Why the Irish should think a tulip should be a term of abuse is anybody’s guess but there is a tulip with my name on it.
And this being the planting season for tulips we chose today to put down the bulbs of our favourite flower.
With my wee flower at the Dylan
There’s something organic and hopeful in planting for the Spring and this year it carries a special symbolism.
The tulip is a special flower too, once the prized gift passed around royal courts it is associated most with the Netherlands.
Where this Himalayan plant takes to the damp climate and soil.
Drink in the colour of the Tulip Festival when it returns in April in Amsterdam.
And be sure to learn the history of the tulip which has come to the Dutch people’s rescue in times just like we are going through now.
They stay at the Dylan too
And treat yourself with a stay at the Dylan which I might have told you before is where George and Amal stay when they’re in town.
And where naturally they will have orchids and tulips in your room.
Now who’s a ‘big tulip’?
The full Montenegro
Where would you go if you were ostracised by society… for getting too close yo your sister (and we know you wouldn’t) ?
Montenegro might not be the first name that trips off the tongue.
But it was to here, the small Balkan state with a strip on the Adriatic, that that old 18th Century poet and lothario Lord Byron decamped.
After first taking in the joys of Interlaken in Switzerland.
And described it in his own inimitable way thus: ‘At the birth of the planet the most beautiful encounter between land and sea must have been on the Montenegro coast.’
Which I think you would agree would make a good blurb for hotelier One&Only’s first foray into Europe.
So where is it? One&Only Portonovi, and haven’t these Balkans destinations got a great ring to them… my Bosnian development would be What’s the story, Medjugorje?
Well, 50 minutes from Tivat Airport, one hour from Dubrovnik, Croatia, and two hours from Podgorica Airport.
And their blurb does mention that it is accessible by superyacht, helicopter and private jet transfer.
So you get the idea of what range of hotel we’re looking at…
A better Friday
So did you get through Friday the Thirteenth without anything untoward happening to you?
Well our thoughts now turn to another more enjoyable Friday, Black Friday.
We’ll give you the rundown in the lead-up to the day itself which we know will be very different this year.
Short breaks have become the order of the day too for Black Friday.
And our friends at Travel Department are keeping us very much in mind.
They are offering €50pp savings on all TD and TD active Holiday bookings or seven nights or more made between November 21 and 30 with the code VP-BLACK50.
And for all of our Irish friends and all Hibernophiles in lockdown remember what you’ve got on your own doorstep.
And it won’t be long until we can all get back out on the Wild Atlantic Way soon… and with TD as well as foreign shores.
