Caribbean Archives - Page 13 of 19 - Jim Murty’s TravelTravelTravel

Africa, America, Canada, Caribbean, Countries, Cruising, Europe, Ireland

Water waterfalls

24th February 202125th February 2021 funtime65

Don’t go chasing waterfalls. Please stick to the rivers and lakes that you’re used to – TLC

Only I do go chasing waterfalls… or rather they go chasing me.

And probably you too… after all they are a staple of your holiday day tours.

But like rivers and lakes usually once you’ve seen one then you’ve seen them all.

The must-sees are obviously Niagara Falls, Victoria Falls and Angel Falls.

The Big Three

The first of them I have ticked off in Canada on a trip to see family in Toronto.

The second on the list is with my friends from Ethiopian Airlines en route to Namibia.

Victoria tall. www.victoriafallstourism.com

While the third in Venezuela I’m inching closer to having acquainted myself with the Venezuelan Spanish ladies of Tobago.

Not all waterfalls have to have come down from the highest heavens.

Nor do they have to be at a neck-craning height to be blessed by the gods.

Water world

As I discovered in Kythera in Greek Attica.

Whether you’re gazing on nature’s wonders among the world’s great mountain ranges such as the Pyrenees

In the valley of the Rockies. cruising through the fjords.

Or with the sun on your back in the Caribbean waterfalls are one of the Gods’ gifts.

Unless, of course, it’s Powerscourt’s waterfalls in my old back yard of Co. Wicklow in Ireland which you have to pay for.

Powerscourt, its gardens and splendid hotel and grounds and best-value restaurant is one of the country’s jewels.

Spray that again

All of which waterfall waffling brings me to the subject in hand, an invitation from one of the best Travel providers in the business.

American Holidays are flagging up their Canadian market and as well as Niagara Falls, the less well-known Montmorency Waterfalls.

The Montmorency Falls in Quebec are actually 30m higher than its much-vaunted Ontario neighbour.

You can decide for yourself which you prefer on your nine-day tour of Canada’s great Eastern Cities.

Where you’ll spend three nights each in Toronto, Montréal and Quebec.

You’ll fly from Dublin to Toronto and return from Montréal from €1539pp.

MEET YOU BY THE WATERFALLS

Caribbean, Countries, Ireland, UK

Scotland or the Caribbean – my best world beaches

7th February 20217th February 2021 funtime65

And a namecheck here to my friends at VisitScotland who posited this question in their 2021 call to the arms.

I say both.

And both Scotland and the Caribbean were on my mind when I returned to Scotland on this day after 13 years in Ireland.

Now Ireland and the United Kingdom have their beaches too but my fave is a stretch of sand in the Caribbean.

Home and away

Home and away these are my coastal champs.

Berneray beachin’

Berneray: Well, if it’s good enough for Prince Charles who spent some time living and working here for a TV documentary.

We’d have ended up having to do the same had we not made a run for it backpacks weighing us down.

We had lost all track of time on the island (population 138) between North and South Uist in Scotland’s Western Isles.

That was then before the causeway was built which logistically may help the islanders, but…

Hammocks in Tobago

Lovers’ Bay, Tobago: Like all the best beaches this one is secluded and can only be reached by private boat.

Unless you’re a German trekking party we met who thought nothing of the 30C to walk through the wood to the beach.

Probably how Robinson Crusoe did it but then we’ve come on since then.

A boarded up shack sits on the beach promising beer beside a swing.

And while my party either swam or paddled I made for the hammock, lay back, took in the sun and dreamt I was Crusoe.

Portnoo the noo

Portnoo, Donegal, Ireland: And aren’t the places of our childhood the most special?

And the girls… Helens of Joy, one who I proposed to in elementary school and another who became a summer companion .

We would go crab hinting in the eddies on the beach and run with Dinky, the guest house Welsh corgi, on the beach.

And walk at low tide over to the graveyard island.

I took my Mum, a proud native of Donegal back a couple of years ago and the place hadn’t changed a bit.

Doggone Huntington Beach

Huntington Beach, Southern California: You don’t have to go to Surf City in Huntington Beach for a beach party.

But when Snoop Dogg invites you then it would be rude not to.

Huntington loves its Dogg, and its dogs with the SoCal city holding an annual surfuri, dog surfing competition.

I’ll be back to see how Bono, the superstar pooch gets on when they all take to the water again.

And I’m back in California.

Barry Island, not Barry’s Island

Gavin and Stacey and Smithy and Nessa in Barry Island beach. http://www.visitthevale.com

Barry Island, Wales: And anyone who has watched British TV sitcom Gavin and Stacey will recognise the wearisome counter Mick gives to Pamelar.

Barry Island is an old-fashioned Welsh seaside resort near Cardiff and has been given a shot in the arm from the hit TV show.

Long before that union between Essex and Wales a humble wannabe scribbler sought out Barry Island’s reviving charms when he failed an exam in Cardiff.

Wherever you are now, Whitey, I owe you a 99 and a bucket of coins for what are now Nessa’s Slots

Surf’s up in Portugal Centro

Nazare, Portugal Centro: And for all that California claims to be the centre of the surfing world, Portugal is where they have the biggest waves.

A link here though in Garrett McNamara.

He surfs with canine champion Bono in Huntington Beach.

And he broke the world surfing record with a 78ft monster off the coast of Portugal.

The beaches of Portugal Centro surpass the best in the Algarve, either for romantic walks or for surfing dudes.

The quality of Mersey

Blundellsands, Merseyside, England: And they’ve built a statue since I lived there, Quite right.

Only this statue is one of the Antony Gormley statues.

Another Place which stand on the stretch of the beach from Crosby through Blundellsands to Waterloo.

Which is near Liverpool on Merseyside.

Gormley, you might know from his Angel of the North statue near Newcastle.

I’m holding out for someone to build a Bandanaman of Barbados of me!

Bean bags in Kuramathi

Kuramathi, The Maldives: It’s that moment when someone is talking to you and you’re nodding off but catch yourself in time.

Except this time I didn’t.

In my defence I had taken numerous flights to get there.

FromDublin to London to Istanbul and an overnighter to Male and then a seaplane to Kuramathi.

I’d eaten my own weight, drunk a couple of Strawberry Daiquiris and fallen back into the beanbag.

And dreamt that I was in a palm-treed, no traffic idyll on the Indian Ocean.

Caribbean, Countries, Culture

Rainy Days and Songdays – Jamaica sings Burns

25th January 202125th January 2021 funtime65

Robert Burns’s greatest creations Tam O’ Shanter and Soutar Johnny sit with their tankards in the Burns Monument Gardens.

Alongside them is a carved tabletop map of the world with mini-Burns statues depicting where the poet is celebrated.

On this his birthday it is worth considering that Burns is lauded by as vastly opposing cultures as America and in Russia.

Because he was an everyman, ‘a man’s a man for a’ that’ and all that.

Ode to the Caribbean

But also in the old countries of Empire.

My guys and Burns’ guys in Alloway

Burns, proud Scot though he was, had set his sights on the Caribbean.

And he had agreed to a position as a bookkeeper in Port Antonio in Jamaica.

You see Burns’s wild lifestyle was beginning to catch up with him.

A new start

A hard drinker, he was facing penury while he was impregnating women all over Scotland.

Robert Burns

Although there was one, Highland Mary, whom he wished to take to the Indies.

O sweet grows the lime and the orange, and the apple on the pine, but a’ the charms o’ the Indies, Can never equal thine – Will ye go to the Indies, my Mary

Only for his poetry to take off at home which made him change his mind.

And continue juggling his women.

All of which took its toll, of course, and he died, still beset by money worries, at just 36.

Now if only there had been a digital work abroad scheme for Burns like we have today in the Caribbean.

Scots have left their mark all across the West Indies.

Scots in the Indies

The region of Scotland in Barbados being testament.

Glasgow Bar with owner Karl in Tobago

While any excuse to namecheck Glasgow Bar in Tobago.

Now for the day that’s in it, and your regular feature, Rainy Days and Songdays here’s a site with Burns in Jamaican patwa.

And check out this collaboration between Scots producer Kieran C Murray and Jamaican singer Brinathe 2015 Jamaica Sings Robert Burns.

Oh ye Jamaicans by name, lend an ear, lend an ear!

SLAINTÉ

America, Caribbean, Countries, Culture, Europe, Flying

Rainy Days and Songdays – Travel toons

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Our planes may be grounded, our ships docked, out trains in their stations but we’ve still got a song in our hearts.

And we’re keeping ourselves going with a playlist of Travel Songs.

Here are ten until we can travel again.

Life’s a Beach

Sloop John B, Beach Boys, California

Only I didn’t, and don’t, wanna go home.

There are few songs, or singers more synonymous with their home than the Beach Boys.

You get it about California when you see the Boys in Anaheim, as you do, and Mike Love touches your hand.

The Beach Boys Get Around all right by boat, plane, car or surf board. Wouldn’t that be nice?

Hail Mary

Proud Mary, Tina Turner, Mississippi

Home of the Delta Blues: The Mississippi

Watching those river boats, rollin’, rollin’, rollin’ down the river to Mississippi made me Mr Happy.

And reminded me of Proud Mary… and Proud Beverley.

Pumping her arms and rolling her body on stage at Rising Star Karaoke club on CiyWalk at Universal Orlando…

Proud Beverley that is, a proud Scot who was supposed to be the warm-up act for my Lady Marmalade but who absolutely slayed it on our Orlando recce.

The Mississippi is, of course, America’s South to North artery and a playground or play waterway if you like.

And it’s how you really want to do The Deep South although that’s to take nothing away from our unforgettable road trip through Tennessee and Mississippi.

Hit the Road Jock

Jack, Ray Charles, Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic

With my Jazz partner and global travel pal Agnetha in Prague

You might not immediately associate Ray Charles and Jazz with the Czech Republic.

But then you can’t have been or you would have seen the saxophonists on Charles Bridge in Prague.

It was probably Hit the Road Jock when I dance with Swedish Agnetha in Karlovy Vary in the Czech Republic’s Spa Triangle back when.

Jazz has truly travelled the world and is in itself a music of travel with many a song of a vagrant worker eking out a living on the road.

Sounds all too familiar.

On the sunny Caribbean Sea

Woah, I’m going to Barbados, Typically Tropical, Barbados

Now I’ve never been on Coconut Airways and I wasn’t off to see ma girlfriend Mary Jane… at least that’s what I told the Scary One and I’m sticking to that story.

No, it was Virgin Airways, and I was the guest of Visit Barbados and then the second time with Tropical Sky.

Woah, I’m going to Barbados may not be the pure Soca they so love in Barbados and me too but they will sing along too.

As the house singer at Club Barbados who had a bow tie and dress shirt designed on to his T-shirt delivered without any degree of corniness.

I can’t wait to be…

On the Road Again, Willie Nelson, Pilgrimages in Spain and Italy

The Sun shines on the righteous on the Camino

And my go-to song when I’m out on the road is Willie Nelson’s standard… it’s my mission statement when I hit a pilgrimage, and my friend Aileeen Eglington’s Destination Anywhere radio show on Dublin South FM.

You’ll get plenty of time on your own when you’re on your Camino on your way to Santiago or your Via Francigena into Rome.

And yes, of course, I can’t wait to be…

MEET YOU ON THE ROAD

Caribbean, Countries, Deals

Caribbean cruising

14th January 202116th January 2021 funtime65

You’ll get to see the Sandy Lane brigade if you sail by the secluded complex, lying on their loungers and ne’er getting out to see Barbados.

Barbados is rightly renowned around the world for these pink beaches but it also boasts a wonderful capital.

Howzat: At the Kensington Oval Barbados Bridgetown

The British settled around a primitive bridge in the Careenage region which would be how the town that later grew up came to be called Bridgetown.

The Fun Five: My Barbados party

Today’s Bridgetown where Royal Caribbean will be home porting for winter 2021/22 is a hive of activity, culture and colour.

Harbouring dreams

The harbour is adorned with Bajan clothes shops and bar/restaurants while out on the water stand catamaran party boats.

Taste of Barbados: Mount Gay

Ready to take you out on the water for a Soca sing-a-long and dip in the sea with the turtles and schools of multi-coloured fish.

While if you want to dive for other treasures then try the glass-bottomed boats on a trip out to see shipwrecks.

Hamper time: In Barbados

Talking of wrecks you will be after overindulging at Mas and no that’s not a typo, it’s what Bajans call a party.

While limin’ is their pre-drinking which starts when you get up, with the best spots advertised on the news reels in the bus station.

Soca star: Lewis Hamilton at Crop Over in Bridgetown

Cave Shepherd department store in Broad Street is a Bridgetown institution where you might even get a Kiss from Rihanna.

Carry on cruising

So I’ve gone a bit off message here aa I’m looking to promote RC’s home porting here but I’m just giving you a glimpse of Bridgetown life.

Cocktail o’clock in Barbados

Which you won’t get from inside your ivory tower at Sandy Lane.

And guess what, it only gets better with RC also announcing a home porting for Scarborough in Tobago.

The Tobagonians will be only too glad to see you as I witnessed when a couple weighed up at The Blue Crab

Soul food

When we were being hosted by Auntie All and Uncle Kenneth who treated us like family and threw their doors open to them too… on their day off.

RC are also home porting in Tobago’s big brother island Trinidad in Port of Spain and Kingstown, St Vincent.

Deal me in

RC are flagging up a special seven-nighter Southern Caribbean Explorer from Barbados from €394pp for December 5, and other offers.

And this takes in seven (count them) islands.

And they are also offering up to €150 off your Stateroom.

MEET YOU ON THE SEAS

Africa, Caribbean, Countries, Cruising, Europe, Flying, Ireland

Christmas cards on the table

23rd December 202024th December 2020 funtime65

Joyeux Noel, Feliz Navidad, Buon Natale and a Happy Christmas to you all.

And merci, gracias, grazie and thanks a lot to all my friends who have sent me Christmas cards this year.

I’ll even let you off cancelling your Christmas parties and not sending me a Christmas hamper this year.

So here are a few of the Christmas cards I’d like to show off to you…

Christmas in my Sandals

And yes that’s just how they roll at Sandals and in the Caribbean.

Where what they lack in chimneys and fireplaces they make up for in mango trees.

And Santa can soothe his feet in a Sandals swim-up pool.

My old friends in Ireland

And while my Dear Old Mum will be spending her Christmas in a Glasgow care home, a nod to her homestead of Donegal.

Donegal, in the north-west of Ireland has all the warmth of the peaty sod and will be wonderful this Christmas.

So here’s to all Donegallers everywhere and thanks to the award-winning Harvey’s Point.

Scandi Claus

When I was thinking of going to Sweden this year my first port of call was my old Irish pal and Scandiphile Alan.

And a God Jul to you too and destination specialists Hadler DMC.

I got a tantalising view of Sweden on my MSC Cruises trip from Kiel, Germany through Denmark and up to Norway.

Cruises WILL be back in the New Year and of course that means river cruises too as well as the big seabreakers. Anyone for MS Arena?

Another year younger

And how long they look: Ethiopian Airlimrs

I’ve told you once or a hundred times about the lifegiving qualities of Enkutatash, Ethiopia’s New Year.

Because they live by the old calendar.

Back in the day an invite came through for Women’s Day from Ethiopian Airlines and a trip to celebrate womenhood in Ethiopia.

From where Lucy, the first women we have bones for derives.

I offered to drag up. But in the end I sent a colleague.

Bohemian wrapsody

Of course we know who looked out on the Feast of Stephen.

Only the bustling Wenceslas Square will be empty this Christmas.

The Czechs are the most wonderfully resilient people, situated as they are between Europe’s great powers.

They will be back and so will we… Urquell in hand by the beautiful Vlatva River.

We wish Wu a Merry Christmas

And isn’t it just like that? You get a card in and you panic that you haven’t sent them one.

So to Wendy Wu and the two Johns thank Wu for everything this year, particularly the legendary Chinese New Year lunch in January in Dublin.

And I know you’ll look after The Son and Heir when he heads to China next year.

And a Felice anno nuovo too

And in the most fallow of fallow years I will always treasure my Autumn trip to Bergamo with Omio.

Miei amici have gone back into the strictest zone as they predicted when I visited but I’m sure it will all pay off.

And we’ll all be eating stracciatella gelato soon in Citta Alta.

Caribbean, Countries, Culture, Music

Rainy Days and Songdays – Soak Mi Down at Christmas

21st December 202020th December 2020 funtime65

Which for us in the frozen north means mulled wine, sherry (or stronger) but which in the Caribbean is something far stronger..

Nadia Batson is a Tobagonian exponent of Parang Soca, a saucy version of the So Calypso music of the Southern islands.

And Nadia’s party song was the soundtrack too to our trip to Tobago this time last year.

So much so that we got a CD burned for our hostess with the mostest, Sarah…

SLM, when she’s not running her successful yoga business loves to parang at Tobago Sunday Service.

With my Tobagonian pals and the peerless Sarah

Every year the islands (that’s Tobago and its bigger twin island Trinidad) there are new Christmas albums.

Which is more than we get with the old standards trotted out in our Christmas charts.

And so this year as well as reprising pictures of me with a Tobagonian Santa I will steer you in the direction of DJ Floops’ 2020 Parang mix.

If you’ve never heard parang before then you’re in for a treat.

And you’ll detect a Latin beat which is not surprising when you consider Trinidad is only 11km from Venezuala.

From where the famed Spanish Ladies hail. But they’re another story and not one for Christmas time.

Caribbean, Countries, Culture, Music

Rainy Days and Songdays – Ho-ho-Ne-Yo

7th December 20207th December 2020 funtime65

Excuse me. And I might drink a little more than I should tonight…. Cause we might not get tomorrow – Give Me Everything ~ Pitbull ft Ne-Yo

He didn’t give me everything although I guess a beardie middle-aged Scot wasn’t who he had in mind, but Ne-Yo did give me his sweat towel.

When the hip-hop star performed for the delegates at the American Travel Fair (IPW) in Washington DC.

And I jumped out of the mosh pit (actually by the stage and round dinner tabes) to grab the towel he threw out.

It now has pride of place on my bookshelf in my office.

Dancing with Ne-Yo

I brushed shoulders again with Shaffer Chimere Smith (for it is he) again in the Recording Grammy Museum Mississippi in Cleveland.

When a virtual Ne-Yo ran me through an interactive dance lesson.

The Museum is a must-do on tour trail when you can also get a lesson from John Lee Hooker and a chance to record your own cover of Boom Boom.

And have it transferred to your phone… and watch out X Factor I’m coming for the Christmas No. 1.

Christmas in the Windies

Ne-Yo’s latest offering is as a featured star with DING DONG (no me neither) on the Shaggy track Holiday in Jamaica.

Shaggy dips his toe in the Caribbean to explore how they celebrate Christmas.

And in the absence of chimneys Santa has been known to throw the pressies down from the mango trees!

Shagalicious: In Jamaica. www.clashmusic.com

It’s off Jamaican Shaggy’s Christmas in the Islands album, a 16-track collection with new tracks, something there’s just too little of at Christmas.

Including Catch Myself Some Rays, although there is a reggae version of Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas..

Which brings me back to Mississippi snd a gospel singer’s rendition in Jackson three years ago this week.

And aren’t we all intertwined just like Christmas ribbon anyway?

Soca stars

Now if you like Shaggy’s reggae Christmas then you’ll adore the irreverent Parang Soca stars sound of Tobago

where I was this time last year.

Now back to the beach… a sodden North Berwick in grey oul’ Scotland!

Caribbean, Countries, Culture, Europe, Ireland

Out of my tree

5th December 20206th December 2020 funtime65

And watching the Scary One plant her pear trees in the drizzle for National Tree Week has sparked memories of where I’ve been out of my tree around the world.

Let’s hear it for the beardies… on Barbados

Beardy trees

Caribbean: The trees certainly caught the Portuguese mariners” eye when they landed in Barbados..

Not the golden beaches, interestingly (well they have their own) but their bearded Ficus citrifolia.

While we all visit the West Indies for its beaches we miss a lot if we ignore its heartland so you should go safari.

Where Dwayne will tear up the woodland in his Jeep and the bowed bearded trees will flick your face.

Eat one of those famous Tobagonian meals of fish which has just jumped out of the sea and macaroni in Jemma’s Treehouse.

And sleep it off in your own treehouse in Castara Retreats in a hammock naturally.

Tree si

Italy: And my favourite is this much-loved straight up and down tree… it’s very poplar.

My good friend and an Irish Travel Writer of the Year into the bargain, Muriel Bolger, wrote beautifully for me on their appeal, on a trip I sent her on to Northern Italy.

Which I checked out for myself in Bergamo this past Autumn.

I had, of course, familiarised myself with them when I went off-road on my Via Francigena pilgrimage.

Me and the chasing dogs.

Espana fir favor

Spain: And while the summer is when we all descend on Spain’s beaches here’s my ode to Autumn in Espana.

When nature is in a state of undress, and when she is at her most becoming.

The best way to discover a region is by foot and on my Camino in Galicia I trudged the same tracks the Medieval Peregrinos did.

I dare say that the tree growing out of this house was there then too.

The explorer to Tenerife, rather than the sun seeker, will head north, rather than south.

And the rainforest in the Northern Anaga Mountains. All of which you cam enjoy on your CanariaWays.com trip.

The Power of trees

Crane your neck: The Douglas Fir at Powerscourt

Powerscourt, Co. Wicklow, Ireland: And when you live in the Garden County of Wicklow then trees are all around you.

The tallest one in Ireland is on the magnificent Powerscourt Estate, Enniskerry, near Bray, some 60m plus which is it the seventh highest in Europe.

And when you stay in the sumptuous hotel you get a view, and a review, like no other.

And shiver me timbers

Celebrity Edge: And trees are the last thing you’d expect on a cruise ship.

But this is just one of the things which separates the $1bn Celebrity Cruises Edge from the other ships on the seas..

Edge which I boarded two years ago for its inaugural trip from Fort Lauderdale to tbe Bahamas boasts Eden, a forested wonder et land of plants.

But then every on Edge transports you to a different world.

MEET YOU UP A TREE

Caribbean, Countries, Music

Rainy Days and Songdays – Angie in Barbados

30th November 202029th November 2020 funtime65

Angie, Angie , where will it lead us from here? – The Rolling Stones

Usually late for whoever, or wherever, we were meant to be in Barbados.

Angie Greaves popped up again over the weekend when I fell upon her radio show on Smooth FM.

Cheryl on the top: With Cheryl Carter

It’s been a couple of years since I last came across Angie, randomly, as a guest on Celebrity Pointless.

Where as I would have expected she scored a Pointless answer.

The Fun Five

Angie lit up our Barbados Crop Over trip along with the Fun Five of Extra Miley Kylie, Chippin’ Charlotte, Ab Fab, Laura Disorder and Hayley the Soca Blogger.

Angie, I christened Early Angie, for reaaons I will now explain.

Sunshine smile: Angie. www.angiegreaves.com

Our smooth-voiced DJ was hosting a charming old couple who had won a holiday back to Bim from where they hailed.

And was also gathering material for her radio show which meant she would always start an interview just as we were about to leave.

Soca stars

Angie, to be fair, was great company as was Champion Cheryl Carter who introduced us to Soca music.

And we were not to be disappointed.

While they both waxed lyrical on modern great Prince who had died that year, and his music…. hence the above clip.

While Prince doesn’t have a song dedicated to Angie (that I know of), The Rolling Stones do.

Mick’s pick

Mick Jagger is a big fan of the island, the cricket, the rum shops, and the women I dare say!

The story goes that it was about David Bowie’s wife as an apology when she apparently burst in and found him in bed with David Bowie.

Which Jagger denied.

But Keith Richards, who wrote the song, debunks that myth or that it was about his own daughter, and says it was an everywoman song.

I can’t rule out that Mick or Keef wrote it about Angie Greaves!