Sport Archives - Jim Murty’s TravelTravelTravel

When the famous Tartan Army met the Teuton Army

2nd July 2026 funtime65

When the famous Tartan Army met the Teuton Army in the Euros in Germany two years ago it changed everything.

With bonds between the 200,000 Scots and their German hosts forged and rekindled.

And promises made to meet up again in two years time in America at the World Cup.

Alas, our paths weren’t to cross in the US with Scotland and Germany being drawn apart and both being knocked out early.

But did last night at a Scottish-German get-together in Edinburgh last night.

Where we raised a Prost and a Sláinte with Harald, Charlotte and unsere alten Freunde.

And parked any Schadenfreude for England’s travails until they squeezed by DR Congo.

Back at kindergarten

Not, in truth, that the Germans have ever bought into the grudge that England feels for them.

With, in fact, it being the Dutch with whom the Germans share a rivalry.

Now while football was to the fore, and the World Cup is poorer for Scotland and Germany being out.

We were in town to celebrate the links between our countries and learn, of course, new things.

Because, after all every day is a kindergarten day.

And didn’t we discover our hosts for the night. Anderson Strathern LLP, boasted a Nuremberg chest heirloom dating back to 1701?

My German footballing odyssey

My own German footballing odyssey involved Nuremberg .

When I took in my first game in Deutschland, a Bavarian derby with Bayern Munchen during my first Oktoberfest.

And not even getting a smack in the nose back outside the Hofbrauhuis.

For trying to split up two footballing frauleins, from one of their boyfriends I’m saying, has put me off my love of football.

Which was cemented on a memorable tour around the Ruhr, the spiritual home of German football, while also visiting the German football museum.

Where they bask in the glory of four World Cups and three European Championships (count them).

Flower of Scotland in Germany

World in our hands: At the German Football Museum

So everything is still rosy in the German garden and also in the Ruhr region which will bring a different tourist over next year for their very special gardening spectacle.

All of which has got me thinking, mibbeees I should present a trip to the Ruhr Valley as a horitcultural holiday to Der Scary One.

And I slide off to Essen, Dortmund and Gelsenkirchen.

Countries, South America, Sport, UK

How Scotland brought goals to Brazil

24th June 202624th June 2026 funtime65

And for the World Cup day that’s in it… how Scotland brought goals to Brazil.

And the story of a true pioneer of the Beautiful Game, who you would probably have never heard of here in Scotland.

Unless, of course, you live in the village of Busby, south of Glasgow, where there is a small bust to the great man.

Sprouting Thomas

We are, of course, name checking dye maker Thomas Donohoe here.

For it was he who organised the first informal football match in Brazil near Rio in 1894.

And is as is so often the way is celebrated more here than in his own homeland.

With the five-time world champion Brazilians erecting a 5m statue of Thomas outside the Bangu Shopping Centre.

In the Bangu neighborhood, home to the textile mill where Donohoe worked.

Miller’s tale

Proper Charlie: Father of Brazilian football

Where Thomas led other Scots followed with Charles Miller, the son of a Scottish engineer and Brazilian mother credited.

As the Father of Brazilian Football.

Who established the Paulista League, the country’s first organised football competition.

Of course just introducing a ball, boots and posts to a country doesn’t guarantee that they can turn that into a fine art.

Our Beautiful Game

And this is where Archie McLean emerges next in the story of Brazilian football.

The Paisley mechanic arriving in São Paulo in 1912 and founding the Scottish Wanderers.

And introducing the Scottish short-passing style known in Brazil as A Tabelhinha (the rhythm).

Which in the passing, as it were, we gave to our English neighbours decades before.

And you’re welcome, even if you don’t give us the credit.

Brazilians had until then played a kick-and-rush style.

A nod here too to Ayr footballer Jock Hamilton who the Scottish Football Museum credit as the first professional football coach in Brazil.

And we gave them Pele, Ronaldo and Vini

A sliding doors moment which meant that Brazil would cultivate.

The Garrinchas, Peles, Zicos, Romarios, Ronaldos, Ronaldinhos, Neymars and Vini Jnrs.

Rather than, well, the workmanlike types who will try to shake up the world tonight when Scotland face Brazil in Miami.

Hoping to make history by progressing past the group stages of the World Cup finals at the eighth time of asking.

Where do you want your statue?

Of course, all of this adulation and worship of false idols will escalate to a whole new level.

Should Scotland do the unthinkable and get the right result to qualify for the last 32.

And Super John McGinn do the business off the back of his moon-sized backside.

When we will gladly tear down the statue of slave apologist James Dundas, atop the 150ft Melville Monument in Edinburgh.

And replace him with Bravearse.

America, Countries, Sport, UK

Jock Tamson’s bairns on tour in America

20th June 2026 funtime65

And here’s a fun game for Jock Tamson’s bairns on tour in America… mark off all the Robert Burns statues in the States.

Scotland’s Tartan Army have been taking in the sights and sounds and bars of Boston.

And paying homage to Scotland’s Second Most Famous Scot.

Come down the road: Bandanaman and his Mum

Who they stumbled upon on their way to the iconic Fenway Park for the Red Sox’ Scottish Day.

And naturally put a traffic cone on his head.

On a podium

Not that they, or you, should be surprised.

As the Ploughman Poet pops up all round the world.

Bettered only as a dedicated non-religious icon only by Queen Victoria and Christopher Columbus.

Burns popularity derives, of course, from his poetry and his songs.

But also his rags to riches story, his everyman message and his rock’n’roll life.

And his legend and suppers which the Scots diaspora brought with them all around the world.

Miami nice

Bostonians will say a sad farewell to the Scots who are moving on to Miami for their final group game with Brazil.

Alas, the Miamians are yet to honour Rabbie although they could still.

Particularly with a certain half-Scots Commander in Chief living just up the road in Mar a Lago.

Now to my shame and I’ll no doubt have my Scottish citizenship reexamined on the back of this big reveal.

Of Yanks and Men

But I missed the Burns statue in my summer working in Beantown after university or return 35 years later.

While I was also too busy at the John Lennon Memorial in visits to New York to notice Burns’s place in Central Park.

Or the bronze figure in Garfield Park in Da Pope town, Chicago, commissioned and cast in Edinburgh in 1906.

And the bronze Burns in City Park, Denver, gifted by the city’s Scots Caledonian Club in 1904.

Burns Cottage industry

Drink up: With Tam and Johnnie in Alloway

Now Burns’s popularity is shared by all stripes of American, North, South, East and West.

And across the globe with Rabbie popping up in more than 60 guises.

And to see just where they all are a bronze plate of the world with mini-Rabbies then go back to where it all began.

In the little village of Alloway on the west coast of Scotland.

Caribbean, Countries, Europe, Sport

Wunderbear… here’s Germany and Curacao

14th June 202614th June 2026 funtime65

Only a World Cup could bring Old Europe and the Caribbean like this together but Wunderbear… here’s Germany and Curacao.

Courtesy of Derself, who was born on a British military base.

And circumnavigated the world when her family returned from a posting in Australia.

Bringing back mementoes, as we all do, which have taken on another life as the years have rolled on.

A word from the advertisers

So meet Yorkie, here modelling a Curacao t-shirt which once adorned Derself and Der Daughterie of Derself.

And Barney Bear who despite his very Bavarian lederhosen hails from the home of German beardom, Swabia.

Now whisper it around Barney who doesn’t have the iconic button in his ear which all Steiff bears have.

He’s actually bear ein Berliner but the German capital too has a bear tradition going back 600 years.

All of which he told me at one of those hydration breaks they have brought in during halfs to sell advertising.

New alliances

World in my hands: At the German Football Museum in Dortmund

Now such is the bonhomie of a World Cup that new alliances are forged regardless of the scoreline.

Such as German football fans and Curacao supporters.

Although, in truth, the 150,000 party people of Curaçao’s connection is with the Netherlands.

Of which they are a constituent island nation of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

While old alliances are renewed such as that between the Tartan Army and the samba-dancing Brazilians.

And yes, senor, we can boogie.

With the two sets of famously partying fans renewing acquaintances for a fifth time at World Cups in 50 years.

Another reason to see Amsterdam

Ride on: Can I be trusted on a bike? In Amsterdam

Now we obviously know our way around Germany but Curacao clearly takes more prep.

So if you’re not on a round-the-world boat journey, and you should, you deserve it.

Then it makes sense that you’ll fly out of Amsterdam with KLM.

Which we priced up at from £1,177pp from Edinburgh going through Tuliptown.

America, Countries, Sport

Coming down the road in our football tops

13th June 2026 funtime65

We’ll be coming down the road in our football tops in the early hours for the World Cup.

Alas, at the Law bar lock-in in North Berwickety, here east of Edinburgh, rather than our old stomping ground of Boston.

The World Cup, of course, is prime time for the sale of football tops with outlets greedy to inflate prices.

For shirts with the distributors often changing just the date on the shirt and change every 18 months.

Cry for us Argentina

One solution is replica shirts with this Scotland Tartan Army foot soldier donning his iconic retro top.

From Scotland’s ill-fated (aren’t they all?) Argentina 1978 misadventure.

With the No.15 on it in a nod to Scotland’s only shining light then, Archie Gemmill.

Back then, whisper it, the England Admiral football top was considered the height of football fashion.

So much so that some Scottish schoolboys put aside their loyalties and followed each other on their choice of shirts.

Gift that keeps on giving

Quite what red-blooded Scottish parents thought of that we can only imagine.

Of course football tops were always a safe bet to get your football-mad child for Christmas.

Even if it was the Argentina jersey instead of the vibrant orange shirt of the Netherlands team he’d adopted.

Which might explain the grumpy look in that Christmas’s photographs.

Moroccans on a roll

When it came time to make up our own decisions in life and we had the money.

We’d pick up tops on our travels… Fenerbahce and Besiktas for dad and lad in Turkey.

And the Morocco national top from a chaotic trip to Marrakech which has come out of the drawer.

Now that the African champions are in Scotland’s group along with Haiti and Brazil.

Although, naturally, it won’t be getting an outing when Scotland play Morocco in their second game in Beantown.

It’s just that sticking it back on takes me back to haggling with a Moroccan trader in Jemaa el-Fnaa square.

The Tartan Army Boys

Before everything went Pete Tong… a bit like Scotland’s World Cup story.

It’s true what they say, it’s the hope that kills you.

Still we’ll keep the faith.

So when you hear the noise of the Tartan Army Boys we’ll be coming down the road.

Deals, Europe, Sport

For go-karting in Galway read Avo-Drift in Avoriaz

9th June 20269th June 2026 funtime65

Plus ca change as they say en France and for go-karting in Galway read Avo-Drift in Avoriaz aujourd-hui.

One of the highlights back in the day on holiday in Salthill on Ireland’s west coast .

And before Sky television and mobile phones and girls, was the go-karts.

And we’d spend the hard-earned Saturday work cash on cornering and pretending we were James Hunt.

Of course, I should have known then I wouldn’t be cut out to be a natural driver.

Spin me right round: Underground karting

Although I did manage to get my driving licence after I think six times.

During which I got lessons from Her Behind the Wheel which is where she has stayed, not allowing me to drive since.

And the most laidback rasta driver who would pass over anything I might be doing wrong.

Occasionally stepping on the emergency brake, but mostly waving at his ‘brothers’ out the window.

One careless driver

You can take it as red: Fiat 501 en France

A range of work cars laters, a slip on the ice in Aberdeen and a rear-end outside a football ground and a clamping and we’re more or less up to date.

Apart, of course, from the time on the French Riviera when our party were given Fiat 501s to drive.

Only I couldn’t work out the old hand gears and the tour operator insisted they drive me instead!

All of which driving mishaps behind me I was rather taken by the invitation put out here.

To discover Avo’Drift in Avoriaz on the French-Swiss border.

And despite the billing, it doesn’t down scary at all, which is more than be said for my mountain escapades.

Get the Drift

Avo’Drift, we’re told, and I checked out the pics, is a unique drifting-style driving experience.

Set inside an underground parking garage.

All transformed into a vibrant illuminated arena with neon lights and an underground atmosphere.

Participants take the wheel of electric vehicles.

All specially designed for drifting, featuring one front wheel and two rear wheels built for sliding.

All of which is meant to allow drivers to drift through corners, swing the rear out, and challenge friends in a fun and immersive setting.

Helmets and gloves are provided if necessary, and the activity is accessible to anyone over4.5ft tall.

Sessions last between eight and ten minutes.

And prices are set at €15/£13 per driver or €13.50/£12 with the Multipass discount.

Count us in

A seven-night stay at Hotel des Dromont s, arriving August 8, is priced from £643pps, sharing a double room with breakfast included. Flights and transfers extra.

We found flights with EasyJet from £194.48.

BON VOYAGE

Countries, Culture, Europe, Sport

You can be straight at Valencia’s Gay Games

3rd June 20263rd June 2026 funtime65

Las Fallas brings out the sniggering schoolboy in all of us which only proves you can be straight in Valencia’s Gay Games.

The 12th iteration of the GG, which dates back to 1982, will be held under the sun from June 27-July 4.

And here’s the interesting thing, straights are welcome to compete, which is as it should be.

Just like modern Modern Games are now inclusive, so are Gay Games.

All of which is in keeping with the original Olympians in Ancient Greece.

For whom brotherly love in combat was a blood bond.

Ya dancer

GG features many of the events we know and love from Olympic Games in its 39-sports roster.

But which self-respecting Gay Games could not include DanceSport, same-sex ballroom?

Or The Pink Flamingo, a playful team event combining aquatics, theatre, and comedy.

Or cheerleading… Ole Valencia.

Spectators too are included with everybody encouraged to join in the 3km International Rainbow Memorial Run.

There’s music, fashion, film and The Memorial Quilt Exhibition and countless other events.

Transvia the way to go

Our amigos at Transviasport are the go-to travel providers for the Games.

With Olympia Ronda I and II coming in at €66 and €68 a night.

Our amigos in Valencia have helpfully mapped out the best places to enjoy ourselves while we’re there.

With the gay-friendly Piccadilly Downtown Club in Ruzafa a magnet for indie, pop, rock, and disco fans.

Or Deseo 54 in the Sagunto District, for international house and pop and commercial music.

If it’s cocktails and cakes you’re after, and it always is, then Cafe de las Horas in El Carmen District.

And which combines old palatial stables with a baroque design in a cosmopolitan atmosphere.

A Fetish for fun

Hand in hand: Through Valencia’s streets

While how could the Fetish Morning’s Social Club not stop us in our tracks?

Popular after party for the LGBTI+ crowd.

Which despite its name is not a fetish club and is welcome to mixed ages.

And with that we’re away to train… for the cocktails and the dancing.

Countries, Culture, Sport, UK

Stonehenge really did host the first football match

22nd May 202622nd May 2026 funtime65

And who hasn’t speculated that the stones make perfect goals, well perhaps we weren’t wrong after all and Stonehenge really did host the first football match.

We’ve come a long way, of course, since the old slabs of stone were put up in the west of England.

And each generation has added to the legend of Stonehenge by putting their own spin on it.

The latest comes from Win Scutt, who oversees Stonehenge for English Heritage.

And he believes our prehistorians ancestors held sporting gatherings there some 4,500 years ago.

To go along with the religious or ceremonial occasions, giving tribute to the elements and praying for nature’s rewards.

Greece is the word

Hellas for leather: Rhodes Ancient Games

Now Winn references the Classic Greeks, always makes you come across as knowledgeable,.

He says: ‘I think there were probably games, just like the Panhellenic Games.’

But despite being a prehistoric nerd, he seems steeped too in the modern world.

As he proffers that our forbears might have been participating in a reality TV type contest.

‘I think there might have been a sport in getting these stones here,’ he said.

‘Teams of people, a bit of competition, a challenge.’

Cursus games

No VAR: Stonehenge football. Pic: Kintish website

With the wind in his sails by now.

Awith historian Dan Snow on his tail for his TV docu Stonehenge: The Discovery with Dan Snow, he lets loose.

‘With the Stonehenge Cursus (circle), I think we should at least consider that this was not simply a route or a boundary,’ he added.

‘It may have been a place of gathering, display, movement and performance, perhaps even competition.’

The next goal

Can you dig it? Archaeology at Stonehenge

All of which tempts us to pay another visit to the old stones.

We are, of course, a little blase about standing stones (one of the old father-in-law’s fave days out).

With the Callanish Stones in Lewis and the Orcadian Ring of Brodgar up here in Scotland.

While the older Avebury standing stones, near to where my own Druid goddess was raised in Berkshire is our New Age go-to site when we head to her relatives.

But we’ll promise ourselves now to hang a turn to the Stonehenge Visitor Centre and of course I always have a football in the boot of the car just in case.

Countries, Europe, Sport

Pitching in for the European disc golf festival in Estonia

20th May 202620th May 2026 funtime65

And after spending a lifetime getting worse at golf I’d be better off pitching in for the European disc golf festival in Estonia.

Who knew, well, we do recall a colleague who played it with his student pals in the Meadows in Edinburgh.

But it has come a long way since and now even has its variant of golf’s greatest competition the Ryder Cup.

In disc golf’s Presidents Cup which this year marks its 20th year.

When Americans and Europeans fling Frisbees along a green space and then into a basket.

Gold disc

It’ll all flip-off with the European Open, the only PDGA Major in Europe, from June 18–21 in Tallinn.

Before the one-night showcase that is the Presidents Cup.

Now, we’re promised family activities, delicious street food and a lively vendor village filled with shops and entertainment at the Tallinn Song Festival Grounds.

And because we’re always up for the party even if we don’t know the music.

We’re looking forward to rap duo Clicherik & Mäx keeping the energy high between the President’s Cup action in the Baltic nation.

And Traffic and Daniel Levi headlining the European Open musical accompaniment.

Hot shot

So, you want to know how to play and where to play.

Well, the sport’s rulers encourage us just to find a piece of green land.

And if there are trees in the way so much the better.

Because they are part of the challenge… throw your disc into the trees and it’s a penalty shot if it’s 2m up the branches. And good luck getting it down.

And like golf clubs there are different discs for varied shots.

Course of action

Spectacular: Estonia hosts Presidents Cup

There are 45 countries that currently have established Disc Golf Associations and a registered membership.

If you want to find the established courses, there is a list on the PDGA web site. What’s more it’ll probably be free.

Of course, both the Royal & Ancient game and Disc golf, the latter which has its roots in 1970s California, put a premium on fun.

And have a 19th hole in common.

And with flights from Britain to Tallinn from £39 one-way par for the course this is a shot you’ll need to take.

Countries, Sport, UK

Nobody rivals the Cotswolds for horsey sets

18th May 202618th May 2026 funtime65

And if you’ve caught the Jilly Cooper equestrian bug then let us tell you… nobody rivals the Cotswolds for horsey sets.

So come with us and follow in the footsteps of Rupert Campbell-Black and Taggie O’Haray on our Central English Horsewolds tour.

Acceptable in the Eighties

Tetbury: Rivals revives the decade of shoulder pads and jodhpurs in the quaint rural village of Tetbury.

Where its good burghers transformed Long Street’s independent shops with Eighties-style frontages.

Replacing road signs with Cotchester ones and even hanging banners to welcome Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

Georgian church St Mary’s, doubles as the parish church of Cotchester for a key wedding scene.

While the Grade II listed Berkeley House on the Chipping stood in as the home of American TV producer Cameron Cook.

Beyond its screen credentials, visitors can expect antique dealers, gastropubs and the eccentric Woolsack Races each May.

Cotswolds’ rich tapestry

Chavenage: Grade I listed Elizabethan manor Chavenage House just outside Tetbury, is one of the Cotswolds’ vaunted screen sets.

The honey-stoned 16th-century property served as The Priory, home to Aidan Turner’s TV presenter Declan O’Hara.

And we can arrange group reservations and wonder at the fine 17^thcentury tapestries.

A Polo mint

Polo Country: Chukka this our way… Cirencester Park Polo Club, set within the magnificent Bathurst Estate.

The Beaufort Polo Club was a filming location for Series 2 with lessons and courses through its polo school.

King of the Castle

Lord of the manor: Berkeley Castle. Credit: Nick Turner

Berkeley Castle: Where any Rivals fan worth their money will tell you the Rutshire Cup polo match was filmed, in episode 1 of season 2.

Built in 1153, the castle remains the home of the Berkeley family today, over 24 generations later.

Once you’ve spotted it in Rivals, go visit the castle yourself from spring-autumn and take a guided tour.

Stop off at the Kitchen Garden café and gift shop, or visit the LEGO Brick History exhibition on now until 10 June.

Supersonic

Aerospace Bristol: Home to Concorde Alpha Foxtrot, the last Concorde to fly.

And, of course, the backdrop for that raunchy opening scene of season 1 Rivals.

It is also reported to appear in season 2.

Aerospace Bristol is open year-round to visitors, and go once and your ticket is valid for a whole year.

Right royal party

Bristol Marriott Royal Hotel: The 150-year-old Grade II listed hotel is the backdrop to Rivals season 2 episode 1 where characters Declan and Maud O’Hara stay.

It has also welcomed famous guests over the years, from Winston Churchill to Cary Grant.

And you’ll have one up on them with your view, as the cheeky Well-Hung Lover mural by Banksy, just opposite.

And a cameo from Jilly

Cosy Club Bristol: The author made her own cameo in season 1 in the lavish setting ofCosy Club Bristol.

Visit this opulent restaurant for an Eighties feast of steak and chips, some sumptuous prawns and a classy cocktail.

And channel your inner Freddie Jones, aka Danny Dyer, in Queen Square, drove a battery-powered Sinclair C5 in season 1, too.