Sport Archives - Jim Murty’s TravelTravelTravel

Africa, Countries, Europe, Sport

Bring on the 2030 World Cup and Spain, Portugal and Morocco

19th July 202619th July 2026 funtime65

And by the time you read this it will be all over so bring on the 2030 World Cup and Spain, Portugal and Morocco.

Which we would suggest, Mexico excepting, is ‘football coming home’ to the Old World.

And closer, and less expensive, for those of us who live in the tip of an island in the North of Europe.

A Nou experience

Barca legends: Messi is still everywhere

Now Spain, Portugal and Morocco are loco about their football as we have discovered first hand.

When we helicoptered over Barcelona (is there any other way?) and gasped at the sight of the Nou Camp.

Only to be told by the pilot that that was the reserve side’s ground.

While Jose, our Special One guide, in Portugal explained.

That under the dictator Salazar he ran the country by the Three Fs… Football, Fado and Fatima.

Portugal’s secular God

All of which became clearer in that Marian site when meeting the niece of one of the Little Shepherds (as you do) in the porch of her house.

And seeing that among the stands of holy relics and statues of Our Lady what stood out was…

A beach towel of Portugal’s secular God, one Cristiano Ronaldo.

Now we’ve flagged up already this year how the AFCON tournament held in Morocco was pitched.

At the kind of prices that would buy you a hot dog and a beer at the WC.

Although once Gianni Infantino gets his claws into that we expect tagines and mint teas to surge in price.

Shirt hits fan in Morocco

While you’ll have to have your wits about you when it comes to bartering.

Again which we found out to our cost when buying the oblig national football team’s shirt in Jemaa el-Fnaa in Marrakech.

Now if you’re reading this in South America, you’ve got the consolation of having single games in Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay.

A nod to the centenary of the first competition held in Fray Bentos land back in 1930.

All that’s left now is to pull down the 48 flag bunting from the garden fence.

Who knows who’ll be on it in four years’ time but we do know should Scotland get there then they’ll do it the hard way.

Africa, Sport

Oh, oh, oh, oh Mandela Day

18th July 202618th July 2026 funtime65

And yes it will sound better in his native Xhosa tongue but for the day that’s in it and in the words of my fellow Glaswegian… oh, oh, oh, oh Mandela Day.

The Great Man, and the world hasn’t really had anyone like him since, was born on this day 108 years ago.

And since 2009 has been celebrated, by dint of the UN, as Nelson Mandela International Day.

While in his native South Africa, the Father of the Nation, is celebrated for the whole of the month.

Although, in truth, he is honoured every day of the year.

The name of the game reserve

C’mon the Rangers: With Iain and Hewart in Mount Camdeboo

By all, and certainly by Iain Buchanan, conservationist and founder of Mount Camdeboo Lodge.

In the Great Karoo in the Eastern Cape in South Africa.

Who, after confirming his Scottish roots, led a toast to The Great Man over high tea on the reserve.

Now we wouldn’t be surprised to have seen Iain at the rugby today.

Flying the flags: For South Africa and Scotland

A 12-hour drive is nothing to this rugby nut or in fact any Springboks fan.

Enjoying a braai outside the ground.

Which, of course, is another South African staple, whether in a lodge on a game reserve.

Or in a Gqeberha (or Port Elizabeth when we visited) township.

Because Madeeba turned the perception of the Boks when he donned a rugby shirt at the World Cup final in 1995.

Mandela pray

Of course, taking in a Boks match should be on most people’s sports bucket lists.

As much for sampling the culture of the country (and the braai) as watching the rugby, and Siya Kolisi and his world champion side.

Because you know what I always say, when you go away from home, take in where people play and people pray.

So here on Nelson Mandela International Day, we give up a prayer to Nelson Mandela.

And the poor sides, on this occasion today Wales.

Braai old time: Springbok fan in the township

But it was Scotland and England’s fate before that, who have to play his beloved Springboks.

Now to stay at the Mount Camdeboo Lodge for a week for two in a pod will set you back R 67,088, down from R 83,860.

Which in our British Earth Money is £3,000.

And check out the major airlines because fares will have changed since we last went out.

Caribbean, Countries, Sport

Gary Sobers, a Bajan legend cast in stone

17th July 202617th July 2026 funtime65

When you’re young you don’t mind approaching sporting legends but that gets lost over the years, all of which springs to mind reflecting on the life of Gary Sobers, a Bajan legend cast in stone.

Alas, the old autograph book of the players from that cricket match in Glasgow, including the great Sir Gary’s scribble, is also a thing of the past.

Windies blow in: With Jevan at the cricket

While in the haze of rum from a day out at the cricket at the Kensington Oval in Bridgetown I lost the courage to approach the great man, sat in the crowd.

Or ask him his recollections of Old Anniesland or the boy who had crept through the bushes to see him.

In with the bricks

Sobers, for those of us who were lucky to see him back in the day was the OG all-rounder.

And the first to hit six sixes in a six-ball over.

You can imagine just how.

Standing by his statue outside the Bridgetown ground flashing his bat in the air.

Now passing over my own limited cricket career, best score 2, playing with the Sri Lankan staff in the Maldives.

I feel that over the years I have got in with the bricks with West Indian cricket and cricketers and Barbados.

And here in fact is the evidence on the Builders of Barbados Wall of families who have contributed to the island’s history.

The shoulders of giants

And hanging out with fellow Bajan greats Joel ‘Big Bird’ Garner and Collis King.

Although I’ll never live down asking a demure small moustachioed fellow reveller at Foreday Morning during carnival if he played a bit of cricket.

Irie, if you call what Brian Lara did on a cricket pitch, playing a little.

It was, of course, fitting that it was Sir Garfield Sobers who made Brian Lara a special presentation in Antigua.

After he surpassed his world record 365.

There won’t be a cloud safe enough from Gary’s big sixes now.

RIP Sir Gary Sobers (1936-2026).

Countries, South America, Sport

Hutton and why Scots cheer Argentina against England

15th July 202615th July 2026 funtime65

And for the day that’s in it’s hats aff to Watson Hatton and why Scots cheer Argentina against England.

And you thought it was because of Diego Maradona and his Hand of God.

When it was Scottish teacher Hutton, the Father of Argentinian Football, all along.

For it was Gorbals boy Watson who popularised the game in Buenos Aires along with his fellow Caledonian emigres.

Watson, a keen sportsman (obvs) introduced kickball at the St Andrews Scotch School in the nation’s capital in 1882.

And the Glaswegian was behind the formation of the Argentine Association Football League in 1893.

And two years later the Buenos Aires English High School and a former pupil’s team in 1898 which became known as the Alumni Athletic.

Argentinian Alumni

Now historians of Argentinian football will know all about Alumni, the leading lights in that country’s game in the first two decades of the 20th century.

Watson was himself standing on the shoulders of another giant, an Alec Lamont, a head teacher from St Andrews, who two years prior to Watson’s league set up the Argentine Association Football League.

The earliest known league outside of Britain which St Andrews won after a play-off with Old Caledonians.

Our cup of Lipton tea

Now World Cup anoraks will be quick to tell you that the first final was between Argentina and Uruguay.

But it was an established rivalry by 1930, again because of Scots.

Glasgow tea magnate Thomas Lipton donated the Copa Lipton trophy in 1905 for competition between both nations which ran until 1992.

Watson’s son Arnold starred for Alumni and scored in Argentina’s 2-0 Copa Lipton win over Uruguay in 1906.

And that Scottish thread has been running through Argentinian teams ever since.

James Brown’s Boys

With a James Brown, one of the original Scottish settlers to Argentina in 1824 delivering manifold to the Argentinian cause.

Seven brothers and a cousin, all grandchildren of James Brown, would play for Argentinean clubs and six would also play for the Argentinian national team.

Jorge Gibson Brown captained Argentina from 1908 to 1913 and if you recognise that name in a previous Argentina team then ten out of ten.

Jose Luis Brown scored one of the goals as Argentina won the World Cup in 1986.

Vamos Argentina

While World Cup winner and key member of today’s Argentina team Alexis Mac Allister, is clearly one of Jock Tamson’s Bairns.

All of which you can regale your Argentinian friends with when you visit the country’s iconic grounds.

And the museums Museo River Plate, Boca Juniors’ interactive Museo de la Pasion Boquense and the intimate Diego Maradona Shrine at Argentinos Juniors Museo.

While, of course, you can pay pilgrimage to the Father of Argentinian Football himself, Watson Hutton.

At the British Cemetery (Cementerio Britanico) on Avenida Elcano in the Chacarita neighbourhood of the capital, accessible via the Federico Lacroze subway station.

America, Countries, Europe, Flying, Sport

A tale of Lief, Erling and Transatlantic Norse power

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The Americans have never seen anything like it before, only they have… it’s a tale of Leif, Erling and Transatlantic Norse power.

Because, in truth, Leif Eriksson and the Vikings were the first settlers of North America.

Nearly 500 years before Christopher Columbus.

When the longboats made terra firma at L’Anse aux Meadowes in Newfoundland.

And made their way over the years, four million of them, to the Upper Midwest and the Pacific Northwest.

Mostly to Minnesota, the Dakotas, Wisconsin, Washington State and California.

The Norse Home Country

Well, they’ve been joined, as we’ve all seen in the last month, by crewmen and women from the Old Country.

With the Norwegians giving the Scots a run for their money as the party people of this World Cup.

With their Viking-rooing, or Viking rowing crowd surge.

Even taking over escalators in Boston.

And those very same Scots taking to Norway as their adopted team.

Well, the nearest train station for Shetlanders is Bergen.

Row, row, row your boat

And while none got wet in its production apart from spilled lager.

Modern Norsemen did put their backs into it to row all the way across the Atlantic.

With 338 Norwegian supporters crossing the Atlantic on Norse Atlantic Airways’ longship to New York.

Of course, most of us don’t have that amount of time (and that’s our excuse) so we avail instead of their flights.

The stuff of legend

Norse have been putting on extra seats for Miami for their quarter-final match with England.

And we dare say that Norse flights will be in high demand for the final on Sunday, July 19 in New Jersey.

But here they are, should you be free for next Sunday, from £1,082 return Saturday to Monday.

America, Central America, Countries, Sport

A healthy attitude to altitude

5th July 20265th July 2026 funtime65

And ahead of a certain football game in Mexicoo City here’s how to build a healthy attitude to altitude.

Courtesy of our friends from Denver, the Mile High City.

Where the first piece of advice we were given was around booze.

And that visitors need drink only half as much to get twice as drunk.

And twice as much water as you would at home.

Not easy when you’re at an international travel fair and are being wined and dined around town.

Even when you’re breakfasting at the institution that is The Milk Market.

Food for thought

Breakfast of champions: And that’s OJ, honestly

It turns out too that I should have been side swerving all those lovely sugary treats the Americans do so well.

And rather seeking out the broccoli, bananas, avocado, cantaloupe, celery, greens, bran, chocolate, granola, dates, dried fruit, potatoes and tomatoes.

Which all help you replenish electrolytes by balancing salt intake.

Dressed to chill

Got it covered: Keep cool and your head protected

Now we expect that the England football fans are all dressed in their best retro tops and ready to go.

But maybe those lion and crusader costumes might chafe a bit in the heat and thin air.

Better too having extra protection against the sun which is naturally closer higher up.

A different hat: But maybe not in the heat

Because there’s 25% less protection from the sun up in the air.

So sunscreen is a must.

With Denver receiving more than 300 days of sunshine each year (more than Miami).

So bring sunglasses, sunscreen and lip balm.

Take it easy

The welfare of the people who take the pitch, of course, will dictate the mood.

Of the fans who have followed them out and up to Mexico City.

Our altitude advisers tell us that the effects of exercise are more intense at altitude.

Bandanaman: And the Bandanettes at Coors Field

So if you normally run ten miles a day at home.

Then you’re best to try six miles at altitude until you build up the red blood cells.

The Mile and a Half City

Which, of course, England manager has been reminding us he hasn’t had the luxury to do with his players.

Getting his excuses in early.

He might want to try this one too should his attackers balloon the ball over or if the Mexicans hit their target.

And bear in mind too all of you at the footie or plans to take in magical Mexico City.

The Mile and a Half City.

Which we found a sample deal with £1,032 round trip from Edinburgh with KLM, through Amsterdam and back through Paris with Air France.

Countries, Europe, Sport, UK

When the famous Tartan Army met the Teuton Army

2nd July 2026 funtime65

When the famous Tartan Army met the Teuton Army in the Euros in Germany two years ago it changed everything.

With bonds between the 200,000 Scots and their German hosts forged and rekindled.

And promises made to meet up again in two years time in America at the World Cup.

Alas, our paths weren’t to cross in the US with Scotland and Germany being drawn apart and both being knocked out early.

But did last night at a Scottish-German get-together in Edinburgh last night.

Where we raised a Prost and a Sláinte with Harald, Charlotte and unsere alten Freunde.

And parked any Schadenfreude for England’s travails until they squeezed by DR Congo.

Back at kindergarten

Not, in truth, that the Germans have ever bought into the grudge that England feels for them.

With, in fact, it being the Dutch with whom the Germans share a rivalry.

Now while football was to the fore, and the World Cup is poorer for Scotland and Germany being out.

We were in town to celebrate the links between our countries and learn, of course, new things.

Because, after all every day is a kindergarten day.

And didn’t we discover our hosts for the night. Anderson Strathern LLP, boasted a Nuremberg chest heirloom dating back to 1701?

My German footballing odyssey

My own German footballing odyssey involved Nuremberg .

When I took in my first game in Deutschland, a Bavarian derby with Bayern Munchen during my first Oktoberfest.

And not even getting a smack in the nose back outside the Hofbrauhuis.

For trying to split up two footballing frauleins, from one of their boyfriends I’m saying, has put me off my love of football.

Which was cemented on a memorable tour around the Ruhr, the spiritual home of German football, while also visiting the German football museum.

Where they bask in the glory of four World Cups and three European Championships (count them).

Flower of Scotland in Germany

World in our hands: At the German Football Museum

So everything is still rosy in the German garden and also in the Ruhr region which will bring a different tourist over next year for their very special gardening spectacle.

All of which has got me thinking, mibbeees I should present a trip to the Ruhr Valley as a horitcultural holiday to Der Scary One.

And I slide off to Essen, Dortmund and Gelsenkirchen.

Countries, South America, Sport, UK

How Scotland brought goals to Brazil

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And for the World Cup day that’s in it… how Scotland brought goals to Brazil.

And the story of a true pioneer of the Beautiful Game, who you would probably have never heard of here in Scotland.

Unless, of course, you live in the village of Busby, south of Glasgow, where there is a small bust to the great man.

Sprouting Thomas

We are, of course, name checking dye maker Thomas Donohoe here.

For it was he who organised the first informal football match in Brazil near Rio in 1894.

And is as is so often the way is celebrated more here than in his own homeland.

With the five-time world champion Brazilians erecting a 5m statue of Thomas outside the Bangu Shopping Centre.

In the Bangu neighborhood, home to the textile mill where Donohoe worked.

Miller’s tale

Proper Charlie: Father of Brazilian football

Where Thomas led other Scots followed with Charles Miller, the son of a Scottish engineer and Brazilian mother credited.

As the Father of Brazilian Football.

Who established the Paulista League, the country’s first organised football competition.

Of course just introducing a ball, boots and posts to a country doesn’t guarantee that they can turn that into a fine art.

Our Beautiful Game

And this is where Archie McLean emerges next in the story of Brazilian football.

The Paisley mechanic arriving in São Paulo in 1912 and founding the Scottish Wanderers.

And introducing the Scottish short-passing style known in Brazil as A Tabelhinha (the rhythm).

Which in the passing, as it were, we gave to our English neighbours decades before.

And you’re welcome, even if you don’t give us the credit.

Brazilians had until then played a kick-and-rush style.

A nod here too to Ayr footballer Jock Hamilton who the Scottish Football Museum credit as the first professional football coach in Brazil.

And we gave them Pele, Ronaldo and Vini

A sliding doors moment which meant that Brazil would cultivate.

The Garrinchas, Peles, Zicos, Romarios, Ronaldos, Ronaldinhos, Neymars and Vini Jnrs.

Rather than, well, the workmanlike types who will try to shake up the world tonight when Scotland face Brazil in Miami.

Hoping to make history by progressing past the group stages of the World Cup finals at the eighth time of asking.

Where do you want your statue?

Of course, all of this adulation and worship of false idols will escalate to a whole new level.

Should Scotland do the unthinkable and get the right result to qualify for the last 32.

And Super John McGinn do the business off the back of his moon-sized backside.

When we will gladly tear down the statue of slave apologist James Dundas, atop the 150ft Melville Monument in Edinburgh.

And replace him with Bravearse.

America, Countries, Sport, UK

Jock Tamson’s bairns on tour in America

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And here’s a fun game for Jock Tamson’s bairns on tour in America… mark off all the Robert Burns statues in the States.

Scotland’s Tartan Army have been taking in the sights and sounds and bars of Boston.

And paying homage to Scotland’s Second Most Famous Scot.

Come down the road: Bandanaman and his Mum

Who they stumbled upon on their way to the iconic Fenway Park for the Red Sox’ Scottish Day.

And naturally put a traffic cone on his head.

On a podium

Not that they, or you, should be surprised.

As the Ploughman Poet pops up all round the world.

Bettered only as a dedicated non-religious icon only by Queen Victoria and Christopher Columbus.

Burns popularity derives, of course, from his poetry and his songs.

But also his rags to riches story, his everyman message and his rock’n’roll life.

And his legend and suppers which the Scots diaspora brought with them all around the world.

Miami nice

Bostonians will say a sad farewell to the Scots who are moving on to Miami for their final group game with Brazil.

Alas, the Miamians are yet to honour Rabbie although they could still.

Particularly with a certain half-Scots Commander in Chief living just up the road in Mar a Lago.

Now to my shame and I’ll no doubt have my Scottish citizenship reexamined on the back of this big reveal.

Of Yanks and Men

But I missed the Burns statue in my summer working in Beantown after university or return 35 years later.

While I was also too busy at the John Lennon Memorial in visits to New York to notice Burns’s place in Central Park.

Or the bronze figure in Garfield Park in Da Pope town, Chicago, commissioned and cast in Edinburgh in 1906.

And the bronze Burns in City Park, Denver, gifted by the city’s Scots Caledonian Club in 1904.

Burns Cottage industry

Drink up: With Tam and Johnnie in Alloway

Now Burns’s popularity is shared by all stripes of American, North, South, East and West.

And across the globe with Rabbie popping up in more than 60 guises.

And to see just where they all are a bronze plate of the world with mini-Rabbies then go back to where it all began.

In the little village of Alloway on the west coast of Scotland.

Caribbean, Countries, Europe, Sport

Wunderbear… here’s Germany and Curacao

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Only a World Cup could bring Old Europe and the Caribbean like this together but Wunderbear… here’s Germany and Curacao.

Courtesy of Derself, who was born on a British military base.

And circumnavigated the world when her family returned from a posting in Australia.

Bringing back mementoes, as we all do, which have taken on another life as the years have rolled on.

A word from the advertisers

So meet Yorkie, here modelling a Curacao t-shirt which once adorned Derself and Der Daughterie of Derself.

And Barney Bear who despite his very Bavarian lederhosen hails from the home of German beardom, Swabia.

Now whisper it around Barney who doesn’t have the iconic button in his ear which all Steiff bears have.

He’s actually bear ein Berliner but the German capital too has a bear tradition going back 600 years.

All of which he told me at one of those hydration breaks they have brought in during halfs to sell advertising.

New alliances

World in my hands: At the German Football Museum in Dortmund

Now such is the bonhomie of a World Cup that new alliances are forged regardless of the scoreline.

Such as German football fans and Curacao supporters.

Although, in truth, the 150,000 party people of Curaçao’s connection is with the Netherlands.

Of which they are a constituent island nation of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

While old alliances are renewed such as that between the Tartan Army and the samba-dancing Brazilians.

And yes, senor, we can boogie.

With the two sets of famously partying fans renewing acquaintances for a fifth time at World Cups in 50 years.

Another reason to see Amsterdam

Ride on: Can I be trusted on a bike? In Amsterdam

Now we obviously know our way around Germany but Curacao clearly takes more prep.

So if you’re not on a round-the-world boat journey, and you should, you deserve it.

Then it makes sense that you’ll fly out of Amsterdam with KLM.

Which we priced up at from £1,177pp from Edinburgh going through Tuliptown.