Ireland Archives - Page 18 of 47 - Jim Murty’s TravelTravelTravel

St Padder’s Day on the Shannon

12th March 202212th March 2022 funtime65

Covid robbed us of the snaking parade of a real St Paddy’s Day but a St Padder’s Day on the Shannon can be just as authentic.

The streets of our cities will crackle again with green felt-hatted and robed and ginger-bearded St Paddy’s Day on March 17

When, in truth, St Paddy did his work on the banks of Ireland’s longest river, the Shannon.

Legend says St Patrick drove the snakes (adders, get it and all) out of Ireland.

Although the Irish like to say they just moved to their parliament, the Dáil.

The last serpent was finally cast out along the waters of the Shannon.

When St Paddy was stopped on the river by a large snake which had twisted its way up from the sea.

Serpent time

St Paddy though caught the serpent and chained it to where the River Shannon meets at three points.

All of which you can imagine from your Le Boat self-drive river boat cruises.

The Shannon boasts 160kms of waterways leading visitors through historic towns steeped in Celtic heritage.

It’s marked by the ruins of castles and monasteries in the surrounding area.

Get off your boat and take in the green landscapes even more on a cycle ride along the country trails (and pubs).

Le Budget Boat

Le Boat is offering a 15% discount on all boats, valid on all departures in 2022 (not including 3-8 June).

For a minimum 7 nights, with the offer ending 31 March.

Try a seven-night self-catered cruise, starting and finishing at Le Boat’s base at Carrick-on-Shannon.

The Caprice Boat sleeping up to six people, arriving 28 March, is priced from £1246.15 per boat / £208 pp.

So that’s down from £1429 per boat, saving 15%).

Le Boat, who have 50 years of experience on the waterways of Europe and Canada, are giving away the prize of a dream break.

Runs from 17^th March to 3^rd April.

Life on the river

So if you find yourself stuck in a ten-deep line trying to get onto Grafton Street in Dublin with your pal who has chosen St Paddy’s Day for his flying visit…

Then you might like to know there’s a relaxing alternative.

St Padder’s Day on the Shannon.

Caribbean, Countries, Ireland

Caribbean break from Lenten Fast

3rd March 20223rd March 2022 funtime65

His is the day when you can indulge during 40 days’ self-sacrifice and this year we’ve a St Paddy’s Day Caribbean break from Lenten Fast.

Because the West Indies island that’s even more Irish than Ireland is greening up again.

Which makes you think that Montserrat, Ireland in the sun, gets out padded green costumes, oversized hats and ginger beards.

When it’s more likely to be emerald summer dresses and tropical boardies.

Forty party years

Montserrat’s St Paddy’s Day Festival will celebrate 40 years in 2022.

And it promises to be even better this years for its hiatus through Covid.

Like all Caribbean festivals St Paddy’s Day lasts longer than 24 hours… in this case from March 12-19.

And there is something for everyone too… the Biennial National Honours & Awards and the Junior Calypso Show.

While Comedy in De Tent will make its debut.

The Irish links

Ireland and the Caribbean have long been interlinked with many Irish fleeing puritanical Oliver Cromwell in the 17th century.

Alas, as is the way of these things, a different strata of society also sought out a new world.

Where they could grow plantations and oversee the exploitation of African slaves.

Montserrat’s special relationship with Ireland dates from a significant moment of local empowerment.

When on St Patrick’s Day 1678 they rebelled against their Irish owners, expecting them to be carousing and drunk.

Only they had been tipped off by an Irish woman and the plantation owners were ready for them.

And hanged nine rebels and impaled the head of their leader Cudjoe.

Modern history

Odd you might think to mark a failed uprising but then very Irish too.

And so within the flag, the coat of arms features Erin playing the harp.

And visitors get an Irish shamrock stamp on their passports.

While many families on the island have Irish surnames from their former slave masters.

It’s a Caribbean thing to channel those slave day milestones into modern festivals, among the best of which is Barbados’s Crop Over.

Ireland and the Caribbean

It was there that I first heard, and became a fan of Soca (Soul of Calypso), a beat-based variant.

And we’re glad, but not surprised to see that it forms part of St Paddy’s Day in Montserrat.

The King of Kings Show features top performers from the Calypso and Soca Monarch competitions from the Carnival back in December.

Visitors planning to join in the festivities are encouraged to book their Antigua-Montserrat journey in advance.

WINAIR flights will be in operation alongside the regular scheduled air services provided by Fly Montserrat and SVG Air.

And don’t y’all deserve a Caribbean break from Lenten fast.

Countries, Food & Wine, Ireland

The perfect Guinness

25th February 202225th February 2022 funtime65

The perfect Guinness before you leave the country.

Everyone knows you can’t come to Ireland without sampling the Black Stuff.

And now Dublin Airport is setting it up so that any visitor who might have forgotten (difficult) can imbibe in Terminal 1.

Airport drinking

DA will make you feel as if you’re in the next best thing to the St James’s Gate brewery.

They have created a snug that offers visuals of the views they would experience if they were in The Liberties (Guinness’s neighbourhood).

Of course Guinness has a range of drink and foods to enjoy too but it’s the ‘plain’, the stout which you’ll go for, so Sláinte.

Now the old saying goes that the best Guinnesses are in Ireland although they cloud it (never done in a Guinness) in mystery.

Drinking rituals

Here’s Johnny: With Rain in Johnny Fox’s, Co. Dublin

Now I love drinking rituals as much as the next guy.

And I have learned to fix my eyes on the person I’m drinking with when I say Prost in a German bierhouse.

And not question the size of the frothy head on my Urquell Pilsner in the Czech Republic.

Now you don’t have to go to Dublin to learn how to pour the perfect pint although it helps if your cousins run the Liffeyside institution the Workshop.

The global drink

Mac and Black: With former Governor of Virginia Terry McAuliffe at the Guinness Storehouse, Dublin

Just walk into any Irish bar around the world, and there are thousands from atop mountains to astride glaciers.

Whether Sean from Athenry will let you tamper with his taps though is a different matter.

One hostelry though where they’ll be glad to help, and in fact insist on it, is at Rí Rá Las Vegas inside The Shoppes at Mandalay Bay.

Glass Vegas

There they’ll give you the only ‘official’ Perfect Pint Experience class outside of Dublin.

Now I don’t want to give it away but there are six steps.

Follow them and you’ll not only get the perfect pint to swallow but also a photo, the glass and discount on the merch.

You can also dine in a pretty realistic recreation of an Irish snug… Vegas style.

Whether you’re fortunate to be in Ireland, passing through or want to escape for a while in an Irish bar somewhere in the world.

Nothing will taste as Irish as the Perfect Guinness.

Countries, Ireland, UK

Random Quacked Of Kindness Day

17th February 202217th February 2022 funtime65

Where these things come from Heaven knows but where we’re going with this is a shout out to my old pal Julie Hastings who has reimagined it as a Random Quacked of Kindness Day.

And yes, you can have that one Julie.

Hastings Hotels supremo Julie and me share a very important interest…

We’re both quackers about rubber ducks.

And she was good enough both to host me at the group’s flagship Belfast hotels the Grand Central and the Europa.

But also to send me on some from her collection (I’ll come to the many names for a group of ducks in a minute, and it’s not that) after I’d suggested names for her latest novelty ducks.

The Duckess of Cornwall

Lor’, love a duck: Duck and Duchess of Cornwall

When Camilla was visiting… and I came up with the Duckess of Cornwall!

Now Julie rarely misses an opportunity to get her rubber ducks in a row.

And so has been gifting them at the company’s head Offices today at their offices at the side of Stormont Hotel.

It’s a great quacked of kindness in what has been deigned by someone somewhere Random Act of Kindness Day.

There have, of course, been too many to count across my Travels from our holiday providers, our dream makers.

Five friends

Hit the road Zach: My pal Zach from Mississippi

There has been the wonderful gesture from Zach at Visit Mississippi.

He only had a courier bring the mobile phone I had left in a hotel 100kms back, to Jackson, on the MLK50 odyssey in the Deep South.

The hotelier who sent up two bottles of wine and a fruit basket to my room on my Greek odyssey.

After I had bust in on an aged couple post-coitus in the Intercontinental Athenaeum in Athens after I had been given the wrong door pass at reception.

The whole town of Monaghan in Ireland who rearranged their weekends to accommodate us.

When we turned up a week early (I give The Scary One one job to do, one job to do!).

Monaghan mates: And Sherry got us a table

Bertha at reception in Switzerland (it’s a recurring theme) who waived my carelessness in leaving the shower running.

In my rush to join my group and catch the train in Interlaken.

All of which meant water dripped from the ceiling into the breakfast room.

And Julie, of course, who I have never admitted to but it is true.

That I was caught short and was sick on the carpet of her beloved Grand Central Hotel.

After one of her famous hospitable nights watching Van Morrison at the Europa and then following it up with a nightcap (or three) in the Crown Bar.

What’s a group of ducks then?

Now I doubt whether I’ll ever reach the numbers in Julie’s rubber duck fleet, flock, company, diving, paddle, skein or wabbling.

And note to self, enough wabbling.

And on behalf of all of us, well done again Julie for your generosity on Random Quacked of Kindness Day.

Alas, every day cannot be so if you want to get your hands on one of the famous Hastings Ducks then you will have to book a room.

The duck will be free but the rest will be on the bill.

America, Ireland, UK

Travel’s Snakes and Ladders

15th February 202214th February 2022 funtime65

Daddy’s Little Girl almost always knows the right thing to say to cheer her Old Man up and she did not disappoint when I went slithering down the board in Travel’s game of Snakes and Ladders.

Returning to my North Berwick home early yesterday morning having only managed to get halfway to Edinburgh Airport,

Before the car died on me I felt like I was in Hotel California.

Only without the California, although I’d often thought that it might not be the worst thing to be trapped in the Golden State. I digress.

St Paddy’s Day

DLG shot me one of her unique smiles,

And she said that I should join her when she goes over to our old Ireland stomping ground for St Patrick’s Day.

Of course, I wouldn’t dream of cramping her style.

Should that not be a green carpet: The g Hotel

But her generosity and the two doggies she borrowed to walk the beach lifted me from my doldrums, albeit temporarily.

St Paddy is often accompanied on the parades throughout Ireland and the world by carnival snakes.

As he famously rid Hibernia of the serpents.

Those scary Indians

Indian snake trick: Behind our snakes and ladders derivative

Travel these past two Covid years has seemed a bit like the ancient game of Snakes and Ladders.

And like the Indian original Moksha Patam rather than the British derivative the game it is deffo stacked against us humans.

With more snakes than ladders.

That news to you?

Thankfully the game was diluted from its base when Victorians took it back from the Indian Raj in 1892.

It had been based on the idea that a person can attain salvation Moksha.

Through doing good, whereas by doing evil one will be reborn as lower forms of life.

How we changed the game

Snake all right: With ‘The Donald’ in New York

Not that the Victorians ditched the morality, they were all about that.

But there was no suggestion that little Herbert or Hannah would be turned into snakes.

Our cousins across the Atlantic sanitised it even further turning the snakes into chutes and the board into a playground.

All of which childish nonsense is indulged in other forms on Paddy’s Day.

And despite the Americans’ showpiece events.

In the likes of New York, Boston and Chicago, the latter where they turn their river green, the best Paddy’s Days are in the homeland.

Give me a g in Galway

Among the offers that have landed in my inbox (always more reliable than a gearbox) was from Galway in the West of Ireland.

And not just because I feel a kindred connection from summer holidays there as a child.

And because Galwegians are much like Glaswegians and not just in the naming conventions.

Towering status: And Macnas put a stamp on it

Also because down, down, down the brief g Hotel & Spa says it will provide a courtesy car and comp parkin.

If you like your entertainment ghoulish and dramatic then you’ll lap up the Macnas parade.

While of course you’ll be tapping your feet too to the trad music.

Deal us in

The Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day 2022 Package at the g Hotel & Spa is available from the 13^th to the 20^th of March for two nights from €229 per person sharing.

Evening dinner on one night of your choice and freshly cooked breakfast included both days.

Booking is advised for the discounted use of the Thermal Suite.

Perhaps I’ll still win the game of Travel’s Snakes and Ladders.

America, Countries, Europe, Ireland

It’s EaZzzzzy with Holidos and Don’ts

13th February 202213th February 2022 funtime65

A redeye and no Aircoach… fear not it’s EaZzzzzy with Holidos and Don’ts.

Your globetrotting Bandanaman is hotfooting it over to his spiritual homeland of Ireland tomorrow morning.

But such are the vagaries of North Berwick, 15 miles east of Edinburgh, that there is no aircoach from outside my door.

As there was 24-7 in Greystones, Co. Wicklow.

And so I have the options of a £75 taxi from Castle Murty, asking The Scary One to give me an early morning lift.

Or grabbing the last train (hopefully it’s on as the slightest puddle causes cancellations).

And bunking for the night at the airport… I’ve ruled out the £100 hotel rates.

So the Holidos and Donts.

A site for sore eyes

It helps if you’re in any of the airports flagged up by the excellent Sleeping in Airports site.

And you’ll notice that most of their followers’ recommendations are in stopover airports in Asia.

But there are some old faves too in Europe and America.

Best for a layover

On the right track: Turkish Airlines Business Class

In Istanbul’s award-winning Turkish Airlines Business Class lounge sure but also in their rest rooms with privacy walls while they also have shower rooms.

But also in Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam where they have designated rest zones and plenty of amenities including a casino, fitness facilities, a library and a museum.

Denver too gets a shout-out probably because I spent longer there than anywhere… eight hours after being dropped off after my Wild West odyssey in Colorado.

And you’ll become an expert in putting with their 18-hole green on the balcony… and an arts aficionado with their excellent gallery.

Check it out: Munich check-in at Oktoberfest

Oh, and as for the rest the massages come highly recommended.

Munich Airport falls into the same category, and what it lacks for in ease for getting from one gate to the next when you misread your ticket it makes up for with helpful staff.

Arriving there just before the Oktoberfest you’ll find the staff dressed in Bavarian lederhosens.

And if you’re lucky then you’ll get the same Bertha who changed my ticket for a later one when I’d missed my original forwarding flight to Athens.

Dublin’s lair city

Now that I’ve had my accommodation taken care of by my friends in Ireland who are running the international travel network I won’t have to worry about kipping in Dublin Airport.

But there’s a sleeping pod with my name on it which I’ve bagsied in the past and no doubt will again.

And just to make sure your layover goes well a few tips.

*Lock your bags when you’re asleep and keep them wrapped around your shoulders.

*Put the alarm clock on your mobile to make sure you don’t miss the flight.

*And make sure you’re next to a plug socket just in case your mobile which has your boarding pass and Covid details and locator form on it is charged up.

See it’s EaZzzzzy with Holidos and Don’ts.

America, Countries, Europe, Ireland, Sport, UK

Touchdown LA

12th February 202212th February 2022 funtime65

The eyes of the world will be on the Super Bowl tomorrow so let’s play a little game of stadium spotting… and Touchdown LA.

The magnificent SoFi Stadium is led-lighted up like a Christmas Tree so the world can see it from the air.

And while we, of course, always look out of our windows for iconic landmarks, us sporty types also target sports stadiums.

LA is my Playday

Los Angeles: Now the first thing that we look out for when we fly into the City of Angels is the Hollywood sign.

Alas it is not so easily spotted up there in the hills meaning SoFi monopolises your view.

You can, of course, rectify that with a 8.8km walking trip up to the Griffith Observatory.

As long as you didn’t sit yourself down next to a passenger who was sick into her bag, gave it to you and passed on a 24-hour bug.

London calling

London: With 22 football grounds in the English capital you’d think you’d have a choice of viewing from the air.

You can see a good bunch of them, Wembley, the Emirates, the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Stamford Bridge and the Thameside Craven Cottage.

More surprising is the ground outside of the capital in Watford.

And its red and yellow seats… very Harry Potter which is pertinent seeing you can visit Harry’s world there.

As the Hertfordshire town houses the Warner Bros. Studio London.

The other is in LA… and yes, I missed that too because of that passenger’s virus although I will be back, and obvs with Attraction Tickets Direct.

In Dublin’s air city

Dublin: And, of course, Irish sports fans will be converged in Paris today for le rugby et Les Bleus v Les Vertes.

For those of us who visit the Irish capital, or were lucky enough to live there for 13 years you’ll see their marvellous Aviva Stadium.

Which I will again tomorrow… and my heart is leaping.

The Cruyff turn Amsterdam

Bird’s eye view: How Cruyff changed football

Amsterdam: And this is really what they should call the pilot’s move as he flies into Schiphol Airport in Clog City.

The Ajax stadium is named after the Netherlands greatest-ever player after which this move was named.

The late Cruyff was iconic in his white and single red stripe Ajax top and Oranje national shirts.

And if you can board a bouncing train with the Oranje Army down to Rotterdam where Cruyff played latterly then all the better.

The Camp Flew

Barcelona: Cruyff is as big a hero in Barcelona as Amsterdam.

After reviving them as a player with his total football.

And as the architect of Barca’s Tiki-Taka football, taken to new heights in the Catalans Messi-inspired teams of the Noughties and Tweens.

I first saw Barcelona from the cabin of a cruise ship (as you do).

So I saw the city from the air in a helicopter.

I expressed my wonderment to the pilot about the stadium below.

Only for him to tell me that that was the Reserve Team’s ground and that the Camp Nou was coming up.

So if you’re flying into the City of Angels for the Super Bowl.

Or plan to visit in the future look out for the SoFi stadium… because it’s Touchdown LA.

Africa, America, Caribbean, Countries, Europe, Ireland

Give Bono his own airport

7th February 20226th February 2022 funtime65

With all the talk of honouring James Joyce in his native city I’d suggest he defer to another Dub wordsmith… give Bono his own airport.

Now Paul Hewson (his Sunday name) may not have the classical allusions JJ has but he is inarguably the greatest Irishman.

And rather than name the city airport after the author of Ulysses, published 100 years ago, that tribute should go to the U2 man.

Now full disclosure here I’m not a fan boy.

It’s only that airports, just like statues, shouldn’t be the preserve of dead people.

Not that I’ve got anything against the legends.

Leonardo Da Vinci (Rome), Charles De Gaulle (Paris) or JFK (New York) the latter where I piloted a plane into, albeit a simulator.

It’s just that the recipients don’t ever get to see their names in lights or a podium.

And Billy Connolly too

And I would say the same about Billy Connolly and Glasgow and Sean Connery and Edinburgh.

So in just about the same time as it takes to Ryanair to pitch their on-flight offers.

I come around to a celebration of those living people who have had airports named after them.

Cristiano airport

Cristiano Ronaldo Airport, Madeira: No danger of Ronnie being coy about seeing his name attached to his own island.

There is already a statue of the Great Man outside although you might not recognise him if you didn’t know already.

Clintons runway

Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport, Little Rock, Arkansas: And ever since he burst onto the political scene Clinton has been flying by the seat of his pants.

And Bill has been sure to give Hill equal billing ever since.

Dutch of class

Orange is the only colour: For Queen Beatrix

Queen Beatrix Airport, Aruba: Now the Dutch connections with their little corner of the Caribbean.

And you see it too in Sint Maarten and the airport that has taken Prncess Juliana’s name through her life and continues to do so.

Lech’s go round again

Lech Walesa, Gdansk, Poland: We first made acquaintance with the moustachioed shop steward in the docks in the Eighties.

Now the union man who took on the Commies and went onto become Pres has his own airport. General Waruzelski anyone?

Bob’s the job

Robert Mugabe, Harare, Zimbabwe: And you’d think that after The Great Dictator died then they’d have changed the name.

But as I found out from a Zim tracker on a game drive in the Eastern Cape in South Africa elders are respected… mmmm!

So yes, it would be the sweetest thing but deserved.

Think again

If the politicians pushing for Dublin Airport to be renamed James Joyce Dublin Airport thought again.

And renamed it to give Bono his own airport

Canada, Countries, Europe, Ireland, UK

The Queen’s platinum destinations

6th February 20225th February 2022 funtime65

When you’ve already visited 120 countries (there are 195) then it’s difficult to choose your best… but here to mark her 70th anniversary of her coronation today, are the Queen’s platinum destinations.

But some stats before we go travelling…

Her Maj has sailed over one million miles on the Royal Yacht Britannia.

Now docked along the road from Murty Palace in Leith.

And she has travelled the equivalent of 42 times around the globe (and to think My Queen has only been round once!)

All of this too without the need for a passport.

African queen

Princess Elizabeth was on her travels, naturally, when she succeeded her Dad, King George VI in 1952, in Kenya.

The 70 years actually starts from this year as that was when she was crowned.

The story goes that she was up a tree at the time with her husband, Prince Philip.

Although this was no shinnying up the bark, or a kiddies’ treehouse.

It was the three-room hotel, Treetops, built into the top of a large tree.

And only closed last October because of Covid.

And in one of the other rooms, hunter Jim Corbett stayed awake to make sure no wildlife got near.

Queen of Scots

No such problems in Aberdeenshire in the north-east of Scotland.

It is said to be the Queen’s favourite place in the whole wide world.

It was in the Balmoral Estate (a favourite too of Queen Victoria’s) that she took refuge from the storm after Princess Diana’s death in 1997.

Of course the 54 countries of the Commonwealth have taken up most of the Queen’s time.

Canadian HRH

Loyal subjects: Canadians love the Queen

And Canada most of all where she has visited 27 times.

A favourite too of her parents.

There were in fact contingency plans in place for the Royal Family to take refuge there from the Nazis in Britain’s darkest hour.

It’s hard to imagine, of course, now but the most famous woman on the planet was once a navy officer’s wife.

Albeit that officer being a prince, Philip.

Malta monarch

And she lived on base with Philip in Malta, the jewel of the Mediterranean.

Where she is said to have loved the easier pace of life than back home.

Among other aspects of her life which are less known is that the Queen is a Francophile, a fluent Gallic speaker, and that she also likes German.

No Teuton gags here or it will be oaf with der head!

Friend of Ireland

Her Maj has naturally been a regular visitor to Northern Ireland.

But it was only in 2011 that she set foot in the south of the island.

Where she was an instant hit, not least when she blethered with a stall holder in the English Market in Cork.

The Royal Bucket List

That leaves just 75 countries for Queenie to visit too (and she won’t let her 95 years put her off).

Among them Greece, where Philip had some unresolved issues, Madagascar, Cuba, Israel and Peru.

And that leaves the rest of us in the ha’penny place (her head was on that too) when it comes to the Queen’s platinum destinations.

And as the gratitudes are handed out over the course of the year, what most people will be glad of, is the four bank holidays Britons are getting this year.

Countries, Ireland, UK

The Guernsey Coup

5th February 20225th February 2022 funtime65

It may not have had the dynamism of the French Resistance but the WWII Guernsey Coup was built on a Potato Peel Society.

It’s the Channel Islands so don’t expect TV’s Secret Army or its parody ‘Allo ‘Allo here, but we wouldn’t want it any other way.

The Guernsey Coup you ask?

The Guernsey Coo

Coo’s the biggest? The Guernsey and the Jersey

And this is not be confused with the Guernsey Coo (or cow), a larger version of neighbouring Jersey’s.

The Guernsey Coup was the secret Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society, the cover story to break the occupying Nazi curfew.

You might have seen the 2008 film probably drawn in by the title.

Only bettered on that score by Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistlestop Cafe.

The Guernsey Occupation

You can fill in the rest of the German Occupation Story at the island’s museum.

And you can of course enjoy it all, all of you Irish that is (the Brits and French have it already), now a route has opened up from Dublin.

The Guernsey Route

Guernsey airline Aurigny will fly you on their direct twice weekly direct service on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons.

The airline will begin flying on 29 March and with a journey time of just over 1 hour 35 minutes.

The Guernsey Trek

Guernsey is a walker’s delight and at only 65sqkm you can cover the lot.

Not even the parameters of an island will guarantee that this off-piste trekker wouldn’t get lost.

As I found out on my Camino to Santiago in Spain and Francigena to Rome.

So I’m happy to report that VisitGuernsey have launched a walking app to help you.

With themed, self-guided walking routes and interactive maps.

The Guernsey App

Available for download on Android and IOS devices, it has ten routes initially with more to follow.

Guernsey, though being small, boasts a contrast of topography, from rugged south coast cliff paths to long sweeping bays in the west.

And you’ll be able to explore the neighbouring car-free islands of Herm and Sark and saunter on horse and cart.

So take a walk or horse and cart back into history and bring your peeler…

And well done again to Aurigny… the Irish will love it. It truly is A Guernsey Coup.