And where you can dine at the very hotel, the Hotel Interlaken, the Bad Boy of the Romantics quaffed wine. And this Swiss swisher too.
Where Twain shall meet
Yale, Connecticut
Mark Twain, a Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court: And as prolific a traveller as Connecticut’s Samuel Clemens was this was his most epic journey.
Across 14 centuries and an ocean.
Twain is for many the Father of Modern Travel Writing.
And his home was tantalisingly up the road on my latest trip to New England.
What the Dickens?
Way to go, Joe: With hotel boss Joe at the Hotel Envoy, Boston
Charles Dickens’ American Notes, Pictures from Italy: The Great Victorian Age author of course stripped bare the England of his days.
But his curiosity and enthusiasm to explore the foibles of human nature stretched way beyond that… to America and Italy.
Which just so happen to be two of my favourite countries anywhere in the world.
Dickens was particularly impressed with Boston (good judge) of which he said: ‘Boston is what I would like the whole of the United States to be.’
But he seemed to have a conflicted view of Rome, observing on first viewing that it reminded him of London (no harm there).
Now lazy titling becomes wearisome to those of us who have become victims of the bigger country syndrome.
And for those of a Scots, and Welsh, variety it is an occupational hazard to put up with being called English the further we travel.
Similarly in the Netherlands where the short hand of Holland had been used when that should only apply to the north and south of the country.
In 2020 while the rest of us were preoccupied by Covid the Dutch ditched the nickname Holland.
Whatever you call it, and since being alerted to the sensitivities while there for the first time 30 years ago, it’s still Edam good country.
North stars
Fly the flag: North Macedonia football fans
Now putting your place on the compass at the top of your name is always a good idea to differentiate yourself.
And we see it in South Sudan and also in North Macedonia, the latter to placate the Greeks where there is a region, Macedonia.
Throughout the post-imperialist world countries have reclaimed their countries and changed their names to their native tongue.
Shout of Africa
March to Freedom: Siseko and Mandela in SA
And so Swaziland became Eswatini, meaning ‘land of the Swazis’ in their language in 2018, the 50th anniversary of independence from the British throne.
Yes, blink and you can miss the changes and the Port Elizabeth I knew in South Africa’s Eastern Cape has become the Xhosa-clicking Gqeberha… as it should.
In these Celtic countries in which we live (Scotland, Wales, Ireland) there has been a move too to Gaelicise our towns and villages.
Gael force
Piping hot: Scots culture
And during Scotland’s march to freedom, the Gaelic name for Scotland, Alba has raised to prominence.
So here’s to all countries who reclaim their birthright, to Turkiye yeah… and Alba.
Or the Republic of Scotland as we’ll get back to striving for.
Just as soon as this forelock-tugging and curtsying deception, the Platinum Jubilee, is out of the way.
Award-winning film and composer Ilan Eshkeri’s (David Attenborough’s The Perfect Planet, The Young Victoria; Stardust) otherworldly music provides the backdrop.
While Sir Tim will showcase photos and films he and other astronauts took aboard the International Space Station.
The European Space Agency
Float on: Drifting in space
At each stop on the tour, a European Space Agency astronaut will hold a pre-show.
With, yes, Sir Tim up in his home capital of London.
So the rare footage will be projected across three massive screens with a light show to create an incredible experience.
Out of this world
Suits you: A Space Odyssey
If you haven’t heard Ilan’s music before you might be wondering about what you’ll get.
Think Kraftwerk, Jean-Michel Jarre, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and Fantasia.
And what has Tim in mind for us: ‘There aren’t many words that can truly describe the beauty of seeing Earth from space.
‘But Space Station Earth attempts to do this, using music and video, to capture the emotion of human spaceflight and exploration.’
Work together
Station to Station: International Space Station
Five partner Space Agencies helped build the International Space Station, which now involves people from more than 15 countries.
And is the world’s largest international cooperative program in science and technology.
It has been permanently occupied by people from these different countries, working together for over 20 years.
‘It is both a pinnacle of human achievement and a beacon of hope that is a testament to what we can achieve when we work together.
Space age: With NASA
‘It has been said that living on the space station you realise that if you don’t look after the vessel you are travelling in and you don’t look after your fellow travellers, you won’t survive the journey.
‘Then, when you look down upon Earth, you realise that the same is true.
‘We have to look after this planet we’re travelling on and we have to look after each other in order to survive the journey.’
Tour de force
And now for the science bit: And how do they do that?
Somebody put this man on the phone to Vladimir Putin.
And if you can’t wait until then you can catch the show on May 12 at AFAS Live, Amsterdam.
For some they are stressful thoroughfares but for the rest they are objets d’artes and why airports are museums.
If you are a seasoned traveller then it is inevitable that you will have spent hours on end in airports.
Go Broncos
Blue Mustang: I want to jump on
Denver: Now if you have found yourself with eight hours before your next flight from Denver you might wonder what you’ll do.
Where’s a mini-golf course when you need one?
Well, yours is at the south end of Jeppesen Terminal in the pre-security area.
That Denver International Airport should have a mini-golf course should come as little surprise.
Psychedelic: Blue Bear in Denver
To those of us greeted by a giant blue Bronco installation, entering the airport.
The hip and humorous hombres from Denver have a thing for big blue animals as we know from our own perigrinations in Mile High City.
When in Rome
I’ll be back: The Trevi Fountain in Rome
Rome: It would have been the preserve of the Gods, of Mercury, to fly in Ancient Rome.
And so in today’s Leonardo da Vinci Airport they celebrate their seafaring past.
And so when I last visited the Eternal City they had an exhibition to Ostia.
Of course it wouldn’t be Rome if they weren’t honouring their most famous citizens with sculptures scattered through the airport.
And an array of mosaics including part of a mythological depiction of signs of the Zodiac and the four time zones, or the four seasons.
Epic Athens
Spoiled and ruined at the Acropolis in Athens
Athens: Now what the fast food chain was in the days of Socrates and Plato is anybody’s guess but I’m thinking Figs on the Run.
Civilisations meet near the Burger King on the upper level of the main departures hall (before security).
And there you’ll see 172 authentic artefacts dating from the Neolithic and Early Hellenic eras to the post-Byzantine period.
I will be back to check them out only I’d messed up my connections through Munich and had a date with Athene on a hill. But that’s another story.
Amsterdam in miniature
Holland Boulevard, Schiphol
Amsterdam: The Netherlands have long been a crossroads from these islands, Britain and Ireland, where I live.
And, while of course, we should always take time out to see its largest city, the gem that is Amsterdam, there are times when Schiphol Airport will be a layover.
Now I’m a long-term advocate for art galleries, and believe that there is never a wasted minute, hour or afternoon spent in one.
Drink up: Amsterdam Airport
And so if you have time on your hands, and even if you don’t, then you should check out the Rijksmuseum.
Which became the first art museum in the world to open a branch at an airport in 2002.
And where travellers can visit the museum free of charge, 24 hours a day.
Qatar welcomes the world
Animal magic: The oryxes in Doha
Qatar: Now Qatar will be welcoming peoples from around the globe at the end of this year when they host the World Cup.
So we’ll all see the herd of metal oryxes, a nice treat in arrivals.
Have a lie down: And there are more funky sculptures
As well as the jumbo yellow Lamp Bear by Urs Fischer after departures, security and passport control at the South Node.
Or the wooden toy Small Lie which looms 32 feet over passers-by in the North Node.
And the larger-than-life sculptural Playground.
All of which we’ll appreciate all the more as we get back out flying again.
I must have been one of the very few kids in Glasgow to be lullabied to sleep with old Republican songs… and because of that and my own journey I’m an avowed internationalist republican which is why today I say Vive La Republic of Barbados.
Now you’ve heard me wax lyrical already many times about the magical island of Barbados and my Kiss With Rihanna and Rumba there.
And Bim, as it is affectionately known (hence me being known on the island as Bim Jim) is the talk of the Scottish and British Travel scene with the Bridgetown route rolling out from Edinburgh next month.
Now to celebrate Barbados becoming the latest country to throw off the shackles of monarchy and go out on their own, here’s to all those nations who have taken their destiny in their own hands.
And decided to be governed by one of their own.
Now a true republic, just like a true democracy or a true anything these days in double speak, is a moveable object.
But you’ve got to start somewhere which is why we’re going with 160 (now Barbados have signed up).
All republics lead from Rome
And if you know you’re Classic History, and my Latin is better than my Ancient Greek then you’ll know that republic derives from the two Latin words res and publica (public thing).
So that’s one of the famous things that ‘the Romans did for us’ although, of course, if you’re British then it’s an experiment from which we’ve run far away.
Apart, of course, from a brief period from 1649-1660 when these islands of Britain and Ireland entered into a Commonwealth which was really a theocracy.
But while Westminster claims to be the mother of all parliaments (doubtful, and Europe’s oldest in Iceland might have something to say about that).
It’s Rome which is the mothership of all republics, and we have the good fortune that the Forum, the hub of Roman public life is still there.
No fools those Ancient Romans though with their togas as I found out when I almost fainted in the Eternal City heat in my modern clothes.
An Italian fixture
Venice: And let’s catch a gondola back to Padova
Now where Rome led the rest of Italy followed.
And chief among them was the 1100-year Venetian Republic which still styles itself thus and is hewn into every gondola and the very bricks of the Campanile.
Florence, Siena, Amalfi, Pisa and Genoa all saw what the Doges were doing and how fetching their hats were and followed suit.
But the republicaniest of all the republics and the longest-standing is San Marino.
And so what they lack in football skills (0-10 v England) they more than make up for in their political skills.
La Republique, mais oui
Je suis L’Empereur: Napoleon
Ah, yes, the French. like so much, would have us believe that they are the shining light of Republics.
So much so that they have had five of them ever since Corsican Napoleon got le ball rolling.
Notre ami soon decided though that L’empereur sounded so much better…
And he did that with one arm behind his back (or affectedly tucked in his jacket then).
It must be a poncey royal thing because the UK’s Prince Charles who very graciously decided to attend the signing-over papers to the Bajans (and bag himself some sun at the time) does pretty much the same thing.
And on a tangent we’ll not say anything about the carbon footprint, Prince Save The World.
None of us are perfect, of course, it’s just the rest of us don’t bleat on about it and preach to the rest of us who do hop on planes.
Middle Ages and Middle Europe
Can I be trusted on a bike? In Amsterdam
The breeding ground for republics in the Middle Ages was what we now know as Germany.
And a quick count chronicles 62 in the northern European powerhouse.
All of which would be a good exercise and excuse to traverse modern-day Germany with a Michael Portillo type notebook.
I’d have to start in my favourite German city Hamburg first of course.
There are some who have gone the opposite way to the Bajans and jumped from republic to monarchy like the Dutch.
Others who have had a brief dalliance with republicanism, Catalonia, and still have hopes of a return to those halcyon days.
Battle hymn of the Republic
Southern men: At the statue of Stonewall Jackson at Manassas
Yes, their eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.
And while the North eulogised its Republic, the South too held its close to its bosom, albeit for just five years.
That said the Confederate States of America still exist in the hearts and minds of many in the Deep South.
And you don’t need me to tell you that that was the first battle of the US Civil War.
Post-colonial
Cool for cats… in the Eastern Cape, South Africa
There were, of course, a rash of republics in the post-colonial world which is where Barbados join us now.
While in Africa and Asia the cry went up for the ‘public thing’ which alas all too quickly became the ‘dictator thing.’
And because of these precedents it ratchets up our hope that the South African Rainbow Nation experiment proves successful despite its challenges.
And the USSR and its satellites
The voice of Dresden: With Ingrid in Dresden
Dogmatic ideologists, of course, think nothing of hijacking the word republic for something that looks nothing like it.
And hovering up previously self-governing nations, which is where Russia came in and formed the bloated Union of the Soviet Socialist Republic.
Unless I find me a time machine a trip back to those days will inevitably elude me, although that’s where museums and heritage come in.
And you can still immerse yourself into the spirit of those days on any trip out there.
Which is exactly what you get when you visit the old DDR.
Now we all know of the Berlin Wall and Checkpoint Charlie but more of us should visit the mural to communism which stands as a reminder of Russian misrule and occupation in Dresden.
Irie, Barbados
It’s a republic, now: With Ruby in Barbados
And so good luck to the incumbent President of Barbados. Sandra Mason, incidentally also the last governor-general.
Vive La Republic of Barbados.
I’ll raise a glass of rum punch to you on the official date of handover tomorrow.
Which is a shared holiday, Barbados’s National Day, and Scotland’s too.
In Scotland, Barbados: Honest
And until my own native land becomes a republic (I’m not holding my breath) I’ll. mark yours, and America’s and France’s.
And the whole lot of you, 160 or so, who have taken the revolutionary step of deciding that you wanted to be ruled by someone of the people.
Just like watching the detectives don’t get cute, just like watching the detectives, I get so angry when the teardrops start, But he can’t be wounded ’cause he got no heart. – Elvis Costello, Watching the Detectives
And with apologies to the Poet Laureate of New Wave.
But it’s not the bespectacled one but the new run of Line of Duty, shot in Belfast, which has got me thinking.
About my favourite detectives in the cities they are associated with.
So here are seven deadly detective shows, their music and their cities.
Happy World Book Day… I’ve been turning over a new leaf by re-reading some old favourites from around the world.
Some will be yours, others I’d recommend as they namecheck places you’ll want to visit, and the people too.
Czech’s in post for this classic
On the King Charles Bridge in Prague
Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis: Or you can have The Trial.
OK, I’ve not read either, but I have checked out KafkaesquePrague, his home city.
And he’ll be glad to know that the Czechs still retain his take on the world around him and its leaders…
Bureaucracies overpowering people often in a surreal, nightmarish way.
Anne’sterdam
Can I be trusted on a bike? In Amsterdam
Anne Frank’s The Diary of a Young Girl: It’s chilling to listen to the audio of Anne‘s words in the diary she wrote in her family’s hideout in Amsterdam.
And I make no apologies in saying that I choked up.
When I heard that the vibrant young girl destined for Auschwitz had wanted to become a journalist.
Anne, of course, made a lasting impression, and has gone on to inspire generations of chlldren and adults alike.
Eastern Eden
Cool for cats… in the Eastern Cape, South Africa
Olive Schreiner’s The Story of An African Farm: Olive may not be on every, or any, schoolchildren’s radar in the Northern Hemisphere.
And athough its style is of its time, the 19th century, this chronicle of South African life in the Eastern Cape, is required reading.
A feminist and ahead of her time Olive railed against the prejudices around her .
And she also moved in some pretty famous circles. Required reading.
Crusoe in Tobago
Give ‘em rope: With Levi and Bandanaman the goat in Tobago
Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, Tobago: And if you’re lucky enough you can even reprise the actions of some of your favourite literary characters.
Like in Tobago where Robinson Crusoe swept ashore and took years to get off.
For all his protestations I think he probably enjoyed it. And we know that he made some friends of the local goats.
The Odyssey
Spoiled and ruined at the Acropolis in Athens
Homer’s Odyssey: And this one I did read, or at least study, and then parts of it.
As a Classics scholar (or messer) at school.
I had my own odyssey trying to make my way through Munich Airport and on way to Greece and over to its islands.
There’s nothing like walking in the footsteps of your legend’s… so there’s an invitation to you.
And it’s been flagged up that I’ve been down this road before with this book collection. See if my choices have changed and tell me your faves.
March to Freedom: Siseko and Mandela in SA
Can I be trusted on a bike? In Amsterdam
Nylon Pool, Tobago
