Countries, Ireland, UK

London’s Paddy’s Day

And it’s a racing cert that an English market town is awash with Guinness mid-March but what of down the road and a history of London‘s Paddy’s Day?

We’re all recovering from the last few days when half the population of Ireland got jinglier of pocket through four days at the Cheltenham Festival.

When their favourite, in this case Gallopin des Champs, comes romping home.

Norah’s story: Norah Casey in Trafalgar Square in 2002

Of course Paddy‘s Day has become something of a misnomer over the years.

What started out as a one-day break from Lenten sacrifices when us youngsters got to eat sweets has grown.

A weekend bender

The craic: The Irish rule in Cheltenham

And in these more heathen days it’s a bevvy-up that stretches out over a whole week.

Which is why Cheltenham designated March 16 as their Paddy’s Day which, of course, extended into the real day.

While March 18 at the start of Paddy’s Weekend, has become a recurring celebration of Irish rugby excellence.

Or whenever it lands.

When Ireland win the Grand Slam and in the best possible style with victory over the Old Enemy, England.

Of course, you don’t have to be sporty to indulge in Paddy’s Day revelry.

And Daddy’s Little Girl has been living it up in the Dublin of her youth (insert your own city in here).

Paddy’s Day, of course, has been celebrated around the world by ex-pats for hundreds of years.

The London Irish

Green for go: Ireland regularly win around St Paddy’s Day

But London’s St Paddy’s Day celebration is oddly and shamefully no long-held tradition.

And only within this Fiftysomething’s lifetime.

Its history too is tied up with an old travel companion and Irish businesswoman par excellence, Norah Casey.

For those of you lucky enough to still live in Ireland.

Norah is instantly recognisable from Dragon’s Den.

 
But she also more than made her mark in 22 years in Britain and at the helm of the Irish Post.
 
Not least in leaving her legacy with the first St Patrick’s Day Festival in London in Trafalgar Square in 2002 and which you can pencil in your diary for next year.

Livingston, we presume

 
Greening it up: Global Paddy’s Weekend celebrations
 
Which she organised with the-then Mayor of London Ken Livingston.
 
Norah informs us that it had been written into the bye laws of Trafalgar Square that no Irish gathering was to be held there.
 
Nor was an Irish flag permitted to fly in the square where Nelson looks down on us all.
 
Maybe the Admiral’s revenge for blown to smithereens on O’Connell Street, Dublin.
 
It had been written into the byelaws of Trafalgar Square that no Irish gathering was to be held there, nor was an Irish flag permitted to fly.
 
And so back in 2002 tens of thousands of Irish packed the square to hear The Dubliners and Mary Coughlan sing to the crowds.
 
As Norah so poignantly put it: “I don’t mind admitting that I cried.. but so did Ken and the whole team.
 
“Along with everyone else there, I felt so proud that finally we could celebrate being Irish in London.”
 
So if you’re in Trafalgar Square today as I was last week, and celebrating Ireland’s victory over England and their Grand Slam just remember.
 
What Norah and Ken and countless others did to ensure you enjoyed your London’s Paddy’s Day.
 
 

 

America, Countries, Sustainable Tourism, UK

London a national monument

Take the National Express when your life’s in a mess as Neil Hannon opined… ’appen he was en route to London a national monument.

Now there are many ways to get to London from around Britain.

And I have taken them all… planes, trains, automobiles.

But the most persuasive is by coach which is only around £28.80 on National Express for a 10hr 50mins trip.

Other coach companies pound the roads but ’appened Neil hadn’t opted for Stagecoach and FlixBus didn’t run back in 1999.

The train drain

Chug, chug, chug: The British trains

And you can cut out accommodation costs by kipping on the coach.

Those prices will, of course, as in the words of Neil, make you smile.

While the rest who have been deluded by the machinery of state into believing that ‘the train takes the strain’.

Yes, sure, if you want to lighten the load in your wallet.

Like clockwork

Tubeway Army: London Underground

One rider, of course, is the network for trains that go underground, the Tube, which works like clockwork.

And where you can swipe your bank card and so avoid queuing at ticket offices.

While their joined-up Oyster card, like the Leap card in Dublin and across a raft of cities makes a mockery of my own city, Edinburgh’s crumbing transport links.

It’s not the only area Scotland’s capital needs a good clean-up and a new facelift.

On a podium

Piece of history: With Stonewall Jackson in Virginia

Take our statues, those we put on a podium to look down on us.

Something of a hobbyhorse of your chronicler statues, as much as I’d love to see the royals and empire builders brought down to earth I’m realistic.

And know that just like the USA where a raft of Southern states surround themselves with Confederate heroes it’ll take time to change attitudes.

Redress the balance: With Fanny Lou Hamer

And while we do we should be redressing the balance by putting up more statues of our women, animals, cultural, sports, entertainment and international icons.

And maybe even objects of national endearment like the National Express coach.

Because be sure if it had been around in Dick Whittington’s Day he’d have hopped on it.

Out of Africa

Statue ahoy: Sailormen

It was rewarding too to see a celebration of post-colonial empowerment.

London In the statue of Malawian John Chilembwe which occupies the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square.

Where he towers over the colonial ruler and where he is now the only African and person of colour thus celebrated.

The fourth plinth should be something we all hold onto.

It is an idiosyncrasy in the square dominated by Admiral Horatio Nelson, victor of the Napoleonic naval battle, that there is another plinth up for grabs.

Three corners are occupied by the ruling elite, King George IV, Henry Havelock and Charles James Napier.

Havewho, Napiehow? Yes, quite. Havelock and Napier were bigwigs during the Indian Raj.

The fourth plinth

Jesus: And Mark Wallinger

The reason why we should embrace the fourth plinth, originally meant for King William IV, 180 years ago, is that it is now a rolling statue.

No, not like Edward Colston who was rolled into the river in Bristol.

But every couple of years an artist’s new statue goes up.

Mark Wallinger’s Ecco Homo of Christ in 1999 making way to a number of others including an Anthony Gormley erection (stop it)!

To just now and Samson Gambalu’s Antelope which will come down in a year.

To accommodate Teresa Margolles’ 850 Improntas, casts of the faces of 850 trans people from London and the world.

The fourth plinth truly does sound like the solution, the future… London a national monument.

And something I’ll be recommending to Edinburgh council.

To pull down the spaceship of Walter Scott and replace it with the city’s most famous citizen, Sean Connery.

 

America, Countries, Europe, UK

Chelsea flowers for Mum

And for the green-fingered matriarch in your life why not say it with Chelsea flowers for Mum?

Mothers have, in truth, never had it so good with the rest of us inundated with hard sells for our Mammies ahead of Mothering Sunday.

The Son and Heir will be honouring the first part of his Christmas gifts when he takes his oul’ Dad to the football in London this weekend.

While he will take his Mum around Hampton Court later in the summer.

So, only time will tell if he is ready to spoil her royally (as he should) by getting tickets for her for the Chelsea Flower Show.

Truth is that there’s more pressure on today’s younger generation to come up with the spectacular, but hey, mums deserve it.

And none more so than my Own Wee Mum… and she would be delighted to see that her fellow Irish peeps feel the same.

Dream makers and travel shakers Cassidy have come up with these specials to treat the matriarch in your life.

Hey bud

Hey flower: The Chelsea Flower Show

The Chelsea Flower Show!

Travel 25th May 2023

2 Night Package Includes:

Return Flights from Dublin to London

2 Night Stay in 4* Hotel (subject to availability)

1 Full Days Entry to Chelsea Flower Show

Price from only €495pp based on 2 people sharing!

Instead of bringing her flowers why not bring her to the flower show for amazing garden designs, gorgeous floral displays and exclusive shopping!

Made up in the Med

Ship shape: On the cruises

Mini Mediterranean Fly/Cruise!

Ideal Cruise for a Girls Trip

MSC Cruises – MSC Seaview (and we’ve road, or seatested, MSC)

Travel 2nd November 2023

5 Night Package

Itinerary: Sailing from Barcelona visiting Marseille, Genoa, Palma and Barcelona

Package Includes: 

Return Flights from Dublin

5 Nights Cruise in a Balcony Cabin

Full Board

Premium Drinks Package & Gratuities!

Price from only €989pp!

Empire State of Mum

American girl: My Mammy

Shopping in New York – 4 Share!

Travel 18th January 2024

4 Night Package for 4 People Sharing

3* The Belvedere Hotel

Direct Flights Included

Price from €689pp (based on 4 people sharing)

What better way to shop the January Sales than in NYC

And I’d even forgive my Dear Oul Mum for her shenanigans on our last trip there in the Big Apple.

Mumsterdam

žCan I be trusted on a bike? In Amsterdam

Amsterdam (one of our go-to’s)

Travel 20th March 2023

2 Night Package

3* Corendon City Hotel, Room Only Basis

Return Flights Included

Price from €249pp (based on 2 people sharing)

See Van Gogh’s Sunflowers, explore the parks in bloom, take a canal cruise with wine & cheese or visit the home of Heineken!

 

 

 

 

 

America, Countries, Europe, UK

The Dickens of theme parks on book day

And a leaf through literature with the Dickens of theme parks on book day and other novel attractions.

We have fond memories of Dickens World in Kent on England’s south coast.

Being a Dickens fan from early days it was, of course, a thrill to sit in Dotheboys Schoolhouse from Nicholas Nickelby.

And the upturned Peggotty’s Boathouse from David Copperfield.

Another era: Dickens’ London

But most spectacularly take the midnight boat ride along the Thames that Magwitch would have done in Great Expectations.

Alas Dickens World has closed its doors these past seven years but on the upside we got to enjoy the Dickens of theme parks.

Dickens, the theme park, not the author, of course, was the brains behind the project.

As Gerry O’Sullivan-Beare had been for Andersen World.

Potter universe

The magic bus: In Orlando

And it all comes full circle with Hans Christian Andersen having been influenced by the Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen and Walt Disney too.

Theme park designing, of course, is a specialist subject.

And the architect for the Wizarding World of Harry Potter was under special instructions to recreate JK Rowling’s invention to the letter.

Which meant bringing the exact brick through US Customs from Diagon Alley for the universe that is Universal Orlando.

And we imagine he would have had to conjure up some magic excuse for the guards there.

Our favourite reads have, of course, been natural stories for our favourite rides.

And water splashes so naturally when you’ve got the most famous river trip story whaddya gonna do?

The Huck stops here

Finn’s can only get better: Huck Finn

Mark Twain’s iconic rascals Tom Sawyer and Huck Finnmake a splash at Silver Dollar City in Branson, Missouri.

Riverblast has 80 along the 567ft river channel, making it ‘America’s Biggest Water Battle.’

Child’s play

Hamming it up: Peppa Pig

Of course not everything has to be a thrill ride and here in the UK its child’s play for adults when they pack their kids off to the Thomas the Tank Engine and Peppa Pig parks.

Tam being a carriage is, of course, a touring attraction giving us all a chance to see him and his friends.

While Peppa is the pick of PMs with Boris Johnson waxing lyrical about her adventures back in the south of England in Romsey, Hampshire.

 So while we look back nostalgically on the Magwitch, Peggotty and Pickwick recreations you’ll find the Dickens of theme parks on this literary red letter day.

Just bring your imaginations.

 

Countries, UK

See Wales and Dai

On St David’s Day an invitation to the Valley side… see Wales and Dai.

Although on my first day in Cardiff I did fear for my personage from a pub local we’ll call Dai (Welsh for David).

Who greeted me as I stood next to him at the pub gents’ urinal with a welcoming ‘English bastard are you’?

To which I replied ‘Scottish bastard actually’, hoping our Celtic links would save my skin.

Only for Dai to shoot back:

‘Just as effing bad, you cheated us out of two World Cups you bastard’.

But hey, it was just an initiation into the Welsh way… size you out before bringing you close.

Living with the Welsh

Thanks: From the Welsh Dragon

And over the next nine months I learned to live with and love the Welsh.

And, of course that short, sharp introduction is something you’ll find as a matter of course in port cities.

Where people from far and wide jostle and joss with locals.

And their ability to take it marks out whether they will be taken into the heart and hearth.

And so I’ve been headlocked in my own home city of Glasgow.

When I first took Herself out and been pitted nose to nose with a Scouser.

And he was my neighbour just asking me into his house late at night where they were having a house party…

Best thing to do is just say yes on first invitation.

Cymru, come all

And so say all of us: Happy St David’s Day

Today, though, is all about Wales, or Cymru, as they call themselves in their native tongue.

The Welsh have been busy trying to persuade the rest of us to call them Cymru, and why not.

Cymru means ‘the people’ in Cymraeg (the Welsh language) and we here say power to the people.

An oft-made accusation of Cardiff, as can be levelled at our own capital here in Scotland, Edinburgh, is that it is populated by the English.

Partly, of course, but not wholly.

Mind you, if you want to get in among the Cymry then you want to get out west and north.

Where you’ll get that magical fusion of Irish, coming over on the ferry from Dun Laoghaire, and natives.

Go native in Caernarfon 

On right track: Llanberis Lake Railway

And we added a sprinkle of Scots to that when we stopped off in picturesque Caernarfon.

With its castle, and also ideally placed for Snowdonia National Park and the Llanberis Lake Railway.

And where you’ll find the young people chattering away in Cymraeg in the bars and shops.

And it’s always the young in whose hands the native language resides.

If you’re coming from elsewhere in the UK then you’ll likely be coming through Manchester or Birmingham.

And you’re well served with good roadworks. 

We’d advise then to do like us and see Wales and Dai… and Dai will be happier if you greet him with a Bore da (hello).

And a big Bore da to my new Welsh mate from our Celtic Festival party in Barbados last year. Corrie on, you legend.

 

 

 

 

Countries, UK

Ey Up Happy Valley

They’d not understand you at the Hong Kong races or your Chinese takeaway but for the day that’s in it we’re all channeling our best Yorkshire… so ey up Happy Valley.

Copper Catherine, her needy sister Clare, psycho Tommy Lee and rootless Ryan have given us all our best water cooler moments these past weeks.

Menacing: James Norton, who plays Tommy Lee

That is if any of us still worked in an office.

Though the upside is we can skive off to watch blockbuster TV series like Happy Valley.

Hebden Bridge the real star

Lancashire hot pot: Sarah Lancashire, who plays Catherine

The uncredited star of the show is, of course, the setting.

With Hebden Bridge forcing its way into our consciousness.

Hebden Bridge is North England, Yorkshire to be exact, which locals, my father-in-law call God’s Own Country.

Tranquil: The real Happy Valley

A market town at the confluence of the River Calder and the Calder Water… hence the valley in which the quaint olde houses lie.

Happy Valley has been a gift to the people of Hebden Bridge with TV tourists now flowing into town.

With even an itinerary now set out of locations from the show.

Lesbian Bridge

I’m taking you to: Happy Valley

TV cop and film hotspots is of course, a tried trusted tool which we follow too on our travels.

And we’re happy to add Catherine’s travails to our list.

What they don’t tell you though is the hidden Hebden Bridge.

That it is credited with being the lesbian capital of the UK.

With the BBC no less flagging up its credentials.

‘The lesbian dining company business card in the foyer of a bar, the same-sex greetings cards in the shop window.

‘And the more obvious clues in the names of some of the businesses, such as the homeware shop, Home…Oh!’

The perfect furnish

Welcome: Hebden Royd

Its place on the map of gay culture stems we’re told from the bohemians who moved in as HB transitioned from a mill town to an arts and crafts hub.

So where to stay in Hebden Bridge… well, we’re reliably informed that there are a number of cosy pubs, B&Bs, family hotels and hilltop retreats.

The central Hebden Royd House caught our eye, probably because it sounds like it’s got to have a link to Happy Valley.

Home is: Where the hearth is

Owner Sue, who we’re told used to run a popular soft-furnishings shop in the town presents the hotel as a tasteful six or seven-room property and will provide rates.

She will recommend too the best shopping and eating out in the town.

Poetry in motion

Room at the inn: Ted Hughes pub

The 18th-century Stubbing Wharf located along the Rochdale Canal will certainly pique the interest of anyone of an artistic bent.

As the former Poet Laureate set his poem Stubbing Wharfe here.

While if you want to get out into the countryside then there are dozens of gorgeous trails on your doorstep too, including the Calder and Pennine Ways.

Although maybe give Tommy Lee Royce right of way if he comes up on your rear wheel.

And so like all the best TV series we have to say goodbye to our favourite characters eventually, we can say hello to Hebden Bridge.

Or as they say in these parts Ey Up Happy Valley.

 

 

 

Countries, UK

Why, why, why Delilah?

The female revellers laughed and sang it on the Royal Caribbean party ship with just as much gusto… why, why, why Delilah?

And why, why, why, you might ask have the Welsh Rugby Union cancelled the party and sports anthem?

Because there’s a line in it about jealous Palestinian Samson stabbing his girlfriend because she had taken up with a lover.

Party time: Royal Caribbean

Well, by that logic, we should probably ban Othello because he smothered Desdemona… and she hadn’t even kissed Cassio.

Or Romeo & Juliet because he duped her into a joint suicide.

And any number of songs that tell of fictional love stories gone bad.

Anthem as well

Sweet Harriet: Tubman

Hell, while we’re at what about rugby/national anthems?

And the ‘racist’ verse in God Save The Queen about sending Marshall Wade, rebellious Scots to slay.

Yeah, they’ll keep that but try to ban the England rugby favourite Swing Low Sweet Chariot which is in celebration of Harriet Tubman.

No, the whole thing has gone bonkers and I fear that we have lost the battle and maybe even the war.

Woke me up

Table manners: And a lesson in wokeism

I confess I didn’t even know about the concept of woke when I was accused of not being ‘woke enough’.

By an Irish wedding magazine editor who insisted on correcting me in South Africa every time I said ‘he’ and ‘she’ to ‘they’.

And how does this feed into our common thread of travel?

Well, if we’re not careful we’ll homogenise the world and become po faced about life, death, sex, violence… you know the thing.

It’s what I call the ‘literal brigade’, those killjoys who take everything literally and also misuse literally.

As in ‘I literally died’.

Literally genius

The light on the night: Wales rugby

Well, to carry on a theme the apparatchiks in the corridors of power are literally wasting their time.

If they think they can get the Welsh rugby fans to desist from singing this belter from one of their favourite sons Tom Jones…

Well, I experienced first hand in my year in Cardiff how passionate and thrawn (obstinate) the Welsh are.

So whether it’s Tom’s Wales, a cruise ship in the English Channel or Las Vegas where he had women throwing their knickers at him…

Then don’t let any woke warrior tell you you can’t sing Why, why, why Delilah?

 

Africa, Caribbean, Countries, UK

Counting crows and other feathered friends

And there my knowledge of the San Fran rockers ends and my knowledge of birdwatching begins as I go counting crows and other feathered friends.

The weekend that’s in it is the RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch.

And so twitchers up and down Britain and those who flock (sorry) or nest (soz again) here from abroad have been getting their binos out.

The ornithologist in our family is, of course, the tweet Mrs M.

And she has spotted, and chronicled, more birdies than I’ve had hot dinners – not that I’m advising eating any of them.

Apart from maybe pigeons, it’s the only way to shut the ‘rats with wings’ up.

Save our birds

There is though a very serious side to this weekend.

Shockingly 38 million birds have been lost from British skies in the last 50 years,

And no feather-brains our twitchers with last year almost 700,000 people taking part in Big Garden Birdwatch.

If you’ve not already done so you have until 9pm tonight to spend just one hour to twitch.

Probably best in the morning but if you haven’t already then you can always pop outside after the football.

Centre of featherness

Bird group: It’s child’s play

Where then is best? Well, here where we are is probably as good a place as any, North Berwick, east of Edinburgh.

Where golf (maybe it’s the birdies) and gulls are put on pedestals.

And an everyman twitcher takes pride of place by the Seabird Centre, looking out through his binos to Bass Rock.

Where once Robert Louis Stevenson, who would holiday in North Berwick, would look out to the lighthouse his brother David designed.

Bass Rock, only housing the Northern gannet colony in the world.

Twitch away: On the binos

Once home to a hermit, a castle and a prison now the gannets have marked their territory.

In a very distinctive manner, the smell of which hots you in the back of the throat as you near the rock.

Not that that should put you off, the spectacle more than making up for the odour.

Bass class

Puffin thrilly: Seabird Centre tours

The Seabird Centre offers a Bass Rock trip for £140pp including landing fee.

The east coast of Scotland is, of course, a long long way from the East Cape of South Africa.

But just as choppy (no pain, no gain) and best not negotiated after a night on the booze.

Not a problem, of course, for the furry kind with this Raggy Charters mascot leading from the front on their tours out.

To the hub for blue-finned dolphins and penguins in the Southern Hemisphere.

I’ve not been back on such choppy waters since but am requisitioned by my own tweet ornithologist for Bass Rock this year.

Wagtail hour

Birdwatching then can be as sedentary or as adventurous as you like.

And I do prefer the birdies to come to me like they did in Tobago.

Maybe just start with an hour chronicling today and then recording your findings on the RSPB website.

Me, I’ll start by counting crows and other feathered friends.

And leave the big stuff to the happy snappy Mrs M.

 

America, Asia, Countries, Europe, Ireland, UK

China in your land

Happy Lunar New Year, a day when we celebrate China in your land.

And rabbit on about the Chinatowns we’ve known.

With our favourite roast duck with orange sauce and egg fried rice.

Other dishes are available.

The first Chinatowns

Magic lanterns: Chinese New Year

The first Chinatown was established by the Spanish in Binondo, Manila in the Philippines in 1594.

And as Chinese influence and the Chinese spread across the globe so too did those big gateways.

Bunny love: The Year of the Rabbit

The port city of Liverpool is known for many things, The Beatles, its football teams, the Grand National Aintree course…

And the oldest Chinatown in Europe dating back to the 1850s.

All courtesy of the silk, cotton and tea trade between the north-west English city and Shanghai and Hong Kong.

The Chinese thrived and became an integral and valued part of the city.

Particularly after Chinatown was bombed in World War II and the Liverpudlians opened up Newton Street for them.

Yen in the USA

New York, New York: And its Chinatown

Chinatowns have long been high up on the list of must-visits on city breaks.

And when a food and wine editor is set the challenge of taking a family of four out in Manhattan it’s Chinatown she heads for.

Chinatown’s distinctive arches are also a Godsend as landmarks for the new visitor to a city.

So that when you’re on the clock on a day trip in Philadelphia and you need to get back to Washington.

Then the Philly Gate from where your bus takes off is a welcome sight.

You don’t have to be a metropolis like a New York, San Francisco, Melbourne or London (and Soho sharing tables are a culinary must).

Small town Chinatown

Dress-up: Chinese New Year for kids

Because even the smallest towns can dine out on their Chinatowns.

With my neighbouring town in my 13 years in Ireland putting on its own Chinese New Years along its back street next to the rail track.

All of which earned Bray the nickname Brayjing by the quick-witted Wicklow wags.

So as we celebrate the Year of the Rabbit and China in your land hare’s to peace and prosperity in all your lives.

And to our go-to dream maker and travel provider Wendy Wu… happy Wu Year.

Wendy is only offering savings on up to £1,650pp in their New Year Sale!

Plus, you can enjoy savings on your 2023 or 2024 China holiday when you book by 31 January

 

 

America, Asia, Countries, Europe, UK

World’s ugliest building!

So Scotland’s Holyrood is the world’s ugliest building in the world! But we ask about yours and how’s that for a parliament?

It feels a bit unfair to Holyrood at the foot of Edinburgh’s most famous street, the Royal Mile.

Yes, it may not have the river vista of a Houses of Parliament or the Mall walkway of the Capitol in Washington DC.

Capitol idea: On the hill in Washington DC

But Enric Miralles’s £414m edifice with its boats theme (no, me neither) is hardly the Scott Monument rocket eyesore on Princes Street.

Of course beauty is always in the eye in the beholder.

Not that I put much faith in the Buildworkd twitter survey.

And who chose Holyrood ahead of the likes of the J Edgar Hoover Building in Washington DC and the Ryugyong Hotel in Pyongyang, North Korea?

Brit hit list

Sick building: Royal Liverpool Hospital

On the surface the British entrants in the survey surely should be less aesthetic than Holyrood…

Newport Train Station, Preston Train Station, the Royal Liverpool Hospital and the MI5 Building in London among them.

But then again in this strangest of surveys there are some odd picks among the American buildings.

Some probably more politically motivated, like with Holyrood.

American scream

Golden Vision: Trump in Vegas

And Trump’s name in glittering gold in his titular hotel in Las Vegas will do that for many.

I’d argue too against dissing Denver Airport having spent 12 hours there and availed of their putting course on the roof.

Or the Watergate Complex, other than its association with Nixon’s crimes.

And it seems politically even-handed with liberal Boston City Hall in the cradle of the American Revolution.

On the hit list for the twitter haters.

Now perhaps that’s it that the twitterati dislike more what’s inside Holyrood than what it looks like outside.

Something to Prague about

Ugly Pretty: Prague

But what about you do you think Holyrood is the world’s ugliest building!

And maybe leave you with this… the Prague television tower with its climbing babies was once the world’s second ugliest building.

The Czech capital edifice surpassed by the North Koreans again. And so there’s hope for Holyrood yet.