I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again… I’ll always go where people play and pray.
And wherever you find sportsfans you’ll see prayers being sent heavenwards for the success of their sportsteams.
Philadelphia, a real blue-collar city is one of America’s great sports hubs.
And if you were around in the Seventies and Eighties in particular you would have seen the City of Brotherly Love’s teams win…
At baseball: the Phillies,
Ice hockey: the Flyers,
American Football: the Eagles,
Basketball: the 76ers.
But then Philadelphia forgot what it was and who they were and in a Tower of Babel moment they incurred the Curse of Billy Penn…
The city’s founding father.
Read how they won back Billy’s favour in Philadelphia Freedom and www.visitphilly.com.
Philly is the only American city on National Geographic’s top 25 places to visit this year…
Along with Grand Canyon National Park which I’ll always flag up… The grandest canyon.
Now I don’t need a reason to praise Philly but Aer Lingus has flights there from €189 as part of a return trip.
As part of a raft of special deals, both American and European.
For travel April 1 to June 15. Visit www.aerlingus.com.
Money back
Got your interest, well let’s progress.
Your flight is late and you just have to suck it up (how I hate that phrase).
And you know that if you’ve got a connection to make and that’s not going to happen.
Then you need to know your EU Regulation 261/2004… http://www.citizensinformation.ie.
And we have much to thank Sturgeon v Condor Flugdienst GmbH and Bock and Others v Air France SA last year.
Now I’m imagining it’s not the Sturgeon who wants Scotland to be independent and stay in the EU.But whoever you are we salute you.
It would be wrong though to knock our airlines because they are corporate Leviathans.
They are manned by real people and as tempting as it is in the stress of the moment.
Air France-KLM http://www.airfranceklm.com sorted out an oversight on The Scary One’s Dublin-Amsterdam tickets.
Which meant that she hit the canals smiling… https://jimmurtytraveltraveltravel.com/pictures-of-amsterdam/ and https://jimmurtytraveltraveltravel.com/george-and-amal-hotel/.
Lufthansa http://www.lufthansa.com and Aegean Airlines https://en.aegeanair.com also got me on the next connecting flight from Munich to Athens.
After things had gone Der pear-shaped…
Though this relic did see his old Greek relic in the end.
Ryanair www.ryanair.com are the passenger’s favourite whipping boy but they too will help you out.
I know first hand having had a booking moved.
Because I had again messed up on not looking carefully enough at the return flight from Tobago https://jimmurtytraveltraveltravel.com/2019/12/13/flyday-friday-caribbean-island-hopping/
And http://www.visittobago.gov.tt to London.
Because it was going to return the next day. It’s easier than you think.
Anyhoos try out www.airhelp.com for a wee help out.
Paris match
We’ll be giving it plenty in 2020… Ryanair, I know you love a good sales pitch so you can have that one for free!
Because you do keep us interested with your seat sales the latest of which offers 10% off one way flights for travel January-May.
Paris which is from €21.99 is a city I’ve yet to crack properly.
Because of mes misadventures.
I recall being kicked awake while sleeping on Paris St Lazare railway station.
When I was a callow 17-year-old on my way down to the French Riviera with pals after my school exams.
I travel in slightly better style these days… http://www.atoutfrance.fr and https://jimmurtytraveltraveltravel.com/the-boat-dazur/
And then on our family holiday a few years back I had the bell rung in my ear at the Pere Lachaise Cemetery http://www.parisinfo.com.
As we were rushing back from Edith Piaf and Oscar Wilde’s last resting place.
If I wanted ringing bells I’d have gone to the Notre Dame, merci bien, Monsieur.
Alas, of course, that wonderful church was ravaged by fire.
But mes amis in Paris tell me that they are working furiously to try to revive it to its former glory.
The Glasgow tongue
Our language is continually changing and that’s no bad thing.
But sometimes we forget that old words and definitions still hang around for an older Fifty Something generation.
My home city Glasgow www.peoplemakeglasgow.com is a case in point.
Just in from Glasgow Airport: ‘January Sale: save 20% on parking and the Lomond Lounge.
‘Book until January 8. Valid for arrivals until December 31.’
And then to reinforce the urgency… ‘It’s there and then it’s GONE. POOF.’
Visit www.hello@e.glasgowairport.com.
MEET YOU IN THE SKIES
