Europe Archives - Page 8 of 104 - Jim Murty’s TravelTravelTravel

Austria, Countries, Deals, Europe, Skiing

They start them young in Söll

28th November 202528th November 2025 funtime65

They start them young in Söll in Austria which is why Junior is zipping by you as you snow plough down the run.

Junior, of course, has been waiting since April to get back out on the mountains.

And this weekend is when he/she and you get to strap on your ski boots again.

And if you feel deflated by them lapping you on the slopes there is the consolation that it’s not costing you.

Because the start of the ski season, sees kiddies go free.

In the Wilder Kaiser region, which includes our favourite, Soll, and Hopfgarten, Brixen, Scheffau and Ellmau.

Kiddies and big kiddies

It’s definitely child’s play in Söll this winter.

With the Hexenwiese Beginners and Family area at the Söll Valley Station offering exciting new attractions.

Including a Magic Carpet for Beginners, a Bewitched Lock, magical sounds from the Witches of Söll, and a tubing slide.

Now, us big kiddies don’t get left behind though with our hosts offering special rates.

It always helps when you’ve got an insider and ‘Austrian’ Aileen has done all the heavy lifting for us here.

To bring us up to date with what’s been happening around the Ski Welt since last we visited.

Kaiser Wilder things

And a sample range of accommodations when you book your five-night stay through Wilder Kaiser for January 10-15.

4 Star Hotel Feldwebel – 5 nights for 2 sharing – from €1,305 including full breakfast.
4 Star Hotel Alpenschlössl – 5 nights for 2 sharing – from €1,085 half board plus skiers afternoon snack.
4 Star Hotel Berghof – 5 nights for 2 sharing – from €1,135 half board.
Appartement Unterbering – 5 nights for 2 sharing – from €760 room only.
Haus Niederacher – 5 nights for 2 sharing – from €465 room only.

And seeing that Aileen flies the flag on Austria for the Irish market, she rightly bigs up the 30 direct flights per week from Ireland, including Aer Lingus.

Get there how you can

The Wilder Kaiser is just one and a half hours from Munich.

Winter season access is also available from Salzburg and Innsbruck.

With charter flights from operators including Crystal Ski, Topflight, and DirectSki.com.

There are access flights from Dublin, Cork and Belfast for Austria.

And, of course, check out their Black Friday deals.

Countries, Deals, Europe

Sole-baticals in the fjords

26th November 202526th November 2025 funtime65

It doesn’t matter how experienced a traveller you are it feels more stressful every time, which is why we’re handing the process over to holidaymakers and honing in on the likes of sole-baticals in the fjords.

Because God knows after a budget which gives us all less spending money, we need to escape for a few days at least in 2026.

According to You Gov’s 2025 Travel Report, seven in ten (71%) of British holidaymakers find at least one part of booking a holiday stressful.

And they prefer providers to do it for them.

Which is where our old friends Solos come in.

With their fully hosted walking holidays offering exactly that.

With flights, transfers, routes, accommodation and itineraries all included.

Things are looking up

Now walking through the fjords will relax even the most pent-up with hits breathtaking scenery which we found out for ourselves.

On a stop-off in Bergen on our MSC Cruises Norwegian epic.

Where we took off on up the Fløyen and Ulriken mountains to breathe in the Nordic air.

And all the time ducking those shape-shifting trolls who try to trip you up and in my case did.

Of course, all that heady air will tire out even the hardiest trekker.

And sometimes we need the train to take the strain.

Let the train take the strain

And that’s where the renowned Flåm Railway, where we wondered at Norway’s wonders through the gloom that day, comes in.

Solos also offer a peaceful cruise along the Naeroyfjord and a memorable hike to Preikestolen (Pulpit Rock).

Each walk lasts two-three hours, plenty of time to soak up the scenery.

The seven-night Norwegian Fjords Walking Holiday, departing on 10 July, costs £3,495 pp.

And it includes return flights and transfers, airport taxes, a room for solo use.

Breakfast daily with two dinners, welcome drink and four fully guided walking days.

A boat journey from Bergen to Stavanger, a trip on the Flåm Railway and a cruise in the fjords, and an experienced Solos Tour Leader.

Countries, Deals, Europe

How to be the life and Soll of a skiing trip

20th November 202520th November 2025 funtime65

And this one’s for Daughterie and her partner Cakes as she takes her first steps on the snows of a nursery slope… how to be the life and Soll of a skiing trip.

Because the Austrian user-friendly skiing resort was where we, the Scary One and myself, tested whether we were suited for the mountains.

The answer to which is ja, but only through patience and the reviving powers of shots and schnapps.

Which I should have tried with my University sweetheart in Aberdeen.

Now as Daughterie and Cakes (and as an ex-ice hockey player, I put him down as a black runner) scope out trips for their first skiing holiday.

I’m gently directing them to Irish providers Directski.com.

And the Black Friday deals which run until December 2.

Live life to the Max

Reach for the heights: The Austrian Alps

With a tag line of ‘founded on the belief that skiing shouldn’t be reserved for the loaded or Lycra-clad’ Directski.com sounds just right for my party people.

Directski.com offers flights, accommodation transfers and a friendly rep in resort, all bundled in in a week of snowy fun.

Of the destinations they’re flagging up is our old stomping ground of Soll.

Where you’ll stay at the Pension, or Hotel, Maximilian on January 31.

With a bumper reduction, from €948, down to €699, which is a saving of €249 per person.

Of course, proximity is key with any accommodation, then this billet will suit you down to the Max.

It’s just a three-minute walk to the ski bus stop, with easy access to the slopes.

Andorra’s box

Alternatively, Andorra is often mooted as the ideal destination to learn how to ski plough.

And, of course, visitors from Ireland need no education in apres-ski.

Now Directski.com are all over the tiny Pyrenees country between France and Spain.

Arinsal is the pick of the bunch with Directski.com pointing us in the direction of the Hotel St Gothard for a week from March 8.

Where they’re offering a ski couple getaway to knock your ski socks off.

Pitched at €679, down from €903, which, and we’ll do the math for you, is a saving of €224pp.

Canada, Countries, Europe

After Flanders Fields

9th November 20259th November 2025 funtime65

Few who wear a red poppy today will give poet John McCrae a thought, but here is what happened after Flanders Fields to the man who gave the Fallen of the First World War its enduring symbol.

Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae is rightly a hero in his home country of Canada.

Where his face and his words have become immortalised in coins, notes and stamps.

Still standing: The Ieper Tree which withstood the battles

And in his home town of Guelph, Ontario and his birth home of McCrae House.

Where this Scots-Canadian’s story is told and visitors can see artefacts of his life and pay homage at his memorial.

At the memorial cenotaph and gardens with its open bronze book sculpture with his immortal words.

On a pedestal

A statue of McCrae by Ruth Abernathy stands on Green Island (Rideau River) in Ottawa.

Dressed as an artillery officer and his medical bag nearby, as he writes.

The statue shows the destruction of the battlefield and, at his feet, the poppies and all armed conflict since.

While a copy of that statue was erected at Guelph Civic Museum in 2015.

Mapping McCrae’s life

Family bond: At my great-uncle’s gravestone

Our Canadian cousins, and Grandpa Murty served in the Canadian Army in the Great War, helpfully walk us through McCrae’s life.

Through Guelph Museums’ excellent map journal which takes us on a global journey treading in the Great Man’s footsteps.

McCrae packed a lot into his 46 years.

Fom Ontario to Baltimore, taking in the Boer War in South Africa, to Ieper in Belgium to his last resting place in Boulogne, France where he died of pneumonia in 1918.

And he is rightly commemorated across the world.

Lest we forget

And in Ieper where he wrote his stirring words.

On seeing poppies around the grave of his friend Lieutenant Alexis Helmer in 1915 and first published a century ago next month in Punch.

At the The Cloth Hall in its permanent war museum, the In Flanders Fields Museum,

And a short biographical memorial to the doctor, soldier and poet in the St George Memorial Church in the Medieval town.

While McCrae’s great friend Lieutenant Helmer’s name is inscribed on Panel 10 of the Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing in Ypres.

One of the 54,896 soldiers who have no known grave in the battlefields of the Ypres Salient.

And it is those, all the Fallen, Great Uncles Willie and Patrick and John McCrae.

And rest assured we ‘hold the torch high’.

Countries, Deals, Europe, Pilgrimage

No man gets left behind on a Tenerife trek

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My old colleague, The Other Jim, is, of course, well-travelled and his boots well-trodden but even he wilted under the Canarian sun… then again no man gets left behind on a Tenerife trek.

You may well have seen the esteemed James Gallagher, with whom I shared a parish for years in Ireland, striding along a lane near you.

Particularly if that lane is the Wild Atlantic Way.

On this occasion we were pioneers on a recce for a new CaminoWays trek in Tenerife, CanariaWays.

Only our guides had overestimated our Irish pastiness.

Or our need for more than the usual water, chocolate and protein bar supply on those open hills.

All of which meant that we had to come back down the hill from the Franco memorial bar (now, that’s another story).

To retrieve Big Jim because no man gets left behind on a Tenerife walking trek.

Walk like an Irishman

I found that too in a different terrain and a different walking group, the most resilient trekkers you can meet, the senior citizens’ walkers.

On a hike through the Austrian Tyrol with Travel Department.

Now, of course, have boots, will travel, is the TD motto and they will guide you through the multi-faceted, multi-climate zone, idyll that is Tenerife.

You’ll be based in the town of Puerto de la Cruz and enjoy the volcanic black beaches of Playa Jardín.

Mojo rojo: In Tenerife with Matthew Hirtes

Your guide will lead you on trails through Teide National Park, offering stunning views of Mount Teide.

You’ll explore the lush laurel forests and rugged cliffs of Teno Rural Park.

And trek the historic Las Vueltas Footpath in Anaga Rural Park.

The volcanic landscapes of Montana Samara.

And visit the ancient caves of the indigenous inhabitants within Corona Forestal Nature Park.

A walk for all

You’ll travel on February 5 with prices from €1,719pp.

The seven-night trip will offer moderate routes on each walking day.

And is ideal for moderately experienced or experienced walkers, and Our Jim.

The average daily walking distance on moderate walks is between 7.6km-12.85km.

With ascents between of between 369-730m.

And a maximum daily walking duration of up to four and a half hours.

A Teide packet

TD offers €100pp off tours departing before April 1 use code WALKING100.

Explore magnificent natural scenery & impressive hiking trails on this walking holiday in Tenerife.

There will be five guided walking trips through diverse terrains & national parks.

Experience highlights like Mount Teide, Anaga Rural Park & Montana Samara.

Unwind after hikes on the volcanic black sand beaches of Playa Jardín.

Your seven nights will be spent in a three-star half board hotel with flights and transfers from Dublin.

Countries, Deals, Europe

A Vlads holiday in budget Romania

31st October 2025 funtime65

And for the day that’s in it here’s one to get your teeth into, a Vlads holiday in budget Romania.

We all know that the oul’ blood-sucker themselves, no, not Rachel Reeves, but Dracula hails from Transylvania.

Which despite the protests from the Hungarian friends we met this year belongs to modern-day Romania.

And which draws tens of thousands to the ancient Central European state particularly at this time of year.

Now if you want a fangtastic Autumn holiday to look forward to next year then keep your black cape to hand.

Legends & Landscapes

Solos puts on an escorted Legends & Landscapes of Romania tour.

Which takes solo travellers deep into the landscapes that inspired the Dracula legend.

From the medieval streets of Bucharest’s Old Town to the dramatic peaks of the Carpathian Mountains.

Guests will visit the imposing Bran Castle, long associated with Count Dracula.

As well as the fairytale Peleș Castle and the UNESCO-listed citadel of Sighișoara.

The birthplace of Vlad the Impaler, the historical figure behind Bram Stoker’s vampire.

From Dublin to Romania

Bram, with an ‘n’ being the Dublin Victorian author who brought the oul’ vampire back to life.

And who is marked every year in Dublin with his own day where you can visit his home, a modern-day attraction.

Solos’ week-long itinerary also includes guided walking tours of Sibiu and Brașov.

Plus a visit to the Zărnești Bear Sanctuary, home to rescued brown bears.

Vampires and bears

The seven-night Legends & Landscapes of Romania tour departs 4 May and costs £2,199 pp.

Including return flights, airport transfers and taxes.

A room for solo use, daily breakfast, welcome dinner, one lunch and farewell dinner and a welcome drink.

A walking tour of Sibiu, Sighisoara, Brasov and Bucharest.

Visits to Prejmer, Brukenthal Museum, Biertan, Viscri, Peles Castle, Dracula’s Castle, Libearty Bear Sanctuary and a dedicated Solos Tour Leader.

Alternatively, Solos also offers a 28 September departure if you want to get closer to the Halloween date.

Countries, Europe, Pilgrimage

Following the yellow arrow road ten years on

27th October 202527th October 2025 funtime65

You spend a week on 100kms on The Way then find yourself following the yellow arrow road ten years on.

Actor and trekker Robson Green is the latest to put his boots on and head for Santiago de Compostella.

For his World’s Most Amazing Walks series for British TV channel U&Yesterday.

And share his Camino, which, of course, is his own.

There were touch points we recognise from our CaminoWays odyssey.

The passport, the pulpo, or octopus, and the cathedral botafumeiro incense holder.

As he traversed his way across Galicia from O Cebreiro to St James the Greater’s remains in Santiago de Compostella.

But because every day is an education on the Camino we learned some stuff we’d missed back then.

And they were all yellow

Such as the derivation of the yellow arrow symbol.

We already know why peregrinos, or pilgrims. wear scallop shells on their backpacks.

Although we prefer the more lyrical explanation, which he didn’t share, which is that James was carried ashore on clamshells.

But we just imagined that the yellow arrows which guide even the most accidental of tourists, to their destination.

That it was a Galician or Spanish Tourist Board signpost.

Starting out from O Cebreiro, of course, Robson, immediately learned that it was the handiwork of its most famous citizen.

Father Elias Valina, who stocked with an inordinate amount of yellow paint took off on his travels in 1984.

Along the French Way daubing yellow arrows everywhere to help peregrinos.

And you’ll be thankful to the padre for keeping you on the straight and narrow.

The big cheese

Armed with this knowledge Robson drops by, among other high points, a Queso Tetilla cheese in the shape of a booby.

The reason for it, the great storyteller keeps until the end of his trek in the great cathedral itself.

Which, Robson would be aghast if we spoiled.

Walking in his footsteps

Does my ass look big? We’re all peregrinos

The Geordie starts out his eight-part series in his backyard of the north-east of England.

Walking across to the other coast along the 2,000-year-old Hadrian’s Wall.

Before taking in the Danube River, along the Wachau Valley in Austria.

The north coast of Normandy, to the D-Day landings beaches.

The Great Glen Way through the Scottish Highlands, from the foot of Ben Nevis to Loch Ness.

Where eagles draw: The Trail of the Eagle’s Nest in Austria

The Douro Valley in Portugal, the Jurassic Coast on England’s south coast, complete with Sea-Rex.

And after his Camino odyssey, the Trail of the Eagle’s Nest in Poland.

A 100-mile route connecting a group of medieval castles perched across the limestone highlands.

Of course, through the miracle of modern technology I started my journey at episode seven and the Camino.

And one of our own

I am, of course, binge watching the rest and will break it to The Scary One that that is our mission for our Sixties.

To complete all of Robson’s treks, and more, not least our own neighbourhood walk, the John Muir Way.

And surprise my old walking companion, Wendy the Wasp Whisperer on the tenth anniversary of our misadventures this month.

Countries, Culture, Deals, Europe

Your night at the Dresden Semperoper

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Theirs is an epic story of resilience and rebirth to play out ahead of your night at the Dresden Semperoper.

Twice destroyed by fire and once by water the Semperoper looks every inch the Renaissance classic erected in 1841.

Only this is the second opera house, the original having been destroyed in a blaze in 1869.

And then by Allied bombers targeting Saxony at the end of the Second World War.

The voice of Dresden: With Ingrid in Dresden

All of which I know and more from my freunde and guide, see I was listening Ingrid.

Dresden’s reputation as the Florence of the Elbe alas did not preserve it from Allied Bombers.

Despite the convention that cities of culture should be immune.

Feather touches

Dresden’s renaissance, brick by brick, fresco by fresco, makes it the perfect pick.

For your Institute for Cultural Travel mini-break.

Billed as The Magic of Dresden: A Three-Night Cultural Escape, your delve into history and opera comes in at from €1495pps for April 27.

You’ll arrive from Dublin on your Ryanair flight in Berlin early on your first day in Berlin.

And your guide will drive you the two hours down the road to Baroque palace and moated castle, Moritzburg.

If it’s hunting trophies and ornate gilt leather tapestries that’s your thing then Moritzburg is the place for you.

Never mind the famed Feather Room, adorned with over a million coloured ticklers… followed by lunch in a local restaurant.

The stage is set

You’ll stay the next three nights being wined and dined and sleeping the night off at the Hilton Dresden.

But maybe pace yourself as you’ve 700 years of history to walk through and that Verdi opera at the Semperoper.

Admire the graceful Augustus Bridge and the magnificent Residenzschloss, one of the city’s oldest and most historic buildings.

Your guide will take you to the historic Sophienkeller restaurant for pre-opera dinner and drinks.

Before taking your category 1 seats for La Traviata.

Culture vultures will delight in the next morning’s trip to the Old Masters Picture Gallery.

In the 19th-century Semper Building at the Zwinger, restored after seven years of renovation.

Answer to our prayers

And Dresdenophiles will advise that you visit the Frauenkirche and Martin Luther will point you in the right direction.

Ich bin ein Dresdener: Und Martin Luther

Of course, whatever you miss you can come back and see the next day.

Before your guide takes you back to Berlin and onwards to Dublin.

Countries, Europe

Funky fjord cabins and I do the Math

21st October 202521st October 2025 funtime65

Mrs Campbell doubtless never imagined I’d get a grip on scalene quadrilaterals, but here they are… funky fjord cabins and I do the Math.

And equipped too now with the knowledge I’ve gleaned from my own little decorator’s go-to man George Clarke.

I’ve alighted on Panoramahyttene in the Norwegian fjords nominated for the Ahead design awards Europe next month.

That those clever Scandinavians are at the vanguard of architecture and interior design should come as no surprise.

But, here it’s Norwegian nuance that we are celebrating rather than Swedish IKEA minimalist ingenuity.

Shine a light on the fjords

Panoramahyttene, in Sandhaland in the Haugesund region, amplifies the fjords’ unique shifting light and weather.

For a new layer to the experience.

Perched on the rocky edge above the sea, the cabins invite guests to see nature up close.

Elevated placement provides an unbroken 180-degree panorama.

With large windows on the front, sides and roof drawing the landscape into the interior.

Our shapeshifting pals have emphasised dark tones to frame the ever-changing light (obvs).

Window into nature

And, of course, you’ll be knocked out by the high panes, turning nature itself into the artwork. No television is needed.

Here, the 23ft window offers an uninterrupted, real-time view of Norway’s raw coastal drama.

All you interior designers out there will, of course, be familiar with the language and even speak like this.

Ice Age boulders scattered across the terrain, creating cabins that seem carved by time.

Sculptural yet subtle, luxurious yet low-impact, fully in tune with the landscape around them.

Book a cabin

Part of the furniture: You and your family

Architect Roald Bø explains: ‘Our goal was to let the architecture follow the rhythm of the terrain.

‘The cabins aren’t placed in nature, they’re part of it.’

The cabins come in at from NOK 330 per night.

Which accommodates a double bed and a loft with two full-sized beds and one at 170 cm, suitable for children.

A natural playground

Of course, you’ll have a natural playground to revel in.

From scenic Skudeneshavn, with its white wooden buildings, harbour, and artisan cafes and restaurants, eight minutes away.

Hiking in Karmøyheiene (Karmøy Hills) and along the coast.

Syreneset Fort, with its wartime history, a nice bike ride from here.

Viking history at Avaldsnes and Visnes with its distinctive mining history.

While, there are myriad opportunities for fishing.

Haugesund Airport Karmøy is 15 minutes from central Haugesund, with flights to Oslo,

Countries, Culture, Europe

Heists are not a victimless crime

20th October 202520th October 2025 funtime65

The roguish instinct in us is to smile at aristocratic misfortune but this is why heists are not a victimless crime.

Not that we’re suddenly siding with the elites but on the back of the Louvre robbery we’re reflecting on an attack on all art lovers.

Because make no mistake the assault will not just cost the museum but you and me too.

With ever-greater security checks, lines and higher cover costs and special exhibitions.

With entry to the Louvre costing us €22 and €31 for a combined ticket and guided tour.

Moaning Lisa

We all saw, of course, the dramatised reenactments of the seven-minute robbery of the priceless royal jewels.

And the hordes of visitors shepherded out of the iconic Parisian pyramidical building.

Many of whom could have saved up and waited years for their trip to Paris.

And the chance to see the Lady with the enigmatic smile.

An arm and a leg

And there are other draws, the one-armed Milo de Venus and Jacques-Louis David’s The Coronation of Napoleon.

And the Galerie d’Apollon with that collection of French Crown Jewels.

Art galleries are, naturellement, one of the great leisure activities available to us all.

With many free to the public.

Where you can see the great masters and art from your own country.

Contrast that with sports, music concerts or theatre experiences.

With the average cost of a ticket up the road in the Parc des Princes to see European champions Paris Saint-Germain £185.

The art of the matter

So while we enjoy an oul Las Vegas Oceans Eleven heist flick.

If you’re a tourist who loves their Van Gogh, Rijksmuseum, Crown Jewels at the Tower of London, Raphael Rooms in the Vatican or Louvre.

Just think again if someone comes up to you in the bar and offers a jewel from the Louvre for your amour’s finger.

That the cost and stress might come back at you because heists are not a victimless crime.