for everything she, and my Dad, did for me, including giving me my wings.
And allowing me to go off on a post-school camping trip to France, at the sane time my aunt stopped my cousin going.
Chic: On the French Riviera
All of which pricked a lifelong interest for Cannes and the French Riviera.
It all feels just now like being a schoolboy all over again as we wait for permission to travel abroad.
I’m still smarting that my Normandy and Monet trip has been deferred but it has merely whetted my appetite for France.
And here’s one resort too look forward to that is pure heaven.
My room (or floor)
Evian Resort in Evian-les-Bains, has the mineral H2O, of course, and the wellness centre with all those lovely spells.
But it also has family fun, sporting activities and camps, and even opera.
Families booking into the 5* Evian Resort (with free stay for under-13s) can also avail of their Le Fabuleux Jardin rooms.
And there is also a flexible 24-hour cancellation policy.
And the view is all mine too
Evian also have a Freedom offer, promising 20% discounts on accommodation from €264 per night to £238 per night for Hotel Royal.
And from €152|£141 at Hotel Ermitage.
And here’s an Ibiza beezer
It’s always sunny
My Dear Old Mum has always been a sun worshiper which is why one year she left my Dad and brothers at home while we went off to Ibiza.
7 Pines Kempinski has new 2021 early booking offers, a new Villa experience and a Pershing Yacht Experience package.
The table is set
There is 20% off their 2021 daily rate (starting from €300 per night) as well as a Long Stay Offer with 25% off for stays of eight nights or more.
Oh Mexico
As James Taylor sang to us in the RDS in Dublin ‘it sounds so simple I just got to go, the sun’s so hot I forgot to go home, I guess I’ll have to go now.’
On the road again, I just can’t wait to get on the road again, the life I love is makin’ music with the my friends, and I can’t get wait to get on the road again.
Willie Nelson
And when I was asked by woman-of-many-trades (she asked me to write this) Aileen Eglington to pick my song for her Destinations Anywhere show on Dublin South FM I plumped for Willie Nelson’s classic to the Open Road.
And so continuing my top roads I’ve been on (or hope to trudge) which included the Appian Way, Rome. Beale Street, Memphis, The King’s Highway in Jordan, the Royal Mile, Edinburgh and Via Dolorosa, Jerusalem On the Road again… I give you five more.
The arc of angels
There’s a golden sun. Photo by TravelingTart on Pexels.com
Avenue desChamps-Elysees, Paris: And, yes, you are taking your life into your own hands when you cross the road here.
The Arc de Triumph with its record of French victories is, of course, the centrepiece although there hasn’t been an inscription on it for many a year. Either in war or the Tour de France which passes through it. See https://en.parisinfo.com.
Aspiring Dublin
O’Connell Street, Dublin: And if you like your streets lined with historical statues then this is for you.
At one end is the Liberartor Daniel O’Connell, with bullet holes from the Easter Rising, and at the other ‘The King of Ireland’ Charles Stewart Parnell. There’s the modern-day Centennial Spire but my favourite is the statue of workers’ hero Jim Larkin. See http://www.visitdublin.com.
The long, long road
Yonge Street, Toronto: And why let the facts get in the way of a good story. The Guinness Book of Records tagged it as the longest in the world until it became clear that they were conflating the Downtown Street with Ontario Highway 11 to make it 1,896kms.
When it’s actually 56kms long. And this being Toronto it’s cleaner, safer and with a laid-back vibe than New York which it is often unfavourably compared to. See http://www.seetoronto.com and Canadian high.
It’s a Shambles
The Shambles, York, England: The Old York, as it’s never called, has something the New York has.
This has overhanging timber-framed buildings that date from the 14th century. And if you like your trains there’s also the National Railway Museum. See https://www.visityork.org.
A night on Der Town
Beatles history in Hamburg
And if it’s good enough for the Beatles then…
This is where the Beatles grew up and George Harrison got his first taste for mud-wrestling Germans. It’s the Reeperbahn in Hamburg. And let Stefanie Hempell who runs the best music tour you’ll find.
Ears to you, Mickey
This is your captain speaking
Chic: On the French Riviera
