What do you bring me? No, not enough…
Back by popular demand, the latest in the World of Travel. Every Saturday, or at least those Saturdays I don’t wake up with a thumping hangover!
I’ll be sitting in judgment.
THE HAIRY ONE AND THE SCARY ONE
So who’ll get to sit on the Iron Throne?
The answer is YOU. The Game of Thrones Touring Exhibition has reached Belfast and will stay there for the summer.
Fitting really as the North is Thrones Country.
I’ve been doing a crash course in GoTology from The Scary One, aka Mrs M, and visited Belfast earlier in the year to check out the GoT tapestry in the Ulster Museum and one of the GoT doors in the Duke of York ‘Dark Horse’ pub in the Cathedral Quarter.
Of course, they were hewn out of the fallen trees that we know better as The Dark Hedges.
The exhibition offers you the chance to visualise the lands of Westeros, see the majestic costumes of the Thrones characters up close and personal and get a real sense of how regal Cersei is and how short Tyrion is.
The exhibition runs until August 31 at the Titanic Exhibition Centre, 17 Queen’s Road, Titanic Quarter. Tickets are £15-£17.50. Visit http://www.gameoftrhonesexhibition.co.uk or http://www.visitbelfast.com.
You’ll get the chance to wield swords, dress up, hang from a rope, and play dead. What’s not to love?
I’ll also bring you my review of Belfast’s Fitzgerald Hotel and some Game of Thrones tomfoolery between trying to finish off seasons 1-7.
THIS ONE WILL RUN AND RUN
Get some colour on you, son: Ally at 2
And he’s off… the Son and Heir found his feet in Bulgaria when we took him on a family holiday back in 1997, lured by the offer of free flights for under-2s.
Unfortunately the newly liberated post-Communist Bulgarians were still playing catch-up which meant no high-chairs when we sat for dinner and us running around trying to get him as he proceeded to run up corridors and onto busy pavements.
Still Bulgaria was tremendous value and a family we met that September had saved so much on their Spring holiday there that they were able to come back in the Autumn.
TUI offers seven nights self-catering from 279 euro pps, staying at the 3* Aparthotel Rose Village, Sunny Beach. Visit http://www.tuiholidays.ie or call 1850 45 35 45.
FLYING HIGH
And here’s his Liverpool mascot Paddy
If you are up in Belfast for the GoT Exhibition and bump into the Son and Heir don’t be surprised if he’s distracted. No, not because of his impending assignment for his university Masters course, but because of the stresses of being a Liverpool fan at this time.
Back when he was just a bump I went for an interview in Bournemouth and one in Liverpool… I got the latter. If I’d been offered the former then he would have been born a Bournemouth fan, and his life would have been a whole lot easier. It IS the hope that kills you.
Bournemouth, on England’s south coast, is the English Riviera and beach huts can sell for as much as £250,000. Nearby Sandbanks where many a football legend, such as Graeme Souness and Harry Redknapp live, is the world’s most expensive coastal real estate.
So worth a mini-break to the beach then.
Ryanair’s cheapest one-way flight is 9.99 euro to Bournemouth., 12.99 euro one-way to Liverpool, rising for a bunch of other well-priced flights both to the UK and the continent. Visit http://www.ryanair.com.
IMAGINE… LENNON AND PRAGUE
And continuing on the theme, another famous son of Liverpool… John Lennon.
Lennon became something of a hero for the citizens of Prague during the Communist suppression and they used to congregate at the Lennon wall in the city where they would imagine what life would be like if they were allowed a voice.
Of course that day came with the Velvet Revolution in 1989.
Prague, for all its reputation as a stag and hen destination, is alive with culture and, yes, lager.
The Astronomical Clock is the most popular tourist spot in the city but I prefer the Franz Kafka Museum and the swivelling statues who pee on a map of the Czech Republic, a poke at what politicians have done and continue to do to the country.
Click&Go offers a three-night Prague City break from 199pps B&B, based on two sharing, in June, staying at the 3* Charles Central Hotel. Visit http://www.clickandgo.com.
And watch out for my review of Prague and the Spa Triangle where I drink from the well of youth… and lager.
