Culture Archives - Page 23 of 65 - Jim Murty’s TravelTravelTravel

Follow George and Amal to Lake Como

29th August 202129th August 2021 funtime65

O Brother, where art thou? I just missed you in Amsterdam and Venice so I’ll just have to follow George and Amal to Lake Como.

George and Amal have integrated into Italian life so much that the Hollywood A-lister has taken to flogging their coffee!

And they have drawn us to the Italian playground for the well-heeled in the north of Italy.

Which is something that our friends at Travel Department have been doing for years.

Bounceback

TD has welcomed its first customers back to Italy with its Lake Como, Milan ad St Moritz tour including the Bernina Express recently.

And it is hoped it will be a springboard for the bounceback.

They should know too with 25 years’ experience bringing holidaymakers to Il Bel Paese.

Cara Sara

My old (but not old) friend Sara Zimmerman, CEO of Travel Department said: “We were delighted to welcome our first customers back to Lake Como.

“It’s clear that many of those joining our tour, whether first timers or returning customers, really welcomed the reassurance of travelling with a trusted tour operator with best in class safety standards.

“Our customers know that they can rely on us to check all the finer details in advance of travel.

“And to provide guidance on any additional paperwork, so all they have to do is relax and enjoy their well-deserved holiday.

“Our Lake Como, Milan and St Moritz tour includes all the same highlights as before.

“But on top of that, our customers are benefitting from the services of an experienced local guide, ready and waiting to share their insight.

“Not only on the local sights and culture, but also on local Covid-19 safety protocols.

“We are also operating smaller group sizes to allow for social distancing and more personalised attention”.

Deal me in

To celebrate being back in Italy Travel Department has launched its Italy Offer which gives €50pp* off any 7 night or more 2022 holiday to Italy.

By using the code: VP-ITALY50 when booked before 30th of September 2021.

Everything is included in your Travel Department Holiday price from flights, accommodation, transfers, and excursions to an expert local guide.

So we’d advise all lovers of Il Bel Paese to follow George and Amal to Lake Como.

Now have you any biscotti with the coffee, George?

America, Countries, Culture

Freedom Ride through Civil Rights history

28th August 2021 funtime65

The Greyhound is more of an adventure than a coach trip but 60 years ago it was a Freedom ride through Civil Rights history.

The first group of Freedom Riders set out from Washington DC in 1961 to integrate interstate buses.

That buses were the frontline in a social revolution is hard to believe but the Civil Rights Movement saw them as a vehicle for change.

Ever since Rosa Parks refused to vacate her seat for a white passenger back in 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama, and thus challenged segregation.

All of which I witnessed myself on an unforgettable odyssey.

Through the Deep South taking in the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis which incorporates the Lorraine Motel room where Dr Martin Luther King was assassinated.

And the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum in Jackson.

King’s heirs

Civil Rights, is of course, a journey which still alas is anywhere near completion.

As Dr King himself, and his followers predicted.

And which is evidenced in the unfinished statue to the Father of the Movement in DC.

We can though track the history of the Civil Rights Movement throughout the South by visiting 120 landmarks across 14 states.

Not that you have to worry about working any of it out for yourself as our friends from Alabama have only pointed us.

In the direction of an invaluable companion book.

And when we say our friends we only mean Dr Bernice King, Dr King’s youngest.

Stuff of history

The heroes and heroines

Travellers can draw inspiration from the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

And follow the harrowing stories of 14-year-old Emmett Till.

And Mississippi leader Medgar Evers, whose indomitable widow Myrlie I met in Jackson at the opening of the Mississippi museums.

Also take in the story of the Birmingham Sunday School attendees.

And the Selma voting-rights marchers and Nashville Freedom Riders.

While reading their stories and retracing their footsteps at sites along the trail.

The magic bus

The Greyhound is of course a misnomer as your journey goes at snail’s pace.

But ever since I took my first one from New York to Boston with my fellow pale-faced Scots.

And mingled with Native Americans, blacks and a melting pot of nationalities.

I have sought out the bus as my preferred mode of transport in the US.

And enjoy the bus the way it should.

And consider too its place in American culture with the Freedom Ride through Civil Rights history.

The book also underscores the movement’s present-day relevance by featuring historic destinations such as the Smithsonian National African American Museum of History and Culture in Washington, D.C., alongside new memorial sites including the Legacy Museum and National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama.

How to stay informed

For more information about the book or to plan your journey on the trail, visit civilrightstrail.com.

Consumers can purchase the book from Amazon.com (will ship to the UK) or at This is Alabama.

Countries, Culture, Europe

Czech out these film stars

22nd August 202122nd August 2021 funtime65

Now not a lot of people know this, as Michael Caine might say, but you should Czech out these film stars in Karlovy Vary.

The Karlovy Vary Film Festival honoured Caine, the Grand Old Man of British cinema, at a fully-live renewal of the moviethon.

Karlovy Vary, in the east of the Czech Republic, has welcomed Hollywood’s finest for more than 70 years.

Since it announced itself and its country’s recently nationalised film industry after the Second World War.

Thank you Vary much

The name’s Murty, James Murty: Bond’s Casino hotel

The good people of Karlovy Vary opened up their cinema, and their hearts, to us when we visited the Czech Republic for the first time a few years ago.

And we got an insight into how this jewel of a Central European country shines bright in the movie world.

More on what’s happening in KV anon but first join me for a lager in Loket with Richard Gere.

The American Gigolo spent a day in this 12th-century castle town on the River Ohre.

Good Gere

Czech out the movies: Richard Gere at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival

Where Richard inscribed a note for the walk in Czech at the Cisar Ferdinand Restaurant and Florian Family Brewery.

And no doubt dug into the signature suckling pig which cooks on coals for at least six hours.

Richard is right about the brew and the Amber beer made its way back with us.

Einstein I go, go

There’s no record of the film director Ron Howard imbibing when he shot his drama Einstein with Geoffrey Rush here.

All of which I missed when I was there although the town was dressed up for Albie’s era.

All of which you’ll enjoy on a day out to Loket frim KV.

As well as checking out the world’s oldest comet at the castle.

The Czech Cannes

Now for the red carpet: With Agnetha in front of Loket Castle

KV takes on the feel of a Cannes at this time in August.

But as well as movie star watching the film fan is drawn to the Grandhotel Pupp.

Which doubled for the casino where James Bond played the tables in Casino Royale.

If you bump into Daniel Craig don’t expect him to buy you an Amber beer from his winnings…

The tight git only recently revealed that he wouldn’t leave his millions to his kids when he died.

Festival time

When in Karlovy Vary: A local good luck tradition

The KV Film Festival runs through Saturday.

The site will tell you better than your not-so-humble blogger can about what’s going on and who’s coming.

But Zatopek, the biopic of the Czech long distance runner who won the 5,000, 10,000 and Marathon all at the same Olympics caught the eye.

What was Emil’s secret? Czech beer, I bet.

So Czech out these film stars and their films at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival..

Or follow them online.

Caribbean, Countries, Culture, UK

Woah we’re gaun tae Barbados

12th August 202112th August 2021 funtime65

Woah we’re gaun tae Barbados… but this time from Edinburgh, Scotland.

Scotland has long had a footprint in Barbados but this direct Virgin Atlantic flight represents it dipping its toe in the West Indies.

As Scotland’s only Caribbean route.

Two Scotlands

This is where the rum is: Mount Gay distillery

That Scotland is reconnecting with Barbados should not be surprising

As we stood side by side with them centuries ago when the British Empire first set foot there.

And used Scottish indentured servants to do their dirty work.

The MacBajans

The Bajans have never forgotten us MacBajans, naming their inland district of Scotland after us.

Giving over St Andrews Day as their national Day of Independence.

Encasing the Scottish Saltire in their coat of arms (a slave’s clenched fist holding two sugar canes in an X cross).

Which is on their dollar notes.

St Andrew’s people

Scotland sits in the district of Saint Andrew and, better than our own northern European, Scotland is hot, hot, hot all year round.

So better wear your boardies rather than your kilt, although some MacBajans might.

And there is plenty of time anyway during May’s Celtic Festival.

Scotland and Barbados

One of our own, my old student days pal Jevan, of Trinidad and Aberdeenshire, is waving the Scottish flag in Barbados.

As owner of Red Advertising & Marketing Ltd which means he knows everyone.

And introduced me to them all over their carnival, Crop Over, and the cricket.

So our new route from Edinburgh to Bridgetown will be welcomed by those of us who will be screaming Woah we’re gaun tae Barbados.

Old Scotland

And those MacBajans who will be coming our way.

Though I expect their suitcases will have a few more woollies.

MEET YOU ON THE ROAD

America, Caribbean, Countries, Europe, Music

30 years of saltwater welling in my eyes

9th August 20219th August 2021 funtime65

We are on UN’s red code to Save the World and 30 years of saltwater welling in my eyes since I first heard Julian Lennon’s song, Rainy Days and Songdays now hails those singers who’ve been addressing the crisis for years.

When will there be?

Harvest for the World (Isley Brothers): Gather every man, gather every woman, Celebrate your life, give thanks for your children, gather everyone, gather altogether, overlookin’ none, hopin’ life gets better for the world.

The sonorous tones of Cincinnati, Ohio’s finest, carry on them a wonderfully stripped-back message we can all take on board.

My own focus on Cincinnati has been honed since sending one of my writers there back in the day.

I’d plan out the travel pieces they came back with early in the week for the weekend publication and was relaxing in the Dylan Hotel, Amsterdam (as you do) having mapped out the early draft.

When said writer texted me in a panic saying I’d misspelt Cincinnati and that this was jeopardising his contacts with them.

Despite it, of course, being an early draft and me being back in the office two days later. Hey ho, between us we gave the Cincinnatians what they wanted a justifiable celebration of their city.

Don’t it always seem to go?

Big Yellow Taxi (Joni Mitchell): And the Canadian chanteuse always caught the zeitgeist with her uniquely on-point lyrics.

‘They took all the trees and put ’em in a tree museum and charged the people a dollar and a half just to see ’em’ refers to the Foster Botanical Garden in downtown Honolulu.

Encroaching tourism is as big, if not bigger, threat than when Joni and the other hippies were trailing a blaze. Go and see it before they ruin it.

Welling in my eye

Saltwater (Julian Lennon): It’s 30 years since John’s boy released this song, a classic in its own right.

And when I hear about the hole in the sky saltwater wells in my eyes.

And alas it’s getting bigger Julian.

The right Cash

Don’t Go Near The Water (Johnny Cash): The King of Country was a lifelong advocate for ecology and the American landscape.

And you can learn more about his passion for Nature at his museum in Nashville.

Johnny. of course, was a man of the land, Arkansas in his case, and he would turn in his grave…

Bob’s the job

The Sun Is Shining (Bob Marley): Marley, of course, loved the land so much he tried to smoke it all.

But joking aside his Rasta songs were inspired by a union with Nature.

Chicago‘s The Rock and Roll Playhouse knew it and held an Earth Day celebration concert featuring tunes by the great master of reggae two years ago.

To the rescue… here I am.

If only… because 30 years of saltwater welling in my eyes something has to be done.

Caribbean, Countries, Culture

Yeah Mon Jamaican Independence Day

6th August 20216th August 2021 funtime65

Yeah Mon Jamaican Independence Day is in full swing and naturally will last a week.

It’s 59 years since the Jamaicans led the way by becoming the first Caribbean country to break from the UK.

Following the experiment of the West Indies Federation between 1958 and 1962.

Where Jamaica led (and leads) its Caribbean neighbours followed.

More independence

And Trinidad & Tobago also took the plunge that magical year of 1962.

Barbados followed in 1966 before there was a rush of freedom in the Seventies.

With the Bahamas in 1973, Granada in 1974, Dominica 1978 and St Lucia and St Vincent in 1979.

And Antigua & Barbuda in 1981 and St Kitts & Nevis joining the gang in 1983.

All of which means that there will be a landmark every year to keep us all going for the next few years.

Jamaican jewels

Now where once Britain left its footprint on the Caribbean,West Indians have transformed British life.

In the years since we put out the call to come here to help rebuild the post-war UK.

So we probably all think we know the Windies well by now, and Jamaica, and Jamaicans, in particular.

And its British, and more specifically Scottish and Irish links.

Jammin’

But did you know?

That Jamaica is more than reggae, though there’s plenty of Marley which is good for me.

Try out the ska, mento, dancehall, ragga, dub and rocksteady. And soca, although there’s more of that in the southern Caribbean.

And it’s not just Usain Bolt though who has ripped up the sporting world, though he’s plenty good for us too.

Usain follows in the spikesteps of the marvellous Marlene Ottey and the Don, Don Quarry.

Other kings and queens of sport

While Elaine Thompson-Herah led a Jamaican 1-2-3 in this month’s Olympics ahead of Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Shericka Jackson.

Mikey Holding, Courtney Walsh and Chris Gayle are just three of the calypso cricketers; Mike McCallum and Trevor Berbick are Caribbean kings of the ring.

While who can forget the Winter Olympics bobsleigh team who gave us Cool Runnings and the Jamaica football team who reached the World Cup.

Thank God for Jamaica

That the island has more than 100 Christian denominations may come as a surprise.

And more churches, 2.75 per square mile, than any other country in the world.

And, of course, a morning in church (and it will be a morning) and a gospel choir should be on your must-do list when you visit.

And rum

As should the rum bars where for hardened rummies this is what you should order…

Jancraw Batty, which translates as ‘vulture’s ass’ and is under the rum bar counter.

There will be plenty Jancraw Batty raised today.

Yeah Mon Jamaican Independence Day.

Caribbean, Countries, Culture, Food & Wine

Blue blue Curacao

5th August 20215th August 2021 funtime65

And as The Scary One likes to remind me she has sailed the world, and drunk in Blue blue Curacao in the Caribbean.

In a lyrical sense, she was only seven.

We’ve made up for that since when I’ve turned cocktail waiter for my Saturday night Jocktails.

Drink it in

And Blue blue Curacao is my entry point for the Caribbean island.

Through a Mai Tai, a Blue Lagoon or a Blue Hawaian.

All of which will be on order at your pool bar at my first entry point to the Caribbean – Sandals.

Open-toe Sandals

The all new Sandals Royal Curacao is offering a 45% saving on all room categories for travel from April 12.

You want to get out around the island.

Well, you can pedal around on a Dutch bike (without the Amsterdam canalside shouts of BIKE).

Curacao is one of the Dutch Leeward Islands.

Dutch of class

If bikes are too much energy in the 84 degrees heat then Sandals will give you your own comp Mini Cooper.

For those staying. In the Kurason Island Suites and Awa Seaside Bungalows.

Every Caribbean island is unique.

Caribbean cheer

Whether it’s Rihanna’s Barbados and its Crop Over carnival.

Or Robinson Crusoe’s island Tobago and its goat racing.

And Curacao in the Dutch Antilles is no exception.

Capital Wilemstad is known for its colonial pastel-coloured architecture.

While where else would you get a floating bridge, the Queen Emma bridge?

Or a sand-floored synagogue, the 17th Century Mikve Israel-Emanuel Synagogue?

Oh Coral

Of course the Caribbean has some of the best coral anywhere so for those of you who can hold your breath under water…

You’ll get a warm welcome all across the Caribbean.

But only in Curacao will you get a Bon Bini at the airport which is Papiamento, the islanders’ language.

Welcome, welcome, welcome

Which is a mixture of Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, French, English, African and Arawak Indian.

No polyglot me but I expect Mai Tai will get me by.

And a Blue blue Curacao speaks for itself.

Countries, Culture, Europe

Italy’s history written on the walls

4th August 20214th August 2021 funtime65

It’s often called a living museum and as we shake down the new UNESCO sites and celebrate Il Bel Paese’s pre-eminence.. Italy’s history written on the walls.

The addition of Bologna’s porticoes and Padova’s frescoes makes Italy numero uno with 58 recognised sites.

Arches of triumph

Donata McGlynn (she married an Italian) would tear her luscious brown hair out teaching me Italian of a morning.

We would do whistle-stop visits around her homeland in the exercises she set to test nostra lingua.

And we, of course, passed through Bologna’s porticoes which gave us plenty of practise our directions.

The porticoes date back to the 12th century and span over 39 miles with most found in the city.

Made of wood, stone, brick, or reinforced concrete they serve as entrances to arcades and workshops.

And naturally have become hubs for Italians to chatter, or chiacchiera, a beautiful onomatopoeic word.

Of course all with the hands, or parlare con le mani.

Padova’s frescoes

Of course, Renaissance Italy all started out with… Giotto in Padova.

Long before Michelangelo got to work on his Sistine Chapel Giotto was setting the template in Padova.

His showpiece the Scrovegni Chapel.

All of which you can learn about by googling. But much more fun coming with me on my Padova journey

UNESCO didn’t just stop there although you could easily while away an afternoon… and I did.

There are eight religious and secular building complexes which make up Padova’s 14th century fresco cycle.

So why not start your UNESCO Historic Sites of Italy in Padova.

Where its Botanical Gardens are already rightfully on the list.

And take a gentle boat ride to Venice.

Sites for sore eyes

Italy is, of course, an ancient land of regions and cities.

And it is only right that UNESCO should celebrate le citte as a whole.

And La Citta Eterna stands foremost of them, although, of course it’s a high bar.

So you should dwell a while in Florence, Sienna, Naples and Verona.

And Ferrara which bills itself as the City of Renaissance although Giotto and Padova might have something to say about that!

So check it all out… Italy’s history written on the walls.

America, Countries, Music, Oceania, UK

Keep On Running

2nd August 20212nd August 2021 funtime65

And as the Olympics really kicks in with track and field, the songs on my running machine… Rainy Days and Songdays Keep On Running.

Go ahead

Jump, Van Halen: And a random story to accompany this slice of Californian rock.

From my schooldays and a sadist PE teacher.

Hessy would take pleasure from spanking our arses with a sandshoe if we forgot our kit.

And in the long jump heats for sports’ day he swiped his foot when he was taking off for the pit.

Bar, bar, bar

Raise the Bar, Bonnie Anderson: You’ll know her better as Bea Nilsson from Neighbours.

But Bonnie (and she is) was marked out from stardom early when she won Australia’s Got Talent at 12.

There’s lots of good Aussie music that never comes to our shores.

Not sure this is it but she looks Bonnie.

Born To Run

Born To Run, Bruce Springsteen: Baby, we were born to run and I was too.

Although my specialised discipline Cross Country Running isn’t one of the sports included which is quire hard to do.

Not sure either if muddy public school grounds was what New Jersey‘s Bruce had in mind either.

Nae havering now

I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles) The Proclaimers: And I would walk 500 miles and I would walk 500 more for Fife‘s finest.

And there are some who do, the waddling Olympian penguin people.

Now having been a member of a running club as a kid walking was giving up.

Put it there

Big Shot, Billy Joel: The Wee Noo Yoiker might struggle to lift, never mind twirl that big iron ball.

Billy is more in his element tinkering ivories than the shot put.

But who knows, he could have nailed it because it’s still track’n’roll to him.

Keep on running.

Countries, Culture, Europe

Amber lists and you’re a gem

1st August 20213rd August 2021 funtime65

I put my foot in it with a colleague, so just to say there will be no more gags about Amber lists and you’re a gem..

The amber threat has had holidaymakers panicking and fretting about getting back from foreign countries and then paying through the nose for self-isolation.

And the latest countries in the firing line are two of our favourites, France and Italy.

But the fossilised tree resin is something to be treasured as a precious jewel.

And also a healing property for hippies, whom I lean to….ooooohhhhhhm!

Museum pieces

You’ll find amber really wherever you’ll find trees, or where trees once were, which is pretty much everywhere.

And among all their magical qualities they also seem to have a magnetic pull on women.

Particularly when you’re on your holiday with la famiglia in the coastal town of Southwold in England’s East Anglia.

And the evidence is somewhere at the bottom of the Scary One’s Jewellery box.

Though not the 2.2 kilo exhibit… it would only drag her neck down.

Pole stars

Now every day’s a school day when you’re meeting holiday providers from around the world.

And while feeding our bellies with big bowls of Polish soup and warming our hearts with their vodka, our Polish friends gave us the rundown on Gdansk.

And its impressive history with amber.

What’s more it’s even better than it was before with the new Amber Museum of Gdansk opened to the public only last week.

Amber is brilliant in tone and hue and can act naturally as a receptacle for all the things that can get stuck in trees, like bugs.

While it is a great building block for jewellery yes, but from spoons to chess sets to Fender Stratocaster guitars.

Opening gambit

The voice of Dresden: With Ingrid in Dresden

Museum director Waldemar Ossowski said: “Amber items are delicate and sensitive, and the susceptibility to damage increases with the age of the item, which is why many amber masterpieces have survived in fragments and are missing many figurines.”

We’re told too that it sits in the pantheon with the the collection of the Danish royal family, the State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg and the Grünes Gewölbe museum in Dresden.

Something begotten in the state of Denmark

And if you know your Copenhagen you’ll know the museum is located in Kanneworff’s House in Nyhavn which dates back to 1606.

You’ll be taken on a 30-50 million journey and needless to say Denmark is at the heart of it.

And there will be a celebration of Scandinavian forests and their traders.

While there’s also chess too, naturally.

The Russians are coming

And take a tour of the ramparts: Kaliningrad

Whisper it around Poland where they like to claim amber as their Baltic gem but the Russians are coming with their own amber museum in Kaliningrad.

Well, like all things Polish, they’ve already settled and are flagging their own museum.

Should you be in the region then lucky you. So have a look around.

Obviously at all the amber and the many exhibitions including the Fifth Russian Contest of Gallery Art.

But also take a guided tour of the rampart to learn about the history of the growth of Konigsberg fortification power.

So that’s our Amber lists and you’re a gem all of you who are called Amber.