UK Archives - Page 6 of 58 - Jim Murty’s TravelTravelTravel

And a cider and a pastie for the day that’s in it as we say Happy St Piran’s Day to our Cornish Celtic pards.

Those of us not among the 5,000 folks with a working knowledge of Kernewek, the Cornish language, will have worked out.

That pards are pals and ‘Gool Peran Lowen’ means Happy St Piran’s Day, named for the 7th-century patron saint of tin miners.

Cornwall, the south-westernmost region in England is, of course, a proud member of the Celtic clan.

With Scotland, Ireland, Wales, the Isle of Man, Brittany in France and Galicia in Spain.

Gaels force

Now all the Celtic cousins share language roots, varieties on national dress, musical similarities and a love of pipes.

All of which you’ll see at gatherings of the clans around the world.

And I’ve been fortunate to enjoy from the Barbados Celtic Festival through the World Piping Championships in Glasgow.

To Celtic culture in Santiago de Compostella and Finisterre on the Camino.

So that when one Gael celebrates anywhere in the world we all do.

From Eden to Shipton Abbot

Cornwall, of course, is a region well worth celebrating for its music, culinary and culture.

And while its most visited attraction is the Eden Project, the world’s biggest indoor rainforest, housed in futuristic domes Cornwall’s outdoors are unique.

All of which make it a favourite for TV dramas and films, everything from Rebecca, Poldark, Doctor Martin, Fisherman’s Friends to the latest, Beyond Paradise.

If you want the cornucopia of Cornwall then you can push the boat out for one of the more expensive private group tours.

Or go Beyond Paradise for just £20 when you can take a TV tour around Looe, the inspiration for Shipton Abbot.

Now we all know of the charms of Cornwall but you’ll hear naysayers in equal measure warn against going because of the traffic logjams.

Cornish pasty people

Instead let the plane take the strain and fly into Newquay with these airlines all serving the Cornish peninsula.

British Airways. Aer Lingus, Loganair, Swiss International Air Lines, Eurowings, easyJet and Eastern Airways.

And so a Happy St Piran’s Day to our Cornish Celtic pards and see you soon.

Countries, Pilgrimage, UK

A cwtch to all our Welsh pals on their national day

1st March 202517th March 2025 funtime65

Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Hapus and a cwtch to all our Welsh pals on their national day.

Which, of course, is a hug rather than a cupboard.

Although perhaps you’re more in need of a press, so take it how you will.

That the Welsh celebrate St David as their patron saint is only natural as he is a proud mab Cymrum, of son of Wales with a song in his heart.

And the only saint from Scotland, England, Wales and Ireland to come from the country where they are celebrated.

All the Saints

The apostle St Andrew hailing from Judea and never having visited Caledonia, the Romans’ name for our bit of modern-day Britain.

And his connection deriving from some part of him having come here by a missionary.

And some tired and probably drunken Scots chieftain mistaking a white cross and a blue background in the sky as a sign.

Andrew having been crucified on an ‘X’ cross.

How Turk St George came to be placed with killing a dragon.

On the flat-topped Dragon Hill in Uffington, Berkshire, is anybody’s guess.

Although again we suspect drink was taken, urged on, of course, by returning Crusaders from the Holy Land where his legend loomed large.

St Paddy, meanwhile, may have come to represent all that is Irish but he was born and reared in modern-day English Lake District, then Wales.

Before being kidnapped and taken to Ireland where he drove out the snakes.

Although the standing joke is that they returned and sit in the country’s parliament, the Dail.

In St David’s footsteps

David’s den: St Davids Day and his church

All of which tour around the islands brings us back to the day that’s in it and where is best to track St David’s footsteps.

Well, that would be St Davids in Pembrokeshire, west Wales, or the top of the pig’s head.

Now St David’s, on the coast, has welcomed worshippers to his church since the 6th century when David walked among them.

It became a popular medieval pilgrimage site and two trips to St Davids was considered equal to one to Rome itself.

These days it’s part of the Wexford-Pembrokeshire Pilgrim Way which you can join any time, but best of all to reach here on St David’s Day.

As is the way with ancient cathedrals the real history lies in the library.

And here you can study collections belonging to deans, bishops and clergy dating back to the 16th century.

Read all about it

The library also holds a collection of local and cathedral photographs dating back to the 19th century and the Parish Registers.

Now for the day that’s in we leave the last words to David.

A gwnewch y pethau bychain a welsoch ac a glywsoch gennyf i.

Which, of course, mean be joyful, keep the faith, and do the little things that you have heard and seen me do.

We’re always happy to add to our knowledge.

And will regale all we meet the next time we’re in Wales.

Along with a cwtch to all our Welsh pals on their national day.

How to get there

St Davids is 116 miles west of Cardiff and two and a half hours by car.

Or 180 miles south of ferry terminal Holyhead or four and a half hours by your vehicle.

We’d recommend though the Pilgrim Way.

It is a 162-mile journey with nearly 80 miles winding through County Wexford from Ferns to Rosslare.

Then the 80-mile crossing over the Irish Sea with Irish Ferries.

And a 45-mile walk on the beautiful Pembrokeshire National Park Coast Path to St Davids.

Countries, UK

The v.v. good guide to Bridget Jones locations

15th February 202515th February 2025 funtime65

As singletons everywhere converge on cinemas this Valentine’s weekend for a certain movie franchise climax we bring you the v.v. guide to Bridget Jones locations.

Which, of course, showcases London at its chaotic and consumerist best.

Although the story for Bridget and Mark D’Arcy actually begins in the west of England.

With the locale for Bridget’s parents’ home, where Bridge and Mark first meet in garish Christmas jumpers.

In Snowshill 12 miles north-east of Cheltenham, Gloucestershire.

Boozy punch-ups

Bridget though is a capital metropole right down to her big pants.

Updating her diary in her £1m bachelorette flat above The Globe Tavern on Bedale Street in Borough just off Tower Bridge.

And asterisking the entry in her book above the clutter where her suitors Mark and Daniel fight over her outside her posse’s Greek restaurant.

Which whisper it is wine bar Bedales Wine Bar.

The scuffle, of course, reaches its climax with the pugilists bitch slapping in a fountain.

The Italian fountains in Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park.

Ladies who brunch

If it’s the very wine bar where Bridget and her pals hang out to talk about her love life and get sloshed then The Light Bar Shoreditch will take your order.

Which will entitle you to 90 minutes of unlimited drinks: Rosé, Prosecco, or Aperol Spritz

A two-course brunch with a side with menu highlights of Spicy Crisp Chicken, Avo-on-Toast, Chorizo Mac ‘n Cheese.

And Shoreditch vibes with weekend DJ sessions for £25pp.

Dear Diary

While if you’re looking to replicate that moneyshot romantic moment then you need to get yourself down.

To outside the Mont Blanc diary shop on Threadneedle Street.

Where Mark kisses Bridge and bought our heroine a new diary.

And you can get yours and map out your remarkable life.

And maybe chronicle how you’ve ticked off each of the v.v. good guide to Bridget Jones locations.

All with the help of Britmovietours, featured on ITV’s This Morning, which will give you a 12-stop tour for £17.

Countries, UK

Something completely different.. Python sites

31st January 2025 funtime65

And now for something completely different.. Python sites half a century after the release of Holy Grail.

It helps, of course, that history’s greatest comedy troupe set Arthurian England in 1970s Scotland.

Right down to the cops who, spoiler alert, arrest Arthur’s Army at Castle Stalker, Argyll & Bute, aka The Castle of Aaaargh.

Although cinematographers had fun with us as the action really took place at Bridge of Allan, near Stirling.

While Doune Castle, Perthshire, is where the French made fun of Arthur’s Army.

Caves and castles

Now Python nuts will go to any lengths to follow in the silly walk steps of their heroes.

And that extends to the Cave of Caerbannog where the psycho white bunny lost his sh1t.

Which, of course, Michael Palin and Terry Jones searched for in the 25th anniversary DVD ‘The Quest for the Holy Grail Locations’.

And discovered that it was actually an old copper mine shaft where fans have left tributes and fluffy rabbits since.

Knights of Epping Forest

Now as much as we’d love to claim Python’s Arthur in its entirety for Scotland, we must give England their characters.

With the Black Knight being cut to shreds in Epping Forest, near London, though t’were but ‘a flesh wound’.

Now should you wish to venture even further afield or back then you can walk in the sandal steps of Brian.

Tunisia’s Promised Land

To Tunisia where the Pythons followed mini-series Jesus of Nazareth by replicating Judea.

And it was in the ancient central coastal city of Monastir that the Sermon on the Mount and the stoning scenes were shot.

But that’s another story.

This is something completely different.. Python sites.

Let Glasgow Flourish in its 850th year

14th January 202514th January 2025 funtime65

All us schoolkids got a Dunoon mug for our city’s 800th birthday… and if I still had it I’d raise it now and say Let Glasgow Flourish in its 850th year.

My fellow Glaswegians are promising a cornucopia of events over the year.

With a three-day music event Clyde Chorus in May, a pop-up social history exhibition and April’s Taste the Place food trail.

Back in 1975 as well as the school mugs the city threw a party in the May full of special events, exhibitions, concerts and contests.

For a nine-year-old an evening at the football with their Dad to see Scotland play Portugal at Hampden Park was a big occasion.

Nifty Fifty

And it passed me by that the crowd booed off The Wombles, the first concert I’d attended earlier in the year, at half-time after their penalty shoot-out antics.

Football, of course, has long been the pastime of its people.

Probably since Richard the Lionheart granted Glasgow burgh status on May 10, 1175.

Musical tastes extended to a military band concert at the Kelvin Hall, the Scottish National Orchestra at the Cathedral and a Highland Gathering in Scotstoun.

While Denistoun diva Lulu wowed her fellow Glaswegians at the Pavilion Theatre.

Gie it Welly Big Yin

Individual districts held their own celebrations with open days and the election of gala queens.

All capped off with the Lord’s Provost’s Procession and the cavalcade of floats.

Depicting historical aspects of Glasgow making its way from Kelvin Way to Glasgow Green.

And a fireworks display and ‘ox-roasting’ ceremony (they we’re different days) on Glasgow Green.

Alongside a celebration ball, cabaret and buffet in the City Chambers and rowing and canoeing on the Clyde.

Best of all though was the city’s second most famous son Billy Connolly (after myself, obvs) entertaining the crowds with his Welly Boot Song.

The Big Yin has, of course, done more than anyone to promote his home city.

Although whether his health will allow him to pay a visit through this year we will have to wait and see.

It is undoubted that the comedian was the city’s first modern superstar.

Bringing colour with his harlequin hippy clothes, not to mention his infectious humour to a grey industrial city, and beyond.

Following in Billy’s banana boots

Many have followed in his banana bootsteps in the years since.

And Glasgow has successfully reclaimed its Dear Green Place moniker given to it by its saintly founder St Mungo.

And moved away from the No Mean City image of gangs and violence although the challenges still persist.

We have seen unimaginable progress in the 50 years since with major sporting events.

A Commonwealth Games and another to come next year.

A riverside refurb and iconic buildings springing up such as ‘The Armadillo’.

Sign of the times

Glasgow belongs to us: Jimmy and the next generation

So that now Scotland’s largest city can proudly complement.

And even compete with cultural and historical Edinburgh for visitors.

All of which it does with its renowned gallous (cheeky) humour.

Aas evidenced when Glasgow was promoting its award of European City of Culture in 1990.

And two likely lads decamped to the capital‘s Princes Street.

A couple of Glasgow Jimmys: The Dad and I

With a sign pointing in the direction of Glasgow, reading: ‘You are just 46 miles from the European City of Culture.’

So happy birthday to my home city and in the words of its founder St Mungo.

I say proudly Let Glasgow Flourish in its 850th year.

And now to find out if any of those classmates of mine still have their Dunoon mugs.

As I’d rather not fork out the £20 on Ebay.

Asia, Countries, Europe, UK

Queen Victoria the Twelfth Night killjoy

6th January 20256th January 2025 funtime65

And wherever you are in the world enjoy your Epiphany while Britain in its exceptionalism sits it out because of Queen Victoria the Twelfth Night killjoy.

Most Britons have already cocked a snook at superstition by taking their Christmas Tree down before the Twelfth Night.

That very same tree wasn’t around before Vic’s hubbie Prince Albert, of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha introduced it.

But public partying and the decorations we’re supposed to keep up into January were much to Vic’s chagrin.’

Of course as is the way of it that was only after Her Royalness had had her fun with it.

No Saxe please, we’re prudish

The Saxe-Coburg-Gothas were well into Twelfth Night would regularly attend the theatre on that eve.

Perhaps even to watch Shakespeare’s titular play.

And even had a Twelfth Cake made especially for the occasion.

But then come the 1870s, she banned the festivities because the plebs were making it too rowdy… God bless her!

Of course, today the rest of the world will unite in a common holiday while Britain sneers, just the way they like it.

Making a splash

On the Jordan side: Where Jesus was baptised

Taking a dip in chilly waters is customary on the day The Magi are said to have made their pilgrimage to the Baby Jesus.

Quite why we don’t know although there is some suggestion that John the Baptist blessed Jesus on this day.

Of course, in some places such as Ireland going for a dip in the seas or rivers or loughs is just every day of the year.

In the River Jordan Eastern Orthodox Christians take the opportunity of the Epiphany.

To draw extra blessings with purification in the holy waters in Israel.

Although, we’d advise you to resist the temptation to join in.

Particularly if you’re standing on the opposite bank in Jordan.

As an eagle eye will spot gun-wielding Israeli soldiers among them looking for people swimming across the matter of metres to their side.

No such risks for those who jump in the River Vlatva which runs through Prague.

And there’s probably something more prosaic about their intentions.

The Czechs being the biggest beer drinkers per head of the population in the world and this being the culmination of Christmastime festivities.

Guide us to thy perfect light

One allowance Britons do make around the Feast of Epiphany is the singing of the specific Magi carol We Three Kings of Orient Are.

Written by the Pennsylvania pastor Reverend John Henry Hopkins Jnr, who showcased the hymn.

In his holiday pageant for the General Theological Seminary in New York in 1857.

Now whether you believe you’re entitled to continue your Christmas carousing on Epiphany or are more pious about the partying like Vic.

Let’s hope someone visits with gold, frankincense and myrrh.

Regardless of what Queen Victoria the Twelfth Night killjoy thought about it all.

Countries, Skiing, UK

How many more words for cold in Scotland?

5th January 20255th January 2025 funtime65

There may well be 50 epithets for snow in Eskimo but how many more words for cold in Scotland?

Chillydonia as it is known at this time (who are we kidding, any time of year) is though a New Year choice for many.

And some will be winding down their trips to the Highands and Islands, our big cities of Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Dundee.

And castles, lodges, crooks and crannies, culture, distilleries, golf, whisky and ski centres.

So a helping hand to our visitors as to the words we use at this time of year courtesy of our friends at Visit Scotland.

All under the banner of ‘Coorie words for winter in Scotland’ with sayings in Shetland, Scots and Gaelic.

And confession time here, in more than half a lifetime spent in the frozen north maist of them are new to me.

Ya dancer

Now many of us have been spending the last couple of months neath the Mirrie Dancers.

It’s Shetland tongue for Heavenly Dancers, or Northern Lights.

Of course, we all know that Shetlanders aren’t really Scots at all, mair Norwegian.

But there’s aye a nip in the air in January, from Shetland as far north to Selkirk in the south.

And so if you feel a snell and sense the flukra or flaggie are comin’.

Then you and your pals will doubtless want to brak da bruid before getting inside tae get seasgair or coorie.

All of which we’ll set as oor wee New Year test tae ye tae work oot fir yersels.

Get yir skis on

Of course, the one sector of the travel industry you’d think would be warming their hands with the snowfall is the ski set.

But the kicker, the Catch-22, is that at times there can be too much snaw which can make them impassable.

And many’s the time we’ve had to turn back on our road up from Aberdeen to The Lecht when the snows were too high to pass.

The other four natural ski resorts in Scotland are:

Cairngorm Mountain, which takes in our old stomping ground of Aviemore, dramatic Glencoe, Nevis Range and Glenshee ‘The Glen of the Fairies’.

Where you’ll probably have your own vocabulary to describe the weather.

Only if you want to go native and spik like a native then we hope ours and Visit Scotland’s lexicon has been a help.

As we run you through how many more words for cold in Scotland.

America, Countries, Europe, UK

Scottish steak pie or other New Year dishes

1st January 20251st January 2025 funtime65

We’ll whisper it, Happy 2025, and we suggest maybe lining your tummy with Scottish steak pie or other New Year dishes.

The hearty meaty steak pie has long been the go-to for Scots on New Year’s Day.

To soak up all the booze from the night before.

Its place in the Scots’ culinary calendar is believed to have derived from its ease in preparation.

Basically bought straight from the butcher.

Of course, filling meat pies may sate those for whom the Sun is just a rumour.

But how does the rest of the world refuel on the first day of the year?

Tamales wrapped up

Well in countries where they actually grow bananas they put their leaves to good use to hold in their New Year treats.

For Mexicans it’s tamales, corn dough stuffed with meat, cheese and other delicacies and wrapped in the leaf or a corn husk.

Groups of women gather to make hundreds of the little packets, and doesn’t it always fall on them?

At this time of year in Mexico they are served with menudo.

A tripe and hominy (corn to you and me) soup, supposed to cure hangovers.

Good ole’ Southern soul food

And we’ve been that soldier, eating grits and Southern soul food in the winter (in truth, they eat it all year round).

For New Year though it’s especially Hoppin’ John, a dish of black-eyed peas (a coins symbol).

And rice with collards, like our cabbage, to represent green folding stuff and cornbread (the colour of gold).

The dish is said to bring good luck, and wealth, in the new year and dates back to Charleston, South Carolina of the 1840s.

Sylvester’s Day

Now our more traditional continental friends let us have our Hogmanay.

Although their Saint Sylvester’s Eve and Day in honour of the Pope who converted Constantine boasts its own hog theme.

Austria and Germany celebrated New Year’s Eve Sylvesterabend with suckling pig for dinner.

And a decoration of little pigs made of marzipan, called marzipanschwein.

Good luck pigs, or glücksschwein, which are made of all sorts of things, are also common gifts throughout both Austria and Germany.

Now money makes the world go round as the Cabaret MC and Sally Bowles are quick to remind us.

And that’s true anywhere with Italians adorning their New Year dish with money-looking vegetables too.

Italians celebrate New Year’s Eve alongside La Festa di San Silvestro with cotechino con lenticchi.

It’s a sausage and lentil dish that is said to bring good luck with the lentils representing money and good fortune.

Now whichever food you refuel on today.

Whether Scottish steak pie or other New Year dishes we wish you a prosperous next 12 months.

And we promise to…

THRIVE IN 2025

Caribbean, Countries, UK

Hotmanay away from chilly Scotland

31st December 202431st December 2024 funtime65

And because the big Edinburgh party is cancelled we’re looking longingly at Hotmanay away from chilly Scotland.

The diaspora will be digging out their black bun (cake), coins, whisky and shortbread.

For health, wealth and happiness.

The greater Scottish family

Whether on a beach or lakeside the greater Scottish family will be expressing their good will.

And saying: ‘Seas between us braid hae roar’d sin auld lang syne.

‘And there’s a hand, my trusty fiere! And gie’s a hand o’ thine!

‘And we’ll tak a right gude-willy waught, for auld lang syne.’

Then wonder what the heck we’re saying.

Although by then we’ve taken more than enough ‘cups of kindness yet’ for it not to matter.

Canadian Caledonians

Now while many of us will know that it was Scottish Bard Robert Burns who popularised the song in the 18th century.

But few will give a nod to Canadian bandleader Guy Lombardo around midnight tonight.

For making it the international New Year’s anthem it is today.

After he and his Royal Canadian Big Band played it on a New Year’s Eve broadcast in New York in 1929.

A song he had taken with him from Scottish western Ontario.

And whose nostalgia embodied the diaspora experience.

Burns in the Caribbean

Burns himself was no doubt entertaining such thoughts when he was planning to relocate to the Caribbean.

And who could blame him, particularly when you can find all our fave customs embraced.

With pipe bands, ceilidhs, Scottish food and drink mixed in with Caribbean cheer.

All of which is surely drawing us back in ‘25.

And, of course, in Barbados you won’t have to wait for Hotmanay away from chilly Scotland.

You can overdose on tartan at their Barbados Celtic Festival in May.

And back to Scotland and here’s a wee treat from the best Burns singer around, the inimitable Eddi Reader.

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE AND MEET YOU ON THE ROAD

Countries, Ireland, UK

Where to be on the shortest day of the year

21st December 202421st December 2024 funtime65

They’re the scene-grabbers, the whoopers of Stonehenge, but here’s where to be on the shortest day of the year, Avebury.

Avebury in Herself’s homeland of the south-west of England is thousands of years older than Stonehenge and more extensive.

A two-hour drive west of London and 40 miles north of Stonehenge it is also quieter and more accessible.

Yes, it has its share of crystal-loving, tree-hugging, lentil-loving Earth children.

But there’s more than enough space in the Wiltshire henge to get up close, personal, and touch your own stone.

Pagan worship

Avebury benefits too from its henge being part of a living, breathing village.

With, of course, kerching shops proliferating and the chance to stock up on New Age trinkets.

Including phallic ornaments and fertility symbols which they were big into in pagan days.

And well into the middle of the last century.

Before Alexander Keiller, heir to the Keiller marmalade empire, bought the site.

And cleared away buildings and re-erected many stones in the late 1930s.

Stone circle of life

Back in the day: What it might have been

Now for those who speculate about our neolithic forebears will tell you it must have taken hundreds of hours to erect the site.

Built between 2850 BC and 2200 BC it is the most complex and biggest of Britain’s surviving henge monuments.

Think theatres for rites and ceremonies and you’re probably near the mark.

With, of course, the cycles of the moon and sun playing into where and how the stones are lined up.

All of which as a daughter of this soil Herself enjoyed growing up.

And was in a position to share with us a young family when the Solar Eclipse came along.

In great shape

Now stone circles being a hobby horse of hers we’ve been dragged out on many a day out.

Trudging over fields across Britain and Ireland to find them.

All of which puts us in good shape to pounce when the moment comes.

And to share with our friends where to be on the shortest day of the year.