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Austin we have a Big Four problem

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And as we follow Kimi Antonelli’s procession to the F1 World Championship we reflect that Austin we have a Big Four problem.

With the home of US Grand Prix (OK, there’s Vegas too) the 12th most populous city in the US with a million citizens.

So why when Austin can draw the big cars and big celebrities to central Texas can it not attract a marquee Big Four sports team?

Deep in the heart of Texas

Well, we’re reliably informed by our Texan hombres that they’re the victims of Lone Star state politics.

And the rival interests of Dallas, Houston and San Antonio.

Although Alamo City does allow its little brother to host three Spurs NBA matches with the Houston Rockets in town just on Friday.

To coincide with the F1 circus.

The two February games against the Memphis Grizzlies and Denver Nuggets.

Taking place during the annual San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo road trip.

When San Antonio’s Frost Bank Center is unavailable.

Music to our ears

Post with most: F1 headliner Post Malone

Now Austin’s place in the F1 calendar has become secure melding the two things it does best… music and cars.

Austin you see bills itself, not unreasonably, the World Live Music Capital of the World.

Wit Maroon Five, Post Malone and Alesso headlining the F1 weekend

Of course, as well as the US Grand Prix providing a showcase to the world for Austin.

A home run

It is also a reminder that baseball, American Football, ice hockey and basketball choose not to cash in on the city’s possibilities.

Although Austinians still believe that they can win hearts and minds and a franchise.

And are pinning their hopes on becoming one of the two cities to claim one of the spots slated for Major League Baseball in 2032.

And seeing off the challenge of Salt Lake City, Nashville, Portland, Orlando, Raleigh and Montreal.

Major airlines fly into Texas although you may need to fly via a major hub.

Countries, Deals, Europe, Food & Wine

Cognac in the palm of your hands

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And you thought that you just swallowed the stuff… well, wrong, as you’ll discover when you take Cognac in the palm of your hands.

And caress the stem of the tulip or balloon glass.

To warm her… and we always think of Cognac as a her.

All of which sensory surge is our remedy for the clocks going back and the storms coming in.

The best of chimes

It chimes too with the very weekend Cognac distillation season begins.

Beckoning in cognac house visitor season in the south-west of France.

To see the art of distillation in action for yourself.

With eight new experiences including glassblowing at Martell, watching barrels being shaped over fire at Tonnellerie Navarre.

Or following a self-guided vineyard trail at Begey.

Maison Raynaud pairs its tastings with a Templar legend as Distillerie Fontagard distils over an open fire after 150 years.

Keep French fires burning

La Nauve Hôtel & Jardin serves afternoon tea with a cognac cocktail (€25).

All reward for attentively listening to the experts, who in our experience of a drinks tour do love a question.

Thankfully our French amis have done the heavy lifting for us here.

So lie back, or better sit up, and think of the Cognac you’ll soon be supping.

From Fantagard a fifth-generation estate in Neuillac, near Jonzac (€15 €10 groups).

Where they still practise open-fire, double-distillation by hand, alongside geothermal energy and careful resource management.

The visitor tour spans the whole production cycle from vine to cellar, ending with a tasting of three cognacs.

C’est chocolat

Naturellement, nothing goes better with Cognac, except more Cognac, than chocolate.

And that leads us to Normandir Mercier (€40).

And first a history lesson, and here’s you thinking you’d got away with it.

Well, we take you back to a chestnut avenue near La Rochelle and this 1872 house.

Which pairs its cognacs with organic, seasonally changing chocolates from La Cabosse Enchantée.

Try VSOP with sea-salt ‘Île aux Trésors’ chocolate from Île de Ré, or XO alongside candied orange peel

A toast to your travels

Now Bordeaux, the hub of Cognac is just two and a half hours from Paris by train.

While we found a random return flight with Air France from under £650.

So, quaff away, saluté and…

MEET YOU AT THE BAR

Countries, Europe, Flying, Halloween

Go Golem-O-Ween for Halloween in Prague

22nd October 202622nd October 2026 funtime65

And we’re scaring up something different here for you… go Golem-O-Ween for Halloween in Prague.

Anybody who has been to Praha, and if you haven’t you should, will have bumped into Golem.

Maybe not on the streets of the Czech capital although the little clay clout is known to prowl the neighbourhoods.

But in the book stores and ka-ching shops of Prague where he is a go-to kids book, cuddly toy and Czech merch.

Bohemian mischief

Golem, no, not Tolkein’s boggly-eyed bad hobbit, but no less menacing.

Namely the animated anthropomorphic clay creation of Rabbi Judah Loew Ben Bezalel in the late 16th century.

When he took the mud from the Vltava River and brought it to life to defend the Prague ghetto.

If all this creationism sounds familiar then yes you’re right to mention that the First Man Adam was created from mud.

Now that the Czechs put on a show for Halloween and bring their unique Bohemian flair to it should come as no surprise.

Kafka to climbing babies

And to explore the city’s dark side the museum dedicated to the great apocalyptist Franz Kafka is a great place to start.

Praguers, of which the Metamorphosis author, are by nature mischievous.

As you’ll see near the Kafka Museum where two steel figures, representing politicians, on a map of Czechia peeing on the country.

While you’ll notice too figures hanging from rooftops holding umbrellas.

Before you even get to the babies climbing the TV tower.

Ryanscare

All of which you can see for yourself with a city break, flying with Ryanair.

You can fly to Prague with fares starting from €29.99.

Africa, America, Countries, Culture, Europe, UK

Oor Wullie and other comic strip heroes on pedestals

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And a happy 90th birthday to the best-loved Scots boy who never grows old Oor Wullie and other comic strip heroes on pedestals.

The spiky-haired blond laddie in dungarees sits proudly on his bucket in Dundee laughing at his latest jape.

To celebrate his connections with the city’s Sunday Post where he first appeared in 1936.

Dan’s the man: Desperate Dan in Dundee

And near to other child’s comic strip characters Desperate Dan, Dennis the Menace & Gnasher and Minnie the Minx.

Boys will be boys: With Wullie in Dundee

All of whom lift Dundonians’ spirits every day as they pass through the city centre.

Which should be the way of it rather than be reminded how we are subjugated by warmongers and titans of empire.

Hang on Snoopy, hang on

Lend a hand: With Charlie and Snoopy at Knott’s Berry Farm

Dundee should act as a template to the rest of the world although we shouldn’t altogether despair.

As there are towns and cities where our favourite cartoon strip heroes are celebrated.

Step forward Charles Schulz’s birthplace, Saint Paul where Charlie Brown and his pals are immortalised.

So that’s Charlie, Snoopy, Lucy, Linus and Snoopy again with Woodstock.

While America’s favourite trier is also put on a pedestal across the land and naturally at the Charles M. Schulz Museum.

Aye, aye, it’s Popeye

Muscling in: Popeye in Illinois

Now what we all look for in a statue is a strong structure that will resist any forces which we think you’d agree is Popeye.

The 6ft Sailor Man flexes his muscles in Segar Memorial Park to honour hometown creator Elzie Crisler Segar in Chester, Illinois.

Now everyone has their own favourite comic strip character.

Blistering Belgium, Tintin

Muscling in: Popeye in Brussels

And I would think the War Room bookshelf particularly bare without Tintin looking over me.

While Belgium’s most famous boy reporter is rightly celebrated across the land.

And touchingly is commemorated with his faithful companion Snowy at the Centre Culturel d’Uccle in Brussels.

While, and perhaps we shouldn’t look too closely at the reasons why.

Outside Hotel Memling in the former Belgian colony of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

There are, of course, those of our favourites who we have come to know many miles from their home.

And from Darkest Peru

Step up Paddington

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who we all know came from Darkest Peru.

Of course, no immigrant, has been so taken to the hearts of British people as the duffel-coated bear.

And Paddington Bear statues can be found across London and in 23 towns, cities and beauty spots throughout the UK and Ireland.

As part of the Paddington Visits trail.

As well as back home in Peru, in the capital Lima and in Machu Picchu.

Now we don’t know for certain if Oor Wullie and Paddington have ever met but if we had our way…

Countries, UK

One eye on the new 1066 Country Walk

13th October 202613th October 2026 funtime65

And a chance to escape battling the crowds as we cast one eye on the new 1066 Country Walk.

With tomorrow, October 14, the 950th anniversary of William of Normandy getting one in the eye of King Harold.

Or did he, with revisionists, with the now London-based Bayeux Tapestry as evidence, questioning that narrative?

And suggesting that Harold was the subject of a political kill, a regicide, and something we frowned upon then.

1066 and all that

Well, we can make up our minds up.

As we walk in the footsteps of the Great Norman on a five-night Walkers Britain & Europe trek.

Where we follow his 1066 journey from Pevensey for 31 miles (easy for us long-trail hikers) on foot.

Cross the wildlife-rich wetlands of the Pevensey Levels

And stand and channel where William conquered England at the Battle of Hastings at the village of Battle.

You’ll step back in time at Pevensey and Herstmonceaux Castles.

Quaff a pint of real ale in ancient villages Icklesham, Winchelsea and Rye.

Discover medieval Winchelsea, its gateways, church and historic cellars.

Post-Battle

The fixtures and fittings: And have some fun on the way

From Battle, continue through the High Weald National Landscape.

The journey leads through Icklesham and medieval Winchelsea before finishing among the historic streets of Rye.

Your self-guided Sussex walk, with five-nights hotels and B&Bs and six breakfasts costs £790.

Countries, Culture

Glasgow’s Nelson’s Column and Mandela in the world

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It’s the last place you’d imagine but there’s good reason why we’re celebrating Glasgow’s Nelson Column and Mandela in the world.

Scotland’s biggest city has a long, pioneering tradition of supporting Madiba going back to 1981.

When it became the first in the world to grant the freedom fighter the freedom of their city.

Followed by Aberdeen, during your favourite Bandanaman’s time editing the university’s student newspaper there.

One in the eye for apartheid

All of which makes you wonder why it has taken until now to erect a statue to the Great Man.

But rather on dwelling on that and the statues in the nearby George Square which celebrate the exploitation of empire.

We’d prefer to mark that it’s 40 years since the city renamed St George’s Place to Nelson Mandela Place.

A delicious, and typically gallus Glaswegian dig at the South African consulate-general whose address was there.

Mandela repaid the tribute when he visited the Dear Green Place in 1993 and spoke in front of 10,000 people.

A giant of South Africa

Now it is gratifying to see Mandela as equally celebrated in my hometown as in his home province of the Eastern Cape.

But it begs the question why is there not a Nelson’s column in every country in the world?

And we reckon this is a Nelson the Irish and the Bajans could get behind.

Now Nelson Mandela is understandably ubiquitous in South Africa.

And we had the pleasure of holding hands with him in the 38m-long Voting Line in Gqberha (Port Elizabeth).

But for sheer height then the 10m bronze statue of Nelson in Durban soars over them all.

An icon of the ages

Get him down. The Bajans hauled the other Nelson down

Mandela is celebrated too in London whose citizens campaigned long and hard for his release.

But it remains incongruous that Boer leader and South Africa’s first premier Louis Botha should be on a pedestal in Parliament Square.

Our Mandela mates tell us that there are statues of him in at least 24 places around the world.

From China to Cuba, Washington to Ramallah in Palestine, South Africa to Brazil, and elsewhere.

And other heroes we’d love to raise up

But, of course, as inspiring as it will be to look up to Mandela every day as we walk to work.

The struggle, much like the unfinished statue of Martin Luther King in DC, goes on.

Until we see Frederick Douglass raised up in Edinburgh, where he lived three years, and slavery prevaricator William Dundas torn down.

As well as countless other anachronisms around the world.

America, Countries, Sport

Football’s back and here’s where you’ll find Ted Lasso

10th October 2026 funtime65

And after the two-week international break football’s back and here’s where you’ll find Ted Lasso.

No, I’m not, to use a Ted line ‘being like a goldfish’ and I know he’s involved in the women’s club game and that’s been on.

It’s just I’m avoiding going Route 1 and passing it around at the back before bringing you today’s Ted-themed offer.

Because we know that’s who you’ve been watching during the footie famine.

Lasso ’em in

Now, of course, you’ll be wanting to follow in the stud steps of the Great Man.

Which you can, courtesy of a new transatlantic journey from Richmond, London, to Kansas City, Missouri.

All thanks to North America Travel Service’s seven-day Ted Lasso Holiday: Richmond UK and Kansas City.

Riches in Richmond

The adventure begins with two nights in Richmond, including breakfast and a guided Ted Lasso tour.

Where you’ll see Ted’s home, explore Richmond Green and Paved Court.

And visit the pub that doubles as the Crown & Anchor, Ted and the AFC Richmond team’s local.

We’re in Kansas… any more?

Then it’s time to swap Richmond for Ted’s real home including a scheduled flight from Heathrow to Kansas City.

With four nights at the historic downtown Hotel Savoy Kansas City, Tapestry Collection by Hilton.

An included Kansas City Food & History Tour delves into specialities including beef burnt end stew.

Discover downtown aboard the KC Streetcar and hear stories of the cowboys, gangsters and characters that shaped the city.

You’ll also get free time to explore the city’s legendary barbecue and jazz heritage.

To the 18th & Vine district, National WWI Museum and Memorial, Crossroads Arts District and Kansas City’s sporting culture.

Deal us in

The Ted Lasso Holiday: Richmond UK to Kansas City package is a seven-day, six-nighter, departing April.

Taking in Richmond & Kansas City and costing from £1,865pps, including two nights in Richmond with breakfast.

A Ted Lasso filming locations tour, return scheduled flights from London Heathrow to Kansas City.

Four nights at Hotel Savoy Kansas City, Tapestry Collection by Hilton, and a Kansas City Food & History Tour with local tastings.

Countries, Europe, Pilgrimage

Waspish Wendy and my final Camino take-aways

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My wingwoman stayed away but I won’t let her off with it as today it’s all about Waspish Wendy and my final Camino take-aways.

The self-styled ‘Mrs Always Right’ mooted joining up with us, that’s Big Brother Ed and I, on our Camino Portugues.

But in the end she wished us well from a safe distance.

But not before leaving me with a stinger… ‘watch out for the wasps’!

On account of our first stop-off on our Camino Frances in 2015.

And reminded me of it as she followed my Camino Portugues travails this time.

All of which in a kinda wending Way brings me to my takeaways from my two Caminos over 11 years.

Fail to prepare, prepare to fail

Lucky for some: The first 13 — Writing on the wall: My first Camino

Less is more: And even if your provider Camino Ways do most of the heavy lifting for you, taking your luggage from stop to stop.

You will need a rucksack on your walk for waterproofs, and keep them foldaway into pouches to lighten your load.

And a spare pair of socks if yours get damp in the woods.

Water bottles, sweeties, fruit, a map (even in this digital age, and chargers), a wide-rimmed hat and first-aid kit.

And, of course your Camino passport and border document on your person alongside your mobile, wallet… and bandana.

Timing is, erm… everything

Earning my stripes: On the Via Francigena

Connections, connections, connections: And this relates more to the Via Francigena in Italy in my experience.

When I discovered the limitations of my interconnecting train to my starting point in Viterbo, 100km from Rome.

With it stopping halfway and me only finding out from a random English-speaker of a bus that leaves in the early hours.

All of which meant I had a four-hour lay-off in a one-horse town where the horse had left and did not get into Viterbo until 1am.

A Buen Camino goes a long way

Sitting down on the job: On the Camino Portugues

Hola, ola: OK, we might not all be polyglots but there’s little excuse these days not to converse in people’s own language.

If you prefer to keep it real then take your physical translation books.

While, of course, your phone will likely have a translation facility on it.

Now there’s always the capacity to get it wrong as in when The Scary One got her Yamas (cheers) and Hamas mixed up in Rhodes.

But the locals will invariably just be glad that you’ve tried.

And, of course, a Buen Camino is a welcome hug on the road.

Or a polite way of saying you’re coming through.

Tech it in your stride

I’ve grown into the part: A fellow beardie

Screen if you like: But nobody will hear you in the dark.

Only that’s not quite right as I discovered when Big Brother Ed, in the next room, rumbled me.

For effjng and blinding at my blinds that I couldn’t pull down in Padron on our penultimate day.

Eleven years has brought big digital changes.

And while I had sheets of papers with directions in my Camino package back then now it’s all on the portal.

Only you won’t need your Google Maps (famous last words).

As the yellow arrows and scallop shells posts will guide you on your way.

The world has changed too since Covid and you may have to scan menus on your phone now.

While Ryanair requires you check in on their app and use your phone at their machines for tagging your luggage.

All of which means you should leave more time at the airport.

Particularly if you’re one of those pariahs with a British passport.

We all walk the same Way

No man or woman is left behind: Now despite the bright yellow signs I defy you not to take a wrong turn somewhere.

And that’s when those who live and work along the Way come into their own.

Whether that be a driver or a woman hanging her washing out of the window.

While, of course peregrinos, or pilgrims, will always have your back, and backpack when you’re struggling.

Eleven years on and I’m right back where I was on the Camino Frances with Waspish Wendy and Rikke with a simple Buen Camino.

It will be the same now with Aussies Allan and Peter.

Big Brother Ed I have known 60 years.

And judging by what we’ve still got left in our legs a good many years to come and Caminos to walk.

Countries, Europe, Pilgrimage

The longest Camino day

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Day 6 (last day): It’s when you forego the train, leaving outside your hotel window, that you really do trust in Him, on this the longest Camino day.

It is my cross to bear to carry my full backpack the full 25kms (or 6 hours), for the last leg, from Padron to Santiago de Compostella.

On the right track: But we’ll be walking

And be there in time for 4.30pm to catch the only Sunday bus to Porto for my red-eye flight back to Edinburgh the next morning.

American dad and lad Jim and Jamie are ahead of me, as they have been all week, before sunset.

But I am waiting in the Hotel Rosalía lobby on Big Brother Ed… he ain’t heady he’s my brother.

Despite spending last night, leading the belated celebrations for Aussie Allan’s 77th birthday, with his travelling companion Peter.

Pick your dish: Peter picked the Pedron peppers

At Pulperia Rial in the old centre, where I feast on the regional speciality pulpo, on a wooden plate obviously, and Rioja.

I carb up with Irish sisters Nuala and Maura at breakfast but we bemoan the lack of Brennan’s bread.

The bread of life

The cat’s whiskers: Aussie Allan and Funtime Jimmy

We will meet again on the Way and because they’re Irish the talk comes round to food.

And they inform me that to tell the difference between Catholics and Protestants you ask where they keep their toasters.

Catholics leave theirs on the workplace while Protestants put theirs in the cupboard.

Completely random but the kind of invaluable knowledge you take away from walking the Way with the world’s walkers.

All this talk of food has made me hungry.

The ways of the Way

Just a few steps to go: Santiago in the distance

We break bread again, obviously, with Aussies Allan and Peter who will probably end up in our excess luggage.

And learn too the ways of the Way when a local offers to buy half of Peter’s monster cheese and ham baguette for €3.

Or at least we think that is what is happening because at this stage lifting the piano that is my backpack is making me hallucinate.

God though has shone on us and given us a gentle wind to blow us to Santiago de Compostella.

When it’s no racing cert

And most importantly with enough time to pick up our certificate.

For completing a 100km stretch of the Camino with Camino Ways.

Although after filling out a needless form on a computer we are faced with a snaking half a mile queue for our cert.

Instead we accept that if God knows that we walked his Way then that is enough.

The front doors of the cathedral aren’t accessible either and we are told too late that we needed to go through a side entrance.

But having embraced the Pilgrims Mass when I walked the last 100 of the Camino Frances.

And ducked out of the way of the Botafumeiro incense holder which is currently out of action I am not suffering FOMO.

Leaving behind the city of brotherly love

I will, alas, miss out on spending a night in Santiago and then Porto with Big Brother Ed.

As I have a bus to catch back to Porto this afternoon and then a flight the next morning to Edinburgh.

Now being brothers I’d never tell him this so you’re sworn to secrecy.

He has, in truth, set a way, a path, for me to follow from my earliest days, and still does.

Even if sometimes he leaves me behind, he is ultimately always there for me in the end.

MEET YOU ON THE ROAD

Countries, Europe, Pilgrimage

Strictly Camino Dancing

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Stage 5: And I’ve got a spring in my step on the penultimate leg of my Camino Portugues… hence the Strictly Camino Dancing.

Martin and Natalia are entreating us like sirens.

On the 18kms trek of our 100+ Camino Ways pilgrimage through the woods between Calais de Reis and Padrón.

En route to Santiago de Compostella.

I have been reminded from home that Britain’s favourite pastime Strictly Come Dancing starts its elimination round tonight.

And in the absence of any competition I insist on our dancing duo to award me a 10 along with my obligatory Camino passport stamp.

Getting the band back together

Anybody there? On the lookout for my billet

The band is back together again, Aussies Allan and Peter and Indiana Julie and Chicago Nancy.

Julie alighting on my Red Rocks t-shirt at our A Casa Do Lantoneiro billet in Calais de Reis.

Apartments up from the Hotel Pousada Real where we had to go to check in before being rerouted to the block up Rua Real.

You got that then… Big Brother Ed has been billeted half a mile up the road where we will wind down around ribs and wings.

Food for the soul: For my penultimate leg

Before heading back out on the Way.

Me reunited with the rucksack I had tried, with Eatrella Galicia on board, to waylay.

The Catino: And the obligatory cat picture

There are new members of our merry band of brothers and sisters today on the Way.

Irish Michelle and Maria, with whom we bla-bla-bla with, and naturally about blaa, the Waterford speciality roll.

Breaking bread at our last supper

Listen up: And I’ve bored this peregrino stiff

And because we are on a spiritual journey I make no apologies at torturing a biblical metaphor.

And we will return to our Aussie pals Allan and Peter for breaking bread at our last supper.

At our digs for the night, Hotel Rosalía in Padron.

Tomorrow, God willing, we will reach our destination Santiago de Compostella and pick up my companion Camino certificate.

The flower off Scotland: And a coffee break

To bookend my 2016 keepsake.

On track: Padron station outside my hotel room

It promises to be the longest day, 25kms and then on to Porto for a red-eye back to Edinburgh.

Now if only there was a train station near the Hotel Rosalía to save me the legwork.

MEET YOU ON THE ROAD