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Countries, Europe, Flying

Get off to a flier with twin trips

10th May 202610th May 2026 funtime65

And as our own race across the world continues here’s how to get off to a flier with twin trips.

All of us know that burning curiosity of looking out over to the next field.

Before finding out for ourselves how green it is.

With visitors on our loveholidays odyssey to Rhodes availing of the hop, skip and jump to Marmaris in Turkey.

Symi, see you: And Turkey on the horizon

And sailing into Turkish broadband space in Greek Dodecanese Island Symi.

Just as we found on the Jordan side of the world’s waterway the Red Sea when we entered into Israeli broadband space.

While we looked out over the Jordan river itself at the site of John’s baptism of Jesus to Israel.

Broadening our borders

There are many ways to cross a border, some more hospitable than others.

And we’ve climbed every mountain to walk unopposed through a metal gate from Austria into Germany.

And will walk across the International Bridge from Valenca do Minho in Portugal to Tui in Galicia in north-west Spain on Camino.

With La Raya/A Raia (the border) Europe’s oldest, dating back to 1297.

So now we’ve outlined some of the walkable borders.

We move on to those we can traverse by train and plane.

Now our friends at our local Edinburgh Airport have pointed us in the direction of these top twin trips.

From Berlin to Biarritz

Now Poznan’s charms have naturally long been known to Poles.

But for the rest of us we only came to love the western Polish city at Euro 2012.

With their fans’ backs to the action goal celebration.

Join the Poznan wave yourself by taking a three-hour train journey from Berlin.

While Austria and Hungary are linked by proximity and politics.

And Vienna and Budapest are just two and a half hours apart.

Of course, some countries’ borders are always disputed.

And people on one side share more in common with those across the border than the rest of the country they inhabit.

As is the way of it with the Basque Country, separated by the French and Spanish border.

But, of course, you can enjoy both by train from Biarritz to San Sebastián in just over an hour.

Countries, Europe, Flying

Nothing Toulouse making rowdy fliers pay

9th May 20269th May 2026 funtime65

As you don’t have to wreck the party to have a good time we agree with Ryanair you’ve nothing Toulouse making rowdy fliers pay.

The budget airline changed the face of air travel by making it affordable for everyone.

All of which meant, of course, that everyone had more money to spend on airport drinks.

And even more opportunity when we were required to turn up more than two hours before our flights because of extra security.

Which all led to the staple of a modern holiday… airport drinks.

Merci bien to the French

Of course overgrown big kids will abuse it for the rest of the class.

And flights crews increasingly face the threat of rowdy drunken passengers imperilling everyone’s safety way up in the clouds.

And pilots forced to reroute to protect everyone on board.

With the costs that involves which inevitably get passed on in increased fares.

And what of the miscreants, well this is where our French amis have stepped forward.

Ryanair takes the lead

With Toulouse Criminal Court fining two unruly passengers a combined €10,000 (expensive round) and 10-month suspended sentences.

After they disrupted a flight from London Stansted to Ibiza last year.

Forcing 184 passengers and six crew to divert to Toulouse.

Now all of this feeds into Ryanair’s bold moves to alter our relationship with drinking and flying.

With the airline arguing that bars and restaurants should restrict passengers to two drinks each.

Which may seem draconic but should be enough to get the party started.

While leaving the serving of alcohol at the discretion of flight crew also feels eminently sensible to all.

Happy drinkers

Sobering times: Don’t make a fool of yourself

Of course, we’re no saints, and have to reveal that we circumvented the cabin staff’s rules on a transatlantic flight from London to JFK.

And took shuttles back and forth to raid the crew’s stash behind the curtain next to the loo.

But here’s the rub, we were daft kids and did not disrupt our fellow passengers other than the hundred times we got out of our seats.

So the takeaway is that by civilising airport drinks and airplane drinking we can all enjoy ourselves.

And enjoy our flights and allow cabin staff to do their jobs, which is after all to look after us.

And get us safely to our destination and not hundreds of miles away in a different country.

America, Countries

Virginia Beach beat them to it

8th May 20268th May 2026 funtime65

So we’ve rewound the clock since the Puritans got a shock when they landed on Plymouth Rock and say… Virginia Beach beat them to it.

And with thanks to Porter and Gershwin and because anything goes we’re retelling the story of New America’s birth.

Because the first landfall of English settlers in the Americas actually took place in what is now Virginia Beach in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

You’re going to need a bigger boat: Land ahoy

On April 26, 1607, English settlers first came ashore at Cape Henry, in present-day Virginia Beach.

The area was originally home to the Chesepian tribe, who had lived there for generations.

Those same settlers would go on to establish Jamestown, recognised as the first permanent English settlement in the Americas.

Life’s a beach

Today Virginia Beach is a vibrant coastal city just southeast of Washington DC.

Offering 38 miles of Atlantic coastline, more than 200 miles of waterways, and a thriving food and arts scene.

And all that history of more than 250 years… more 419.

With the beacon of hope and Old World meets New World enlightenment centred around Cape Henry Lighthouse

The first public works project authorised by the US government, this landmark marks where English settlers first set foot in 1607.

The First Landing

Then there’s the First Landing State Park.

This largely untouched park offers miles of trails and waterways through cypress swamps, sand dunes and coastal scenery.

And where there’s parks there’s historic houses, some of the oldest surviving in North America.

The Thoroughgood House, a designated National Historic Landmark, offers insight into early colonial life.

Lynnhaven House, undergoing renovation, with limited preservation tours available, is one of the best-preserved examples.

While the Francis Land House provides another window into 18th-century living.

The Auld Triangle

History tourists will shape up then for The Historic Triangle.

Around an hour’s drive away, Jamestown, Williamsburg and Yorktown together chart the evolution of early America.

From first settlement to revolution.

Virginia Beach provides an ideal coastal base from which to explore these landmark sites.

The world’s your oyster

And eat it all up with a farm visit at the Pleasure House Oyster Farm.

The Lynnhaven oysters, named for the river, have a direct link to early colonial history.

They were among the first foods enjoyed by Captain John Smith and the Jamestown settlers in 1607.

And, of course, visitors from the Old World now arriving by air to Washington Dulles Airport rather than ships.

America, Countries

Who wants to be a ranch hand?

2nd May 20262nd May 2026 funtime65

And when a guy in a Mississippi bar starts up with a lasso you put it on the bucket list for a twirl… so who wants to be a ranch hand?

America is many things to many people but for the post-war Old World generation their first introduction to the US was cowboy movies.

So when you get the chance to saddle up on the Prairies you take it with both reins.

As I did in Colorado channeling my inner Buffalo Bill.

With my fellow congress of rough riders of the world.

Although I’d say that easy-going Issy was made from a different breed from Bill’s steed Brigham.

And Issy would doubtless be happy to leave the other horses to rustle the cows.

The Big Sky

Having spent five minutes trying to get her to turn round I reckon I’ve some way to go to be much use around a range.

But luckily our old pals at American Sky have the very thing for wannabe cowboys and girls.

A chance to Live the Ranch Life in the Wild West.

Set within 60,000 acres in Arizona’s Rincon Mountains, on the eastern edge of Tucson.

Tanque Verde Ranch offers an authentic yet upscale take on the classic dude ranch experience.

Hit the trail

Guests can spend their days riding through desert trails, hiking among cacti or soaking up the scenery.

Before gathering for relaxed, communal evenings.

So get your cowboy boots on for this Wild West itinerary.

The special ranch

The Tanque Verde Ranch Stay is an authentic six-night Western adventure.

Which combines activity, nature and heritage.

From £2,649pp, on a full-board basis, including flights, accommodation and selected activities.

Now American Sky suggest a minimum three- night stay.

But they can tailor-make your holiday to suit you and book any number of nights at the ranch.

America, Countries, Food & Wine, UK

Trump rolling out Kentucky barrels for Scotch whisky

1st May 20261st May 2026 funtime65

And because we (and King Charles) have his ear Donald Trump is rolling out Kentucky barrels for Scotch whisky.

The US President is the toast of his late beloved mother Mary’s Scots homeland today after lifting prohibitive tariffs on uisce beatha.

Because he told us of ‘Scotland’s ability to work with the Commonwealth of Kentucky on Whiskey and Bourbon.

‘In that there had been great Inter-Country Trade, especially having to do with the Wooden Barrels used.’

A toast to Trump

This year’s blond: ‘The Donald’ in New York

All very timely too as Favourite Cousin, New York Kath and Kentucky Cousin-in-law Mark fly in to see us in North Berwickety.

And we will be breaking out the Woodford Reserve he first introduced me too, and in front of tomorrow’s Kentucky Derby too.

The truth is that almost everyone who has enjoyed a drap of Scotch will also be drinking in the best of Kentucky too.

Because ex-bourbon barrels are used to mature over 90% of all scotch whisky today.

We have, of course, the half-Scottish 45th and 47th President to thank for cutting the cost of our national drink.

A New Deal

But it his predecessor, the 32nd President, Franklin D. Roosevelt who made it all possible.

When he stipulated as part of his New Deal that all bourbon whiskey barrels must br single-use barrels.

Which created a supply of barrels for Scots to pounce on to store their liquid gold.

And so Kentucky barrels became the standard containers for Scotch ever since.

Gracias amigos

Best family bar none: Johnnie Fox’s in Dublin mountains

Enhanced further by Spain’s decision in the Eighties that all sherry must be bottled on home soil, taking their casks off the market.

The rest as they say is history and science.

And for that bit we’ll turn to the whisky attraction experts this week.

The distilleries, the Scotch Whisky Experience on Edinburgh’s Royal Mile and the Johnnie Walker Experience, on the capital’s Princes Street.

And now that The Donald is channeling his Scots half we humbly implore that he looks again at the ban on Scottish sheep lungs.

An integral part of our national dish haggis.

Because we know he takes calls from journalists… and reads Jim Murty’s TravelTravelTravel.com.

SLÁINTE AND MEET YOU IN THE BAR

Countries, Deals, Europe, Flying

Glasgow’s planes like clockwork

23rd April 202623rd April 2026 funtime65

Glasgow’s planes like Swiss clockwork always arrive on time. And its trains.

Because when my birth city’s burghers go upgrading their transport network they sensibly choose Swiss.

Now few of you might put Scotland’s largest city as the third oldest subway in the world.

Built in 1896 they are only behind Budapest, earlier that year, and the Daddy of them all, London in 1863.

Which means they’ve been at it 130 years.

The toblerone underground

And in contrast to the Hungarian capital you won’t get spot-fined by a scary Magyar guard for not validating your ticket.

Today’s Glasgow Subway looks very different from the one my grandparents would have taken.

The witty Glaswegians christening the Subway they have today the Clockwork Orange on account of their orange livery.

And with some driverless trains on the way later this year.

Although our Swiss hosts, at the grand Glasgow City Chambers last night, would not say if our trains would now be toblerone-shaped.

Ca va, we’re having some fun with you here, Swiss trains run, well, like clockwork.

Edelweiss, bless my Swiss home

On the right track: With your Swiss TravelPass

We gathered to mark the opening of the new summer seasonal Edelweiss flight route from Glasgow to Zurich.

Which will launch on May 29, running twice weekly (Mondays and Fridays) until September 14.

And because this is a return arrangement us Scots have put their mark on the Edelweiss planes.

With the Scottish Leather Group, the largest manufacturer of leather in Britain, kitting out the planes and seating passengers in style.

Deal us in

Best seat in house: And they’re Scottish leather

Switzerland, of course, has four seasons like the rest of us although we naturally associate it with winter and falling down mountains.

But having enjoyed its summer charms, walking and yodelling in the valleys.

There’s a whole new summer world waiting for those who travel through Glasgow.

Now you’ll be wanting to know how much you’ll have to shell out and the fares aren’t mountainous.

We found a sample return flight for the first week in June from £215.11.

America, Countries

Florida really does promise the Moon

10th April 202610th April 2026 funtime65

Everything they say is possible in the Happiest Place on Earth and America‘s most cosmic state but Florida really does promise the Moon, particularly this weekend.

As the four Artemis II astronauts head home after travelling farther from Earth than anyone in history.

Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex is inviting holidaymakers to enjoy a space adventure of their own – in Florida!

Where their mission started at the start of this month from the Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39B.

And where we’ve been seeing those out of this world pictures and feeds.

Now Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex is, I don’t have to tell you, at an hour’s drive from Orlando, is the closest you can get to space without leaving Earth.

Where you can stand where real missions launch, though obviously not in live time (yet).

Fly me to the moon

Guests can get a hands-on feel for the story of humans in space.

Through thrilling simulators, behind-the-scenes tours, interactive exhibits, and larger-than-life 3D space films.

From standing nose‑to‑nose with the legendary Space Shuttle Atlantis and feeling the rumble of lift‑off on the Shuttle Launch Experience.

To walking beneath the awe‑inspiring Saturn V Moon rocket at the Apollo/Saturn V Center.

The complex brings NASA’s most iconic achievements to life.

In The Rocket Garden, Heroes & Legends featuring the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame.

And the chance too to meet a real NASA astronaut.

The magic bus

Door to other worlds: Kennedy Space Center

Now while the showcase transport at Kennedy is obviously the rocket it is reassuring to see that there will always be a need for the humble bus.

And your Kennedy Space Center Bus Tour will take guests behind the gates of America’s most storied spaceport.

And offer you an up‑close look at the restricted areas where space history has been – and continues to be – made.

Guests travel through NASA’s working launch facilities.

Passing the Vehicle Assembly Building and the Launch Complex 39 – the very site from which Artemis II astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen left Earth.

For their ten‑day journey around the Moon, complete with their own loo challenges.

Then there is The Gantry at LC‑39, a reimagined observation gantry offering 360° views across active launch pads.

And NASA’s working spaceport, placing guests at the heart of the action.

Build your own rocket

To infinity and beyond: Buzz for kids & big kids

Visitors can design and virtually launch their own rocket at the Rocket Build Interactive, feel the intensity of a Test Fire Simulation.

For a glimpse what lies ahead, Gateway: The Deep Space Launch Complex showcases the spacecraft, missions and innovations defining the next era of exploration.

Guests can explore a range of modern spacecraft, interact with robotic explorers, peer into the James Webb Holotube, and board Spaceport KSC.

For one of four motion‑theatre ‘journeys’ to destinations such as Mars, Saturn and the Horsehead Nebula.

Thrillseekers can push the experience even further with the New Shepard Flight to Space simulator, the and Hyperdeck VR Mission Moon.

Which is a high‑intensity, multi‑sensory virtual reality adventure which sees four players compete with one another in a race across the lunar surface.

And all for very little of your Earth money

And new for 2026 is Fraggle Rock: A Space-y Adventure.

An original live show that brings the Fraggles face-to-face with NASA’s real-life space explorers.

Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex also offers the closest public viewing of live rocket launches.

Giving guests the chance to witness real spacecraft lift-off from just a few miles away.

And all of this without breaking your piggy bank of earth money, with single-day admission at $77 per adult, $67 per child.

And a two-day ticket available for $91 per adult and $81 per child. For more information on Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex.

And, of course, Orlando is an airline hub and is well-served with other other-worldly attractions like Pluto who is still miffed that he doesn’t share his name with a planet any more.

Central America, Countries, Sustainable Tourism

The perfect Latino immigrant to America

6th April 20266th April 2026 funtime65

And we’ve found the perfect Latino immigrant to America, who barely causes a ripple and never stays past her shell-life.

Meet Peggy who we learn washed up without a by your leave on the sands of the east coast as a hatchling turtle.

And was so taken by the States, as we all are, that she returned 30 years later to the very same beach, as a mother to lay her eggs.

Peggy’s odyssey

Peggy’s peregrinations come to mind as we prepare for World Earth Day on April 22.

And celebrate the global leadership of Belize in caring for our heroes in a half-shelf.

As they set a benchmark for marine sustainability by legally protecting 30% of its waters by 2026.

And use drones and climate modelling to balance fisheries, tourism, and shoreline protection.

The Great Migration

The aim is to integrate reef restoration and community-led monitoring to ensure healthier ecosystems support coastal livelihoods.

And now here’s where MarAlliance come into play.

With the first satellite-mappped loggerhead turtle migration from Belize to the US.

And mangrove restoration projects that nurture juvenile fish, boosting biodiversity and food security.

Scholarships and education programmes empower young Belizians to become future marine scientists.

All so that we can explore clean Caribbean seas on those de rigueur holiday excursions of swimming with the turtles.

Belize please

And, of course, it doesn’t stop there.

Yes, you’ll get to mingle with the natives, the turtles and the indigenous wildlife.

And explore the Bladen Nature Reserve trails.

And the Belizians will power up local airlines, helicopters, rental cars, buses, boats and even horses.

To get you on your way and off the beaten path.

While you can zipline through the jungle too or scuba dive.

And for those who like an easier life, you can relax on the beach or pound on a Garifuna drum.

So if you want to enjoy an ecoliday with plenty of activities you wouldn’t do back home.

Then check out Belize in Central America with the major airlines who fly there.

And just say Peggy and the turtles sent you.

Countries, Flying, UK

The Loch Ness MonstAer

24th March 202624th March 2026 funtime65

And to mark the Irish national airline carrier’s opening of a new route to the capital of the Scottish Highlands we trust some will claim that they have seen the Loch Ness MonstAer.

Only there is no such creature, and there I’ve said it, although there are no shortage of fluffy merch toys.

As we found out on a visit to the Loch Ness Centre where the Son and Heir left the glove puppet soothing toy he carried everywhere.

Among all the other Nessies.

Of course, you’d be forgiven for thinking that it was the fabled Loch Ness Monster which put Inverness and its environs on the tourist map.

When, in fact, word of the beauty of the Scottish Highlands had long been known.

From forays from friend and foe alike over the century.

With no less a chronicler than Samuel Johnson waxing lyrical about its beauties on his 1775 A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland.

Walking in Boswell and Johnson’s footsteps

Johnson commented on the diction of the Invernessians, to this day praised as close to ‘Queen’s English.’

Saying ‘The soldiers seem to have incorporated afterwards with the inhabitants.

‘And to have peopled the place with an English race.

‘For the language of this town has been long considered as peculiarly elegant.’

Johnson and Boswell were much taken by Inverness Castle, reputed home of Macbeth, and a particular fort nearby.

‘It was no very capacious edifice, but stands upon a rock so high and steep, that I think it was once not accessible.

‘But by the help of ladders, or a bridge.

‘Over against it, on another hill, was a fort built by Cromwell, now totally demolished.

‘For no faction of Scotland loved the name of Cromwell, or had any desire to continue his memory.’

All of which will be music to newbie Irish visitors to Inverness.

With the famously warty religious zealot no friend of our Celtic cousins either.

When we got our Erse kicked

Castle in the Aer: Inverness Castle down below

Today’s Inverness Castle may be different than the one B&J visited but you’ll still be able to take in the atmosphere on your visit.

Johnson goes somewhat off track though here.

With the kind of demeaning and belittling descriptions of the Invernessians which would have him cancelled today.

Although he helpfully reminds us that the Highlands and Islands is the home of the Gaelic or Erse language.

And stop giggling there at the back.

‘There is I think a kirk, in which only the Erse language is used, he notes.

‘There is likewise an English chapel, but meanly built, where on Sunday we saw a very decent congregation.’

Go West

B&J seemingly don’t linger in Inverness, preferring to get on their journey to the remote Hebrides.

Saying: ‘At Inverness we procured three horses for ourselves and a servant, and one more for our baggage, which was no very heavy load.

‘We found in the course of our journey the convenience of having disencumbered ourselves, by laying aside whatever we could spare.

‘For it is not to be imagined without experience, how in climbing crags, and treading bogs.

‘And winding through narrow and obstructed passages, a little bulk will hinder, and a little weight will burthen.’

Bonnie Prince Charlie’s last stand

Why B&J chose not to visit the site of the last battle on British soil, at nearby Culloden in 1746, we never learn.

Although it might still have been too raw.

But you can, and learn about the fate of Bonnie Prince Charlie, and how he too fled to the Western Isles.

Or the Jacobite Train, or Hogwarts Express over Glenfinnan Viaduct.

Or why they missed too the Clava Cairns, prehistoric burial site.

And the site of The Traitors UK castle at Ardross.

We’ll give them a pass on not knowing about the Victorian Market.

Or Scotland’s second-oldest bookshop and old church, Leakey’s.

Or not heading out to Chanonry Point on the Black Isle for dolphin watching.

And they actually do exist.

Take the Aer

Aer Lingus’s Inverness route will commence from 21 May.

With the new service operating twice weekly on Thursdays and Sundays.

We found a sample return fare in May from €22.62.

America, Countries, Europe, Music

Our five fab films for Mother’s Day

15th March 202615th March 2026 funtime65

And you can put money on Jessie Buckley gushing about being a mum in her Oscars acceptance speech, and while Hamnet is a tour de force, here are our five fab films for Mother’s Day.

With a nod, of course, to the mumdoms where they ruled the roost.

Let’s start at the very beginning

The Sound of Music: And if a mother’s love is unconditional then all the more credit for women who take on another man’s children.

And seven of them at that.

But when you’re an Austrian singing Julie Andrews nun turned governess then you have all the tools for motherhood.

Maria and Captain Georg took the train from Salzburg down to Italy.

Not over the mountains because they’d have ended up in Hitler’s Lair, and then onto America.

Where Georg and Maria added to their Von Trapp brood with three more Kinder.

The mothers of all mothers

Nonnas: And let’s hear it today for the grandmothers because every Nana is a mamma.

Or in Italian culture a Nonna.

Cue this charming real-life movie, starring Vince Vaughn, about a grieving son who honours his mum by opening an Italian restaurant.

With nonnas on Staten Island, using the recipes of Mamma which has become something of a tourist stop-off in the New York borough.

Some mothers do ‘ave ’em

Throw Momma from a Train: And because sometimes our mums can be overbearing, this Danny DeVito and Billy Crystal classic has to make the list.

A homage to Hitchcock’s Strangers on a Train, DeVito has his usual dark fun with the original.

With Griffiths Park, Los Angeles and Hawaii adding to the enjoyment and the plot.

Magic Mum

Harry Potter: And when you are a poor orphan child with the weight of being a boy wizard you need an adopted mum.

And where Aunt Petunia was ghastly Molly Weasley was magical.

Taking in Harry as one of her own along with her ragbag children, while also facing down Bellatrix Lestrange.

And for the best place to discover how she did it all and what magic tricks she invoked.

Then you’ll need to immerse yourself in the Wonderful World of Harry Potter at Universal Resort Orlando.

A mother in life and death

Who will love my children? And have the box of tissues at hand for this ultimate of Mother’s Day tearjerkers, again based on a true story.

Lucille Fray faced the worst fate any mother could endure, knowing she would die and would have to leave her ten children.

Because her husband would not be able to cope… and no snide remarks here because there’s a man in the room.

Add to that the homespun, earthy setting of Iowa and that the real-life children appeared on the TV show That’s Incredible.

On the night of the film transmission back in 1983.