Universal is serving up a real treat with its International Flavors of Carnaval from February 6 to March 28.
Eat around the world
When it will showcase dishes from New Orleans, Puerto Rico, Trinidad & Tobago, Brazil, Spain and er Germany (who knew?)
Glasgow Bar with owner Karl in Tobago
Of course carnivals have long been choreographed to the minutest detail so you’ll not even notice social distancing.
There will be floats throughout the park and a Big Easy Bash.
Jambalaya mia my-oh
And from personal experience it is the done thing to start at breakfast time with Jambalaya, a Sazerac and a jazz brass band.
You want a taster of some of the other culinary delights.
Moe’s and Jimbo’s
Cajun cuisine from New Orleans, such as a Crawfish Boil, Jambalaya, Beignets and other Big Easy delights.
Classic Carnaval dishes from the islands, such as Pernil & Mofongo from Puerto Rico, a vegan Pholourie from Trinidad & Tobago and Jerk Chicken from the Bahamas.
Pork Schnitzel Sliders and Bavarian Pretzels from Germany, iconic Paella Mixta and Leche Frita from Spain and Belgium Liege Waffles from Belgium.
Other flavours from Brazil (Moqueca de Camarao), Canada (Beef Short Rib Poutine), Colombia (Carnitas Arepas), Cuba (Cuban Sandwiches), Italy (Caneloni), France Poached Pear Creme Brulee Crepe) and more.
And as the Alt-Right tries to wage a Second American Revolution in the US a look at the revolutions we do need.
The air
United we atand
And clearly the challenge is carbon emissions where EasyJet can take a bow.
The budget airline topped a London School of Economics report in a top five which also includes Alaska Air, Qantas, my old friends at United who flew me to the Deep South and JetBlue.
The seas
Norway wood: In the Norwegian fjords
And high up for the haters in this Covid and Climate crisis are our cruise ships.
And whatever you’re having yourself… January is after all what we make it.
Jimuary in Scotland
Jim O’ Shanter
And for me and all of us of a Scottish disposition then January is Robert Burns’ Month.
Burns is Scotland’s National Poet and January 25 is his birthday… he would be 252 this year.
Wherever they are in the world Scots put on kilts and start eulogising little mice and the like… ‘wee sleekit timrous beastie, oh what a panic’s in thy breastie.’
It’s all the whisky we drink you see!
Alloway Bridge
Burns’ Village is a magical place with Burns’ Cottage, Alloway Kirk and Brig o’ Doon.
Where you can let your imagination run wild.
Three Scots mice
January is also the month when Dr Martin Luther King’s birthday is commemorated.. he was born on January 15 but Martin Luther King Day is actually January 18..
I was fortunate enough to attend the 50th commemoration of his assassination and followed the MLK Trail from Memphis to Jackson, Mississippi.
Ginuary in Ireland
G&T O’Clock
And you could do worse than Co. Monaghan, the border county where a ginoisseur will guide you through each gin and tonic.
The Scary One turned her nose up at the juniper when presented with a tray of samples only to then dig in and minesweep them all.
Veganuary
And if it’s good enough for Leonardo Da Vinci, Albert Einstein and Barry White (and he had a healthy appetite, and for food).
Veganuary has really taken off in recent years and I’ve visited the oul’ plant-based food before on this site.
But seeing that the calendar has come around again and that you’ll be performing a public service by not visiting the shops.
Here’s to all those things in your flower beds which also includes the majestic tulip.
And Japanuary
Thanks here to our friends in The Land of the Rising Sun for always keeping it fun and funky.
So Japanuary?
Well, we’re all being encouraged to get on our bikes and in Japan you can do worse than following the Tanesashi Coastline and bike hire is just £10 per day.
They advise stopping off at fish restaurants and temples while ensuring that through the cycling your body remains a temple.
If that’s too sedentary for you then why not canyon through the Sarugajo Gorge.
Talking of temples you shouldn’t go to Japan and not visit a Zen Buddhist temple.
Oh, and in the year when the Olympics are coming to Tokyo then they’re challenging us all to get our adrenaline vibe on.
The Blood Service give you a cup of tea and a chocolate digestive but maybe they’ll now follow Brewdog’s lead of giving beer after a Covid vaccine shot.
The Aberdeenshire beer chain have come up with an inventive and public-spirited way of getting us all to get our shots.
I’ll take all four
They plan to throw open their closed bars as vaccination centres.
And they have asked the public for help in naming the new vaccine-themed beer.
Only here for the beer
As a steer they have mocked up a Vaccine Canteen, Little Prick, Community Immunity and Jab Lab.
All good, but why in the 13 years I was away from Scotland did we start saying jab instead of jag?
Breweries are a staple on tour itineraries and it is always welcome to sample a region’s or a brand’s beer.
I’ve sent many a Wish You Were Beer message from my travels around the world.
Interior decorations
And listened through the spiel from the Master Brewer about the mashing process and the like.
And prayed silently that nobody would ask a question which would require an answer that would eat into the drinking time.
The same goes for any vaccinations.
I mean, do you really want to be left waiting for your complimentary beer because somebody is firing off questions.
Most of us still place it as Milan-Bergamo after its airport (actually it’s Il Caravaggio Orio al Serio International Airport), and this year we saw it as the Covid-19 gateway to Europe.
The pandemic hit Lombardy hard and early; the world watching in horror as its grip fastened last February and March – a preview of things to come.
Stay strong
It was a surreal light to shine on Bergamo, a medieval city in the Alpine foothills.
Suddenly portrayed not as a bustling cultural and historical hub, but through rolling television coverage.
Of empty cobbled streets, eerie churches and boarded shutters.
Medieval Bergamo
A sweeping landscape
Bergamo boasts rich galleries with works by Titian, Botticelli and Canaletto.
We know its Champions League football team, Atalanta.
It celebrates composer Gaetano Donizetti in its annual international opera festival.
And it has architectural dedications to revolutionary Giuseppe Garibaldi.
The cobbled stones of the old city
Bergamo is known as the Citta dei Mille after 1,000 of its citizens marched on Rome and helped unify Italy in the 19th century.
This year, tourists vanished and a different type of visitor descended.
International news teams flocking to the Papa Giovanni XXIII Hospital, named for another famous son.
Snapshot of Bergamo in the pandemic
But there is light at the end of the tunnel, as many of those who travelled to report on distress, only to find success, have discovered.
As Christophe Sanchez, CEO of Visit Bergamo, said: “Because of the situation we have been through, Bergamo is now the safest town in Europe.”
Visitors it is true, have not always been kind to Bergamo.
But Bergamo is kind to its visitors, particularly those who stay a while.
Owed to Autumn
The Autumn poplar trees
Visiting this autumn, I found the streets, which were desolate in March when everyone was locked away behind their shutters, alive again six months later.
Citizens mingled, talking at breakneck speed behind their masks and, of course, con le mani (with their hands).
Ice cream heaven
They spoke, of course, of the second wave that has now come to pass, and the closure of restaurants, cafes, shops and museums. But also calcio e cibo… football and food.
And whatever it is that a gathering of young Bergamaschi always chat about in loud decibels outside your hotel bedroom window at midnight.
My visit gave me a glimpse into the everyday life of the Bergamaschi – not as victims, although there have been far too many of them, but survivors.
A picture of our times
The testing centre
An exhibition of photographs in the piazza captured the past year.
A masked priest administered Mass; doctors and nurses cared for the sick and dying, and a father cradled his new-born son.
But the Bergamaschi, queuing at the open-air testing centre, knew that the worst had passed and what they were now having to endure is temporary.
They had been here before and prevailed – with a little help from God.
Bergamo is split into old and new towns, Citta Alta (high town) and Citta Bassa (low town).
The best way to reach the walled and cobbled Citta Alta is by funicular.
It takes you into the centre of things, Piazza Mercato delle Scarpe (market of the shoes), and to that staple of any old Italian town, an Irish pub, Tucans.
Take me to Church
Stories for the Masses
For the real beating heart of Bergamo, though, I went to Piazza del Duomo – which houses Bergamo Cathedral and the Basilica Papale di Santa Maria Maggiore.
Here, the Bergamaschi congregation of old could follow redemptive tales of the parting of the Red Sea, David and Goliath and Noah and the Deluge on wooden engravings.
Forza Atalanta
Deliverance was as much a part of Medieval life as it had been in Biblical times.
And when Our Lady finally spared the Bergamaschi any more suffering from the Plague in the 12th century they built this basilica to her.
Of course, all of this speaks to us in 2020 louder than ever.
Good neighbours
They’ll make a statue of me
Matteo, my Visit Bergamo guide, recalled the only sounds back in March when the city was in quarantine – the sirens of ambulances and the whirring of helicopters.
He told me of a citizen stuck in his house with his Covid-hit ageing father, unable to get help.
When he saw a report of a man who had died in the nearby town of Brescia, leaving behind a half-tank of unused oxygen.
He made his way to Brescia, found the house, asked and was given the tank, although, alas, he could not save his father.
Everything in the garden is getting rosier again
Every Bergamasque has a story of loss and suffering but for Matteo, the best response is a return to the life they know and love.
For Italians that means their famous five-course meals.
Food for thought
And there are lots more courses to come
The centrepiece of which at the Trattoria Sant’Ambroeus in Citta Alta is their special ravioli, casoncelli dei sant ambroeus.
Stuffed pasta with sausage, breadcrumbs, parsley, eggs and garlic and cheese…
All washed down with the best Valcalepio rosso Riserva doc Tenuta Castello di Grumello del Monte.
I sauntered to the city walls and La Marianna for their signature milky scoop of ice cream heaven, stracciatella.
Plenty polenta
And, of course, for Lombardy that was only lunch. Dinner in the roof garden of the plush Excelsior San Marco Hotel in Citta Bassa brought five more courses.
In future, those bustling crowds will return.
But that night, the restaurant was an encouraging two-thirds occupancy with social distancing in place.
And even a puppy at the next table enjoyed himself and heeded the rules.
Bergamo currently sits in the yellow zone, the lowest of the three tiers Italy has been applying since early November.
This means restaurants and bars open till 6pm, shops are open, ski resorts / pools / gym / museums closed, people can move freely. The other zones are red (strictest) and orange (medium).
Travel into Bergamo
involves providing the results of a negative Covid test taken within 72 hours of arrival.
Or you can get an airport test on arrival and quarantine for 48 hours while waiting for the results.
Any travellers will currently need to self-isolate on return..
I am particularly taken by the magical properties of the cocoa plant.
And by another called ‘roucou’ or achiote (Bixa orellana) which contains a dye which will turn your beard ginger (I bet Crusoe did the same).
Plus a plant that cures the flu.
In February, Tobagonians come out for carnival, the Caribbean’s oldest of its type, dating back to the slave trade era.
During which they go limin’ (pre-drinking), and chippin’ (a rhythmic sliding strut performed by revellers as they follow a band).
They practise for it all year round.
Every visitor to Tobago should make time to stop at Sunday School in Bucoo on the south of the island.
Not a true Sunday school, but a vibrant street party featuring steelpan and soca (soul of calypso) music.
For which the whole of the island comes out to dance and drink rum punch into the wee small hours.
Soca star
Soca, the soundtrack to Tobago, comes in many guises – from old-school kaiso (west African-influenced)…
To power Soca (fast-paced) and the Christmas favourite Parang, heavily influenced by nearby Venezuela.
Waterholics, a local water activities company, brings tourists by boat to Princess Margaret’s honeymoon spot, Nylon Pool.
Which she once declared were as clear as her nylon stockings (€109pp ilovetobagott.com)
Nylon Pool has the added advantage of being a raised sandbank amid deeper water, so you can have a bit of fun.
Standing around in the sea fir afternoon drinks, and I guess this is exactly what the party-loving royal did.
Christmas party
Amid Tobago’s 30C temperatures don’t be surprised to find a Santa in a festive T-shirt on the beach, and a No Man’s Land…
A small, sandy island which my boat party drops anchor on for our own bespoke Christmas party.
I suspend disbelief and indulge in rum punch instead of a sherry and mahi-mahi (like swordfish) instead of turkey.
Perhaps Tobago’s biggest distraction comes in the form of racing goats, who during my visit are in training for the Buccoo Goat Race Festival that takes place each Easter.
The ways of a nanny or billy goat were well known to Crusoe, of course, whose efforts in raising the big kids were chronicled in his adventures.
In Crusoe’s absence, though, we are fortunate to have jockey Levi, who shows me the ropes, and how to handle my giddy goat Bandanaman.
Which has a loose-fitting cord around its neck.
The starter shouts: ‘Ready, Steady. Goat’, or at least I do, and we’re pff.
I’m a natural, letting Bandanaman lead me 100 metres up the grass track near the football pitch.
Which just happens to be the hallowed ground upon which former Manchester United striker Dwight Yorke first paraded his skills.
Today, though, it is Yorke’s former mentor Terry Williams holding the fort, flying kites with his young son Elijah.
Lie down and think of Tobago
It looks hard work in this heat, but after my exertions with the goats, I welcome the prospect of a cool down.
On an island where all beaches are public, you are spoilt for choice – from Lover’s Bay and Pirate’s Bay, to Crown Point’s Store Bay Beach.
Where the Trinis (Trinidadians) will pop over on a 20-minute flight, just for the afternoon.
It is on Pirate’s Bay beach that I meet a German party, who emerge, almost Crusoelike from the thickets, having walked the width of the island.
From Scarborough, its largest town.
A kindlier man might have given up their hammock but I have difficulty in getting out of mine.
My last day I spend as Crusoe might have done, in reverence to the Divine Creator – partaking of a full-throated spiritual singalong at the Bread of Life Ministries.
Which is a Pentecostal church near my hotel in Crown Point.
But while Crusoe’s most solemn wish would have been to be rescued, mine is that no big bird ever arrives to fly me off my fantasy island.
The brief
Getting there:
Fly from Dublin to London Gatwick and onwards to Tobago with British Airways (from €560 return www.ba.com) or Virgin Atlantic (from €586 return) www.virginatlantic.com.
Getting around:
Drivers and guides can easily be arranged at hotels to get you around Tobago. Car rental starts at about €50 per day.
Where to eat:
Mount Irvine Bay Resort has its own seaside golf course while for those whose favourite hole is the 19th, the resort serves the best rum punches on the island (doubles from €84 www.mtirvine.com.
Castara Retreats is a hidden gem with its hammocks on the balcony, buzzing village feel and bonfire parties on the beach (doubles from €777) www.castararetreats.com.
Kariwak Holistic Haven is near the airport, the bars, restaurants and casino of the ‘strip’ (doubles from €263. www.kariwak.com.
Where to dine:
The Blue Crab is Robinson, Scarborough, once featured on television chef Ainslie Harriott’s show, Caribbean Kitchen. Try the chicken curry www.tobagobluecrab.com.
Jemma’s Tree House on Fourmi Road, Hermitage, where you’ll share your table space with hummingbirds but that’s what comes when you dine in a treehouse.
Order the swordfish – so good they named it twice.
Glasgow Bar with owner Karl in Tobago
Moe’s and Jimbo’s
Do you want water with that? Laphroaig
Food for thought: A tajine
I’ll take all four
