UK Archives - Page 5 of 59 - Jim Murty’s TravelTravelTravel

And with apologies to the Beach Boys our take is everyone’s gone roadsurfin’, roadsurfin’ UK.

Roadsurfer, who bill themselves as the global leader in campervan travel, have highlighted the most scenic parts of the UK, for Autumn.

And all with the freedom of the road now those summer tailbacks have dissipated.

Now, we’ll park our own gripes about camper vans taking spots up near our golf course in North Berwick when we go for our buffet.

And maybe gently nudge them down the road to Pentland Hills Regional Park, near Edinburgh.

The Pentlands provide a dramatic backdrop of heather-covered hills and vibrant woodlands.. and ideal for intrepid trekkers… and hoofers.

The Highland laddies and lassies

Dramatic: Glenfinnan Viaduct in Glen Coe

While the North Coast 500 is the most trodden of Scotland’s road trips the West Coast surely matches it for scenery.

There is something unique too about Glen Coe & Loch Leven and the Massacre of the MacDonalds here.

All of which makes you feel that you are being guided by the spirits of the past… maybe think Outlander.

England’s green and pleasant land

If it’s England’s green and pleasant land you want to explore, and you will, then you can celeb-spot in the Cotswolds.

Golden stone houses glow even brighter against autumn foliage through villages such as Bibury, Burford and Stow-on-the-Wold.

Ramble through the Cotswold Way National Trail and stop at farm shops for seasonal produce like apples, cider and cheeses.

While if it’s family fun you want you’ll want to head for Thetford Forest in Norfolk and the Gruffalo Trail or adventure at Go Ape.

Wizard time in Wales

And the more adventurous may want to venture into mystical Wales and visit the haunting ruins of Tintern Abbey in the Wye Valley.

Or take a canoe along the river’s mirror-like surface.

Or climb to Symonds Yat Rock for a panoramic view of the valley’s patchwork canopy.

Carry on campers

Roadsurfer offers compact models perfect for couples to spacious family-friendly campers with extra room and comfort.

Each booking includes unlimited mileage, fully comprehensive insurance, and includes a kitchen, comfortable beds and outdoor seating.

Roadsurfer has rental stations in London, Bristol, Manchester and Edinburgh.

The Surfer Suite measures 4.9m in length, and includes a pop-up roof, integrated kitchenette, outdoor cold shower and plenty of storage.

Perfect for couples, prices from £77 per night based on October/November travel.

For families there is the Family Finca measuring 5.9m in length, and includes a complete kitchenette, a bathroom with warm water and a toilet and plenty of storage.

Prices from £77 per night based on October/November travel.

Customers can receive 10% off trips taking place before 31.12.2025 when using Late Summer code SUNSET25.

Countries, UK

Ice in your drink on the Titanic

20th September 202520th September 2025 funtime65

Well, what else would you do than put ice in your drink on the Titanic?

Which is not us delving the depths but our merch mates l selling Titanic-shaped ice for your glass.

Lest it be forgotten, of course, Titanic was, first and foremost a pleasure cruise, where passengers wined and dine in fine style.

And Titanic Belfast, which tells and retells the story of the world’s most famous cruise liner every day, is showcasing the foods and beverages on board.

With Flavours of Titanic: A Journey Through Taste, Seasoned with Stories.

And a calendar of festivities in Belfast every weekend from October 4-November 2.

Flavours of Titanic

The cruise crew: Titanic Belfast

It features the best fare from Belfast, the city where the great ship was built from the early 20th century.

From free talks and tastings to family trails and themed food specials, Flavours of Titanic will link food culture to the ship’s story.

Local suppliers stepping up include Irish Black Butter, Maine Soft Drinks and Burren Balsamics.

Every week will have a different theme including First Class Flavours, Clangers and Craft and Port to Plate.

Wine and dine

Bespoke dishes will also be available to enjoy in The Pantry and Galley cafe, as well as retail exclusives in the Titanic Store.

While Titanicphiles will welcome the return of Titanic by the Glass on Saturday, October 11 and Friday, October 17.

With cocktails crafted by The Spirit Circle.

Titanic by the Glass will take guests on a guided immersive journey through part of the Titanic Experience.

Where they will hear about stories of Belfast, its people, its past and its drinks.

All served with four accompanying alcoholic or non-alcoholic cocktails.

Crews on the cruise

Crew Talks will take place across the weekends.

Exploring Titanic’s food stories from provisioning and cargo to dining across the ship’s classes.

And there will also be a dedicated pop-up exhibition highlighting the ship’s menus, cargo and culinary contrasts.

Offering visitors to Northern Ireland a fresh perspective on Titanic’s history through the lens of food.

Families can take part in a specially designed trail over the half-term break from October 25-31.

Leading younger visitors through food-themed touchpoints across the experience in a fun, engaging way.

Countries, UK

Old tossers and stone skimming cheats

15th September 202519th September 2025 funtime65

The tiny island of Easdale has been propelled into world consciousness by a bunch of old tossers and stone skimming cheats.

Who have been disqualified for flattening out their slates so that they are more circular.

Tossers have been playing with their slates at the World Stone Skimming Championships for 42 years now.

With the regulations smoothed down over the years.

With the now 400 tossers expected to use only Inner Hebridean Easdale slates.

And less than three inches in diameter.

Only opportunistic competitors have been caught out using machines.

To smooth down their stones and been thrown out.

Watch out for the stones

Now, of course, people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.

And I stand guilty too of stone throwing shenanigans.

When skimming with Son and Heir at the Meeting of the Waters in Avoca.

In my old stomping ground of County Wicklow in Ireland.

And in my competitiveness put some welly into one throw, a doubler, or double figures.

Show us your stone: Keeping everyone right

My pride at my pebble reaching the other side of the bank 39ft away was alas dulled.

By the fact that it jumped at the last minute.

And luckily enough the lad who was about to get said stone in the eye.

Well, he ducked at just the right time, to save me Wicklow Gaol time.

A lifetime of tossing

Child’s play: It brings out the competitor in you

Now living on big islands, in Britain and Ireland, I have grown up skimming stones.

When cousins would come visiting from Ireland and America.

And my New Yorker peer Eddie who would compete over anything would claim dozens of skims.m

And delight in beating my efforts, all off the iconic Bonnie Banks of Loch Lomond, near Glasgow.

It is little surprise then that Scotland’s shorelines have become home to the World Skimming Championships.

With the event the brainchild of Bertie Baker following a conversation in the island pub.

The Stone Age

Our friends at the Scottish tourism board Visit Scotland naturally are happy.

To share what a dividend the championships are to Easdale, all showcased here by photographer Kirsty Mclellan.

The Argyll and Bute island, populated by just 60 outside of the skimming worlds, boasts a museum.

Where visitors can stock up on souvenir stones.

While, of course, island boozer The Puffer does a roaring trade.

And the Oyster Bar and Restaurant also sees a big spike in business.

An islands stay

Last year’s survey showed most visitors stayed for two-three nights.

With more than 50 per cent staying in hotels or B&Bs.

Some 40 per cent stayed in Oban on the mainland.

And another 40 per cent bedded down on the Isle of Easdale, Luing and Seil.

So pencil in Easdale to your Scottish trip in September particularly if, like me. you’re an old tosser.

Countries, Culture, Europe, UK

This season of Keats and mellow fruitfulness

5th September 20255th September 2025 funtime65

Nobody has captured Autumn better and, as we kick through the leaves and conkers, take a tour with us celebrating the season of Keats and mellow fruitfulness.

Much is owed, or ode if you like to the Romantic poet.

For his 25 prolific poetic years on this Earth.

Not least for inspiring this Edinburgh Fringe poet who found beauty in his words, despite the mechanical teaching of school educators.

This year marks the 230th since the Great Man’s birth and centenary of the opening of Keats House in Hampstead, London.

A Regency house this splendid property is where Keats lived for two years in 1818 before he left for Italy.

And you get a true sense of time and place in the home where he wrote La Belle Dame Sans Merci, The Eve of St Agnes and Ode to a Nightingale.

Keats House at 100

Time capsule: Keats House, Hampsted, in 1925

The Hampstead House is key to the Keats story.

As his neighbours during these years were only the family of his muse and great love Fanny Brawne.

The new Keats House 100 exhibition and special displays will immerse you in how the house looked when it opened to the public in May 1925.

Entry to the exhibition is included in the £10 adults admission.

As are the 30-minute accessibility-friendly volunteer-led tours, which take place most Thursday, Friday and Sunday afternoons at 2.30pm.

The holy of holies. At the end of the Francigena in Rome

In the spirit of poetry too the curators offer an introduction into Keats’s life and work.

In a ten-minute film here and give an airing to the beautiful Ode to a Nightingale, written in 1819 in the garden at Keats House.

Now it would be all horses in Keats’ day but for those coming by train, the nearest stations are Hampstead Heath (Overground), and Hampstead and Belsize Park on the Northern Line.

While buses 1, 24, 46 and C11 all stop nearby and there is a car park on East Heath Road.

Keats’ Autumn town

All very helpful to plan ahead as is the excellent Keats Locations blog.

Which takes us further afield and even to the exact spot in Winchester, Hampshire, on the south coast of England.

Where Keats had repaired to for his health and wrote that it was ‘the pleasantest town’.

And we’ll forgive him for the arcane superlative we wouldn’t entertain today.

And again ‘on one side of the city there is a dry chalky down where the air is worth six pence a pint.’

Keats, we are told, took a regular walk through the Itchen’s water meadows.

To the Hospital of St Cross and then back up over the downs.

And that it was on one September walk, looking down from St Giles Hill that he wrote ‘To Autumn’.

Classic Keats in Rome

Steps back into time: Keats’ last home across the years

The beauty of our tour, preened from these expert sources, is that we visit La Citta Eterna, Rome too, where Keats spent his final days.

And 26 Piazza di Spagna, at the foot of the Spanish Steps.

This was, of course, the final dwelling place of John Keats, who died here in 1821.

And the patrons have preserved his bedroom in pristine fashion.

The Keats-Shelley attraction features a chain of beautiful rooms.

And a great many treasures and curiosities associated with the lives and works of the Romantic poets.

As well as one of the finest libraries of Romantic literature in the world, now numbering more than 8,000 volumes.

There are also two spacious terraces boasting stunning views, a book and gift shop.

And a small cinema room where visitors can watch an exclusive introductory film about the Romantics.

And for those really serious Keatsophiles they should take a trip to the city’s cemetery for non-Catholics, the Cimitero Acattolico in Testaccio.

So wherever you celebrate him make this the season of Keats and mellow fruitfulness.

Countries, Ireland, UK

Only barbers where you can get a short, track and sides

2nd September 20252nd September 2025 funtime65

It’s why Fermanagh is a cut above the rest, it’s because it’s the only barbers where you can get a short, track and sides.

Headhunters Barber Shop & Railway Museum does exactly what it says on the hair cream, or gel, tin.

By giving its customers a railway enthusiasts experience on top.

Which clearly gave Gordon and Nigel Johnston’s business the edge.

In the public vote for the inaugural Love Your High Street Award 2025.

Now while it’s common for holidaymakers to get in a hairdo before they go away on holiday.

Even better to visit the hairdressers when you’re abroad and become part of the ritual and furniture of a foreign barbers.

Turkish trims

Hair we go: A proper Turkish cut and shave

And where better to get crimped than a Turkish barbers?

Back in pre-beardie days and on a family vacation in Bodrum I went full local and went for a Turkish cut and shave.

While The Scary One and Daughterie enjoyed the hamam.

And, of course, after getting all foamed up (the barbers, not the hamam) and getting my ear and nose hair singed off with a flame I was all in.

So that I sought out my nearest Turkish barber as soon as it was time again back home in Edinburgh.

While I was also keen to try out the Moroccan version when I alighted on Marrakech.

Only to discover that all Turkish barbers aren’t like my Bodrum buddy or my stylist and confidante here in my current billet of North Berwick.

Moroccan close shave

When the ‘guide’ who had pressured me in Jemaa el-Fna square to follow him (schoolboy error, be warned).

And said that he knew a Turkish barber.

Of course, when the lira dropped and I realised him and the barber who was charging an extortionate price were in on a scam it was almost too late.

And the false guide pinned me down on the chair in the barbers in the mall and told me to pay up.

Not even running out and snaking around the shops got me away and a fast run back to said square and safety through a tropical storm followed.

A Moroccan close shave all right.

Caribbean coiffeurs

Better then to stick to the safe side of the tracks.

And there are few more casual parts of the Caribbean than Tobago.

Where the islanders will tell you that everything is ‘just around the corner’ including the airport.

And where the West Indian barber is a central part of the community and knows everybody and everything.

As anyone who grew up watching Caribbean-British sitcom Desmond’s will tell you.

We expect that in another equally loquacious and sociable island, Ireland, that the hairdressing experience is just the same.

And we know the only barbers where you can get a short, track and sides.

Which you can tell everybody about when you get back off your holiday to the north of the country.

Countries, Ireland, UK

Van up on Cyprus Avenue in Belfast at 80

31st August 202531st August 2025 funtime65

He’s been a grumpy old man all his life but today we celebrate Van up on Cyprus Avenue in Belfast at 80.

Few singers form the soundtrack of their city more than Ivan Morrison has for 60 years.

Perhaps The Beatles and Liverpool, The Proclaimers and Edinburgh or Simon and Garfunkel and New York.

As the BBC does on such occasions, it dug into its archives.

For a special concert from the Belfast boy for his 70th birthday in the street where he grew up.

Europa Birthday Van

It is a rare privilege to share a birthday with a superstar singer in concert.

But that was afforded we few, we lucky few, who were treated to cabaret dinner at the iconic Europa Hotel.

When Van exercised his jazz chops with Joey Defrancesco, as well as his Celtic Soul trademark.

As with everything with Van the Man there is always a mystery wrapped up in a riddle with his songs and his life.

Cyprus Avenue, of course, is more, much more, than just a street.

It’s a symbolic sliding doors moment in Van’s life as he sits in a car in his home town, planning his next move.

Which Belfastians, never short of a word, will be happy to explain to you on your Van Morrison tour of East Belfast.

In a Heartbeat

All courtesy of Irish Heartbeat Tours’ Van Morrison Walking Tour.

And follow in the footsteps of the Great Man in his childhood home on Hyndford Street.

The Hollow, made famous in Brown Eyed Girl. and, of course, Cyprus Avenue.

For its size of half a million people the great old port on the Lagan boasts world beaters in the world of the arts and entertainment.

Tours de force

And Irish Heartbeat Tour have you covered with a George Best House Tour and CS Lewis Garden Tour and Square Garden Tours.

Of course, you can go on your own 3.5km self-guided Van tour.

By visiting EastSide Visitor Centre.

Or by downloading the Van Morrison Trail Interactive Map to receive a map and access QR codes at various locations

Now we can’t guarantee that you’ll find Van up on Cyprus Avenue in Belfast at 80, although he does live back in now in Northern Ireland.

But we all of us whether we’ve been to Van’s town or not feel we know it from his Astral Weeks masterpiece.

Countries, Food & Wine, UK

Auld drinkie Edinburgh’s Rose Street Bar Crawl

30th July 202530th July 2025 funtime65

And being the dutiful host to Irish globetrotting Cuz we thought we’d go. For an Auld drinkie Edinburgh’s Rose Street Bar Crawl.

The Scottish capital is bathed in sunshine today, glistening off the Castle Rock.

And the buzz is about the upcoming Fringe and Festival.

And its citizens, as is their wont, are sat on the grass banks in Princes Street Gardens with their lattes and croissants.

There is, of course, another Edinburgh, Embra, if you will, of hostelries and revelry.

A parallel street of the arterial Princes Street, thoroughfare, namely Rose Street.

It’s certainly not what 18th-century New Town architect James Craig had imagined.

Hens and stags

But Rose Street has become synonymous with stag and hen and rugby parties on Rose Street 14 expeditions.

The challenge being to drink a pint in each of the street’s bars.

A Herculean task but one not beyond this party animal but only when he was a cub.

Slightly more grizzled, with snow under my bandana and on my beardie.

I’m breaking it up in numbers divisible of 14, only don’t ask me after the first couple of pubs.

Lining the stomach

Wiser now I’ve taken steps to allay the inevitable saur heid and gut by ensuring me and Eddie line our tummies first.

And that can only mean square sausage and fried egg rolls with sauce at Snax’ hole in the wall cafe.

Before hitting The Abbotsford, and we’re doing this backwards because it’s closer to our meeting point at Scott’s Monument on Princes Street.

And it’s a neat segue as the ornate island bar watering hole, dating back to 1907, is named for Scott’s Borders mansion.

You’ll find yourself at the back of the old Jenner’s department store amid the rigging of the refurb following the fire.

The Embra institution played a part commissioning famed brewery architect P.L. Henderson to design the new bar.

Give it a try

Rose Street, of course, has become a staple for rugby fans passing through for Six Nations matches at Murrayfield in the West End.

And Milne’s has been showing the British and Irish Lions matches, putting on the best Belhaven’s beer and hearty fare.

Cuz and myself partake the ale, all for research purposes you understand, and vow to return this Saturday for the final test.

Rock this city

Now because we’re old school, we skip the Great Grog Wine bar on account of it billing itself for its vino, that it shouldn’t be on a beer crawl.

And jump to the Black Rose Tavern which has made its name as a rock bar, and whose barkeeps are straight out of central casting.

Where we meet the first of our Irish bartenders, and they’re everywhere in the city.

And he points us away from the Portland brew and to the cheaper but none less tasty local IPA.

Hail to the Pale Ale

Something’s brewing: Rose Street Brewery

Now a little knowledge never goes amiss which is where this tour guide comes in.

And walk into any Scottish boozer and you’ll hear a punter at the bar asking for a pint of heavy which is similar to the English bitter.

Cuz has developed his tastes in the couple of months he has been here now, thankfully from the insipid Tennents.

And now imbibes McEwans 80/-, or shilling, which will do for now.

But it is my mission to introduce him to Scottish IPAs.

Or IPA, or Indian Pale Ale, a hoppy brew which was exported to the subcontinent in the mid-18th century.

And which has enjoyed a revival and a revolution, particularly across the States.

All of which we pass over as we sip Auld Reekie Ale in our next pit stop, the Rose Street Brewery’s own tipple.

One for the road

Near the midpoint of our crawl we find one of the original Rose Street bars, the Auld Hundred.

It started off life as a mission hall before being converted into an alehouse in 1800.

Confession time here, we forego the local Cold Town Beer for an old favourite.

The Staropramen Czech beer which with Urquell Pilsener is one of my fallbacks when I see it on tap.

Of course as is the way for any of us who go Walkabout we don’t get as far as we would like.

Before we get the hook from Mrs Cuz, who has been shopping in the nearby boutiques.

We get away with what the Cuzzes call a Juicy in their local, the Cumberland, further down the hill in the New Town.

Crawling home

Before I’m dropped back at Waverley Station and my train home to North Berwick.

Where I have only now emerged blinking into the daylight to share my thoughts on our first third of Rose Street.

We will be back to complete our mission, the Auld drinkie Edinburgh’s Rose Street Bar Crawl.

And maybe little wine drinker her, the Scary One, can take some of the pressure off by taking Mrs Cuz shopping.

And allow us to continue our research.

Countries, Sport, UK

What’s the deal with Trump Turnberry?

26th July 202526th July 2025 funtime65

And the question on every tourist’s lips today, naturally, is what’s the deal with Trump Turnberry?

Well, Trump Turnberry is one of two golf resorts the Scots-American owns in the land of his mother Mary, who was from the Isle of Lewis.

The other being Trump International in Menie in Aberdeenshire.

Now if you want to reach the US President just now he’s staying at Turnberry.

Though he’s likely not spending much time in the Presidential Suite.

And rather shooting the lights out on the Championship course.

Duel in the Sun

Rock of ages: Ailsa Craig in the background

Which those of you who are old enough will remember for one of the most famous Open Golf Championships.

Still known as The Duel in the Sun, then young pretender Tom Watson held off Jack Nicklaus under the baking (no, seriously) sun in 1977.

The Open has been contested three times since, delivering drama every time.

And champion golfers in Greg Norman, Nick Price and Stewart Cink.

That victory, on the last occasion the major was played in this idyllic corner of Ayrshire in 2009.

As memorable for Watson forcing a play-off at the ripe young age of 59.

A political golf ball

All of which doglegging around history leads us to the thorny subject of when the Open will be returning to Turnberry.

The course, which has unparallelled view of the Irish Sea and its famous rock, Ailsa Craig or ‘Paddy’s Milestone’ has become a political golf ball.

The R&A, which chooses the venues, said last year that Turnberry wouldn’t be considered.

“Until we’re comfortable that the whole dialogue will be about golf”.

Which, of course, was a not-so-subtle dig at the man we all recognise again as the Leader of the Western World.

I’m Scottish too: In his native New York

Although 50,000 signatories to a petition to stop the Open returning to Turnberry aren’t to be moved on that.

Thing is though that we might very well be on the home stretch with this one.

Not discounting another R&A objection that the infrastructure around Turnberry needs updating.

To accommodate the growing crowds who turn up for the four days of golf each July.

With numbers doubling from the 150,000 in 2009 to 300,000 now.

Turnberry bargaining chip

But the Donald will be wanting to leave with a W (that’s a win for those not down with the kids) from his game on his own course.

And his talks with British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer.

And the 2028 Open Golf Championship host course has not been selected yet.

Not, of course, wanting to go against our own local course here near to North Berwick, the iconic Muirfield links.

But despite not being a golfer himself Starmer must know.

That Turnberry is the best bargaining chip he has with Donald Trump in his Trade Talks.

Whether anyone listens to us, and they should, we’ll leave it there.

Deal us in

Look at that: And views of the courses from your bedroom

Only to come back to the premise we set out with and what’s the deal with Trump Turnberry?

Well, you don’t have to be a champion golfer, or President, to stay there.

Trump Turnberry hotel offers 204 guest rooms, including 4 suites.

And the iconic two-bedroom suite at The Turnberry Lighthouse that rises above the ruins of King Robert the Bruce’s Castle.

All grand then and we found that it will set you back nearly four grand for three nights with a round at the Ailsa Course thrown in.

Although that would be good value for that duffer at a pound per shot!

America, Countries, Europe, Food & Wine, UK

Hungry and Thursday… National Ice Cream Month

24th July 2025 funtime65

You know how it goes, I scream, you scream, we all scream, and a reason presents itself now to revive our occasional series. Hungry and Thursday… National Ice Cream Month.

There are few foods which conjure up summer and holidays more than the frozen milk or cream dessert which crosses the social divide.

With King Charles (the first one who lost his head) gorging in ice cream which Marco Polo had brought from China, and was scooped up by European courts.

While the First Fathers were known to dig in with George Washington recorded as spending $200 on ice cream in the summer of 1790.

While Thomas Jefferson brought vanilla into the country and had an 18-step recipe for ice cream.

That ice cream kick

Of course one of the secret joys of ice cream has always been that it can carry an alcohol kick for curious kiddies.

And so it is with rum and raisin though we’re not always sure how much distilled molasses goes into your local scoop.

Unless that is you live in the Caribbean.

Where rum is laced through every breakfast, lunch or dinner, particularly over carnival.

And while we lap up every morsel of Bajan culture our favourite rum and raisin ice cream is in Tobago.

Sitting in the treetops bar at Castara Retreats with Porridge and Jeanelle.

Perhaps because we weren’t nursing a monster hangover from Bajan Foreday Morning, although the hair of the dog is always the best way to cure a sore head.

Il gelato

For many of us, of course, Italia, Il Bel Paese, is the home of the ice cream.

Il gelato conjures up the freshest fruits which brings all our senses alive.

Limone, frutti di bosco or even mandarino all have their takers but for us it has to be La Fragola.

After a day jostling through the alleyways of Venice, in the beating heat of the Roman Forum.

At the end of your Via Francigena into the Eternal City or at the foot of the funiculare in Bergamo.

Where for those who like their gelati extra milky.

Then La Marianna specialises in its signature milky scoop of ice cream heaven, stracciatella.

Our Scottish take with a little Italian

Now we all have our own variation to others’ ice cream.

In our own wee bit of Northern Europe, Italian influences are to the fore.

Because the story goes that when Italians were emigrating to America the ships would stop off in Glasgow for refuelling.

And the passengers who pre-Internet didn’t know what New York looked like got off thinking this was The Big Apple, and never got back on.

And so grew Scottish and Italian fusion with a particular favourite Irn-Bru, our vivid orange soft drink, ice cream a unique experience.

Now whatever, or wherever, you most like to be with your bowl, cone or wafer.

You’ll not be alone because somewhere in the world it’s Ice Cream O’Clock.

So just enjoy it, it’s Hungry and Thursday… National Ice Cream Month.

Countries, Ireland, UK

Coronation Street where you never retire

23rd July 202523rd July 2025 funtime65

For everyone else born in 1960 they’d be preparing for their bus pass now, but not on Coronation Street where you never retire.

In old money the world’s oldest continuous TV soap opera would be putting on the slippers and filling the smoking pipe in December.

That was until the powers that be decided to get us all to work longer, and they’re at it again with a new review.

Corrie will have to wait until December next year to pick up its pension at 66.

But there is, and always will be, life in the old cobbles yet.

Friends across the water

The everyday joys and travails of the residents of Coronation Street are, of course, followed by the peoples of the world.

And few more so than those just across the water in Ireland.

Possibly since the neighbours did an uber house swap of sorts with the amount of Irish who relocated to Lancashire.

All of whom are catered for on Celtic Horizon Tours’ two-nighter visiting the Corrie and Emmerdale village sets.

Which again we’ve been steered to by our friends at the Irish Travel Agents Association.

Super soaps

You’ll travel by coach and ferry nights and stay B&B at Bolton Stadium Hotel.

No visit to Emmerdale would be complete without taking in The Woolpack, Café Mainstreet, Davids’s shop.

With a half day visit to Cheshire Oaks.

And a guided tour of the external sets Coronation Street and Emmerdale village.

With a (and get this) meet and greet with a current cast member from Coronation Street.

And you’ll be able to immerse yourself in all those iconic destinations.

Tour de force

Your guides will share secrets from the shows.

And you’ll get to channel your favourite characters in the crafted replica sets.

So have your camera at the ready to strike a pose behind the Rovers Return bar.

And have a Lancashire bacon butty at Roy’s Rolls.

All this from €445pp with dates until September 19.

And what’s best of all is that you’ll be travelling with your soap fan family and friends’ nuts.

Because it is based on ten adults travelling.

Extra special

There are extras too with a single room supplement at €112.

Travel Insurance at €26 per adult/€13 per child.

And an €18 supplement per person if picking the coach up outside Dublin.

And so because we’ll never give up on our favourite soaps.

Pencil in a date for your trip to Coronation Street where you never retire.