https://greyfriarskirk.com/visit/kirkyard/ Archives - Jim Murty’s TravelTravelTravel

The Bobby prize on National Dog Day

26th August 202426th August 2024 funtime65

And they must be barking to ignore our terriers so we’re redressing that by bestowing them the Bobby prize on the 20th National Dog Day.

For canine fans every day is a dog day but today your best mutts might just get a bigger bone, a chewier chew toy..

It transpires that the labrador is the nation’s favourite and that the Scottish terriers, in all their forms, don’t even figure in the top ten.

Which maybe suggests that we invite the world to join us at the paws of one devoted Skye Terrier Greyfriars Bobby.

Bobby on a pedestal

Well, everyone who lives in, or around, Edinburgh does.

And we will today when another of our American cousins visits and asks us to take us to Edinburghers’ favourite spots.

We fully expect them to be just as entranced as Walt Disney was when he heard of the faithful companion.

Who would return nightly to sleep on the grave of his crofter master and who is now buried next to him.

A neighbour’s best friend

As odd as it may seem, not everyone is a doggie person which is why my Dear Old Dad never found room for a basket at home.

Although one summer in my Mum’s heartland of Co. Donegal we came close with our guest house’s pet, Welsh Corgi Dinky.

Of course, as we all know, a dog is not just for Christmas…

All that walking and making plans for them when I travel the world.

Which is why we dote instead on our feted next door neighbour Royalist Roy’s Scottish Terrier Hamish.

Lottie dottie about dogs

Dashingly handsome: Lottie and her daschund

Not that we would want to put dog lovers off holidaying with their pooch pals.

It certainly hasn’t with my old friend from the American Travel Fair, IPW, Lottie Gross.

Who has carved out a niche for herself with her 365 things to do with your dog in the UK and Ireland.

Which Amazon describes as mapping..

‘The rugged countryside of Ireland to the beaches of Cornwall, Kent and the Scottish Highlands.

‘Plus castles, country houses and cracking walks to be had in between.

‘With the long list of brilliant activities accompanied by essential practical information for dog owners.

‘Such as local bylaws, rules for dogs, wildlife to be aware of, safety tips, solo travel with dogs, activities with reactive dogs, and accessible dog days out.’

Take her lead

Lottie, as anybody who meets her quickly discovers, is clearly dottie about doggies.

And a fantastic award-winning travel writer and editor to boot.

I’m all right Jack: With Captain Jack Russell in South Africa

For me today I will pay pilgrimage to my favourite dog in the world.

Who will always get my Bobby prize on National Dog Day.

America, Countries, Europe, Ireland, UK

Dragging up the statue debate

9th April 20239th April 2023 funtime65

News that 70,000 fans have signed a petition to have an erection of Paul O’Grady (he’d appreciate that) put up in his hometown Birkenhead sees us dragging up the statue debate again.

Whether the proposed O’Grady statue over the Mersey from Liverpool would be of pets’ pal Paul with a beloved pooch.

Or his beloved alter ego, Lily Savage, a celebration of this towering figure would be most welcome.

We make no apologies for dredging up this contentious subject again because simply put statues are a fixture of every tourist’s city break trip.

And it is our mission to redress the balance.

By putting up more cultural figures on pedestals to match, replace or overtake the mystery military statues that look down on us.

Who’s a hero?

A horse, a horse: Stonewall Jackson at Manassas

Statues was all the talk in of all places Barbados a few years ago.

When the Ski Club of Virginia made their annual pilgrimage down to the Caribbean.

And our new friends from the Deep South were alerting us to the gathering storm.

Over the statues of the Confederate leaders proliferating there.

Which I saw for myself when I went out to Virginia.

And visited Manassas, site of the first fighting in the Civil War, and home to Stonewall Jackson.

And alas the fighting was to resume not long after on the streets again.

I was fortunate to illicit the opinions of those on both sides of the divide through further adventures in the Deep South.

And meet the likes of Dr Martin Luther King and his unfinished statue in Washington DC.

And Fannie Lou Hamer, the little big woman who got tired of being tired in Mississippi.

The extraordinary ordinary

In the name of dog: Greyfriars Bobby in Edinburgh

Of course for every celebrated soldier, conceited king or quaffed queen there are real heroes and heroines who have rightly been placed in marble and stone.

Such as Anne Frank in Amsterdam, Workers’ champion Jim Larkin in Dublin or devoted doggie Greyfriars Bobby in Edinburgh.

Ah yes, you’ll see the message we’re sending out here, more children, women, working-class heroes and animals.

Gay giants

And LGBTQ+ champions and more drag queens.

Our trawl of statues turns up unexpectedly and disappointingly precious few of either.

Again our beloved Ireland leads the way somewhat and in spite of its repressive Catholic past.

With the louche and lounging statue of Oscar Wilde in Merrion Square.

While he is lauded and lipsticked in his gravestone in the Pere Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, his last resting place.

Where Wilde led, the likes of Harvey Milk, the ‘Mayor of Castro Street’ in San Francisco.

Whose bust smiles at us from its plinth in City Hall, followed.

And Greenwich Village in New York, spiritual home for the Gay Liberation Movement, made a statement with a bust to Marsha P Johnson.

All of which makes the case for more statues which truly represent the people who live among them and represent them.

Redressing the balance

Alas, here in the UK as in most places representation is in short supply.

With only Alan Turing, the decoder who helped defeat Hitler, represented long after he was vilified and criminalised for his homosexuality.

So let’s hear it for the real heroes and heroines of our society.

Those we can identify with and look up to.

And that’s who I want to be looking at it on my city breaks.

And why I’m dragging up the statue debate again.

Countries, Culture, Europe, Ireland, UK

Yappy 150th Anniversary Greyfriars Bobby

15th January 202215th January 2022 funtime65

Yappy 150th Anniversary Greyfriars Bobby, the loyal dog who slept by his dead master’s grave, and let’s put more animals on pedestals.

There were pipes and prayers to mark the milestone in the Edinburgh kirkyard.

And I dare say a whisky or two in his memory at the local inn, named after the West Skye Terrier who Walt Disney brought to the world.

Bobby’s statue is, of course, the best in the Scottish capital, nay the world.

And, yes, those no-name figures of Empire should be taken off their plinths.

Pets on plinths

And let’s be radical here… women.

And animals.

So here’s our menagerie of all creatures great and small.

And on the grounds that we’ve got the best wee doggie, here in Scotland.

And that all God’s creatures have a place in my choir let’s sing the praises of…

The Puck stops here

King Puck, Killorglin, Ireland, Now we’re not acting the goat here.

And I’m all about the goats, from my time racing them in Tobago.

In Kerry, in the south of Ireland they have been crowning a goat and throwing a festival around it since the 17th century.

When a goat alerted the village of Oliver Cromwell’s coming.

King Puck is in truth a better fit than any of the chinless wonder monarchs England imposed on them.

Before they broke free a hundred years ago.

On the Bosfurus

Tombili, Istanbul: And no, I’ve not lost my dictionary… and if I had I’d always return to the book section of the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul.

Cats have a special place in the hearts of Turks, and none more so than diva Tombili.

Tombili became a global hit after she was photographed reclining on a pavement… give her some Kite-Kat turkey treats.

Bear with us here

Winnipeg the Bear, Canada: The silly willy-nilly all stuffed with fluff is, of course, more prone to napping than scrapping.

This is the real Winnipeg, a Canadian military mascot bear cub, whom AA Milne and Christopher Robin visited at London Zoo.

The Wolf of Rome

Capitoline Wolf, Rome: And where’s a she-wolf when you need her?

Rome, that’s where. And lucky that she was for Romulus and Remus.

Because she rescued the babes from the Tiber and they went on to found Rome.

The Romans have never forgotten, and you’ll see fountains adorned with wolf taps around the city.

While they’ll wish each other well with the time-honoured greeting: ‘In bocca al lupi (in the mouth of the wolf).

Those wacky Germans

The Town Musicians of Bremen, Germany: And why celebrate one when you can have four?

The story goes that four old domesticated animals, a donkey, a dog, a cat and a rooster, escape their mistreatment.

To go in search of their fortune in Bremen as musicians, obvs.

They get distracted by a house robbery, take over the gaff and live there happily ever after.

And so as we say Yappy 150th Anniversary Greyfriars Bobby and all your furry and feathered friends.

All of whom are deserving of being pets on plinths.