https://olympics.com/en/paris-2024 Archives - Jim Murty’s TravelTravelTravel

Au Revoir Paris, Hey Los Angeles

11th August 202411th August 2024 funtime65

Au Revoir Paris, Hey Los Angeles and we’ll be guaranteed a Coliseum of noise in 2028 for a Games of gladiatorial combat.

I’ve seen first hand how the LA Memorial Coliseum channels the Olympic spirit with its mock classical style.

And for those who fall into the lazy stereotype of sneering at America’s recreations of the Old World.

It’s worth pointing out that the old cities of the Modern Games have dispensed with their old stadia for modern palaces.

Which is probably not the main reason why the Games are returning to America.

Three cheers

LA has real Olympic heritage with the LA Memorial Coliseum becoming the first stadium to stage three Games.

Following the successes of 1932 and 1984.

Of course, for Fiftysomethings the Coliseum holds iconic memories from 1984.

Of South Africa Brit Zola Budd clipping America’s darling Mary Decker Slaney and her lying crumpled on the track.

Fun and Games

Carl Lewis emulating Jesse Owens by winning four athletes golds at the one Games.

And Sebastian Coe holding off Steve Cram to retain his Olympic 1500m title and Daley Thompson defending his Decathlon crown.

We shouldn’t though have been surprised with the 1932 Games breaking new ground.

With the first Olympic photo-finish when Eddie Tolan held off Ralph Metcalfe to win 100m gold.

And became the first non-European to become the world’s fastest man.

Outwith the Coliseum the 1932 Games introduced an Olympic Village for the first time.

Oh Diana

To wander around the Coliseum, albeit for a concert, is to feel like you’re walking in the footsteps of athletics heroes and heroines.

Sweetest hangover: With Diana in the Coliseum

New names will be inscribed into the plaques in the Coliseum in 2028 to accompany those heroes of 1932 and 1984.

Now a behemoth like the LA Coliseum doesn’t stand around looking pretty until an Olympics rolls around.

And entertainers beyond the world of sport clamour to add their names to the Coliseum Hall of Fame.

With few bigger than Diana Ross who wowed a specially invited audience to see her perform at IPW, the American travel fair.

Four years is a long time but I’m planning on Coming Out to LA in 2028.

And flying Aer Lingus with pre-clearance from €260.70.

And so as we say a fond Au Revoir Paris, Hey Los Angeles… let the Games begin.

Caribbean, Countries, Music

Antigua for the Caribbean Soca Showdown

5th August 20245th August 2024 funtime65

The West Indies are on a roll so ready, steady, go, it’s a hop, skip and a jump to Antigua for The Caribbean Soca Showdown.

Our favourite set of islands in the sun are beloved for their laid-back lifestyle.

But they do, of course, punch above their weight too on the sporting field as they continue to show at the Paris Olympics.

Jamaican flyers Usain Bolt, Don Quarry, Merlene Ottey, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce have led the way over the years.

As have cricketing royalty Sir Garfield Sobers (Barbados) and Sir Viv Richards (Antigua).

And my Foreday Morning mate Brian Lara and his footie pal Dwight Yorke from Trinidad & Tobago among many, many more.

Add to that new Olympic heroes from Paris 2024 in pride of St Lucia in 200m women’s champ Julien Alfred, their first-ever medal winner.

And the island looks like it will never stop partying since the weekend win.

While triple jumper Thea LaFond worked the same magic for Dominica.

Soca not soccer

Of course all eyes are on the Olympics right now but for many of us attention will switch back, and has already started with the resumption of Scottish league football, on soccer.

Soccer has its place in the Caribbean, but in truth, if you ask about it, you’re more likely to be taken to a big field for a Mas (party) and a festival of Soca, or So Calypyso music.

Where there is no tribal rivalry, only peace, love, rhythm and rum.

There will be good-natured island competition across 12 islands on Saturday it is true.

But that just adds to the carnival when the Kari Soca Caribbean Soca Monarch Showdown.

Take to the stage

Empress will proudly represent Antigua and Barbuda, while D Phillip Blackest will showcase talent from the US Virgin Islands.

Christy D will sing for Barbados, and Rae will fly the Trinidad and Tobago flag.

Dominica will have two representatives, Mr Gwada and Benji.

Montserrat have sent Lyrikal, Riggy is flying in from Grenada, and Eazi from Nevis.

Imran Nerdy is St Lucia’s pride and joy, TR Shine represents Belize, and Ras Kelly is St Kitts’ contestant.

None of the names there that I’ve come across and Biggie Irie, King Bubba and his pals will no doubt be jumping at Crop Over in Barbados just now.

So that means new names and friends to jump alongside.

So for a celebration of life and music get out to Antigua for the Caribbean Soca Showdown.

Countries, Europe, Music

Yodel-Ay-Hee-Ho and fly a flag this Swiss Day

1st August 2024 funtime65

Yodel-Ay-Hee-Ho and fly a flag this Swiss Day… or better still make a sport of it.

After all every country in the world is waving or wrapping themselves in theirs just now at the Olympics in Paris.

All of which is a treat for vexillophiles everywhere.

So with all that drapery fluttering around why not put it to good use and turn it into an event?

With a swish of the flag

Hip to be square: The Vatican State flag

After all, the Swiss, who fly one of the oldest in the world, dating to 1339 and the battle of Laupen in the canton of Bern in 1339 do.

When they adopted it on their chain mail to distinguish themselves from the other participants on the battlefield.

Like all of us the Swiss are rightly proud of their flag which, with the Vatican State‘s, is the only square flag on the world.

So much so that the right to fly a flag was a privilege reserved for the urban guilds from the Middle Ages onwards.

Now, of course, any Tom, Dick or Harald flies theirs whether at a sporting event, political rally or from their back garden.

And I’m watching you out of my window, Royalist Roy!

Now you can judge for yourself how well the athletes at the Olympics wave theirs.

But, in truth, if there was a gold medal for flag flying then the Swiss would surely be champions.

Because since the turn of the century 1910, the Swiss Yodeling Association have taken it under their wing.

Catch the wave

Blowing your own horn: And the Swiss have a right

Now with a swish, let’s begin.

Flag throwing involves swinging a 120 x 120cm silk flag back and forth on a short staff.

And then throwing it into the air and catching it by the staff as it falls.

Now if you thought that waving a flag was just swishing it from left to right then you would, of course, be oversimplifying the whole art.

There are, of course, more than 90 regulated swings.

As well as the two grips there are body swings, plate swings, medium-high swings, leg and body combinations and passes for duets.

All to the accompaniment of alphorn music.

Fly the flag

Now, I’m not sure if a cocktail Swiss flag counts for the competition… well, looking above it clearly doesn’t.

But I will wave mine in honour of my Swiss amis today for Swiss National Day and the significant moment.

When in 1291 the Swiss Federal Charter was signed by the three founding cantons of Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden.

As they agreed to ‘stand together against outside judges and aggressors.’

All of which is good reason to let out a Yodel-Ay-Hee-Ho and fly a flag this Swiss Day and word up to my old amie from Iterlaken, Brigitte, I have been practising.

As a postscript and whisper it today as it’s the Swiss day so get on board Swiss and fly yourself out there.

But us Scots have the oldest national flag in Europe dating back to the 9th century.

And it’s a national shame that we don’t make more of it than just an exhibition in a dovecot near where we live now, in Athelstaneford, East Lothian.

Countries, Cruising, Deals, Europe, Ships

Asterisk Asterix and the Olympics

29th July 202429th July 2024 funtime65

Mais oui, the Games have indeed begun but still the fall-out continues from the Rain on the Seine, the Drag Queen Last Supper and the opening ceremony, but for us we want to asterisk Asterix and the Olympics.

Nor are we alone in feeling short-changed by the greatest Gaul of all being absent from the curtain-raising ceremony in Paris.

Particularly as our comic book hero and his bon ami Obelix boast such athletic prowess.

As featured in their adventures and particularly in Asterix at the Olympic Games.

Which was turned into the-then most expensive non-English and French film of all time, featuring inevitably Gerard Depardieu, back in 2008.

Now while Emmanuel Macron and the French Olympic Committee may have overlooked the appeal of Asterix.

Parc it with Asterix

Chantilly grace: A short train drive from Paris

Our friends at Irish Ferries know his popularity endures with enfants and grand enfants alike visiting their shores.

Which is why they are flagging up Parc Asterix, 20km from charmant Chantilly, itself only a 24-minute train ride from Paris.

It just so happens too that the Parc is celebrating its 35th anniversary this year.

Now fresh for this year they boast a grand new attraction among the roller coasters and rides… La Tour de Numerobis.

Ride on: Roller coaster thrills at Parc Asterix

You’ll rise to a height of 40 metres and be rewarded with a panoramic view of the whole of Gaul from your perch in Egypt.

While for those who love a water ride Le Grand Splatch becomes La Revanche des Pirates.

Where Red Beard takes revenge on the Gauls.

We’re told that between catapults, nets and harpooning you will be required to show skill and courage to avoid being shipwrecked.

While on that theme there is a new float at the Gaulish Parade.

Gaul’s well that ends well

Asterix has flagged up the Défilé Gaulois to us.

Where you’ll see a parade featuring Astérix, Obélix, Cléopâtre, César, Barbe-Rouge and all our other favourites.

Which this year features a new chariot based on Asterix in Spain.

Now everyone’s a critic after the fact but here’s a thought Emmanuel…

Would it not have been better, a lot more fun, and probably a little less costly to just let Parc Asterix run the opening ceremony.

The perfect match

Parc Asterix offers a one-day/one-night stay.

For two adults and two children in a four-person room at the Hôtel des Trois Hiboux or the Hôtel de la Cité Suspendue in high season from €87.85pp.

And to get you there, Irish Ferries has the seasygoing option for you this summer.

On board its flagship W.B. Yeats.

With sailings from Dublin to Cherbourg from just €238.

For a car with one adult and child in August with an inside ensuite cabin.

So even if Emmanuel and the French organising committee don’t deem him worthy of their attention you can still Asterisk Asterix and the Olympics this summer.

Countries, Europe, Sport

The Olympic ode goes to…

22nd July 202422nd July 2024 funtime65

A gold medal the pinnacle of an athlete’s career but then the Olympic ode goes to…

Well, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the Modern Olympics whose XXXIII iteration gets underway on Friday in Paris, that’s who.

Who knew?… well, non moi until I was educated this week.

By my nouveau ami Guillame Le Roux, owner of golf travel firm Intro Travel.

Who helpfully fed me this nugget at lunch at the Engravers Suite.

In the company of Visit Hilton Head and Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport.

Games punctuated

There will be 329 medal events across 32 sports at the Paris Olympics, including golf, with breaking making its debut.

Times, fashions and sports, of course, change and many of the original line-up of Games events have been consigned to history.

With the full stop put on the literature competition.

Alas, as I reckon I could well have been in the running.

As a past performer at the Edinburgh Fringe with my group The Forth Stanza.

And judging by the reception to my impromptu offering at lunch…

‘There was a young man from Paris/Who slipped and fell on his aras.’

Let the Games begin

Now fellow wordsmith Pierre took gold for literature at the 1912 Summer Olympics for his poem Ode to Sport.

But good sport that he was, he used the pseudonym of Georges Hohrod and M. Eschbach.

The names of villages close to his wife’s place of birth in Alsace.

Even if we don’t have floppy-hatted dreamers waxing lyrical on daffodils and fair maidens to witness.

Channel your inner Olympian

All eyes will be on Paris these next few weeks.

But who among us can afford the inflated prices around the French capital now the Games is in town.

There are options thankfully and hundreds of tickets still available.

The best of which is Channel Tunnelling it to The City of Light from £69, Folkestone to Calais.

With Guillaume speaking for us all when he admitted he would attend in person.

Le course

Should an invite to the golf at Le Golf National to see new Open champion Xander Schauffele defend his title be forthcoming.

Now in the meantime I’ve been working on my limerick just in case they reintroduce the literature prize.

So that I can hear those magical words yet.

And the Olympic ode goes to..

Countries, Europe, Sport, UK

A centennial tribute to Olympian Eric Liddell

2nd June 20242nd June 2024 funtime65

On this slow summer Sunday let’s pick up the pace a bit with a centennial tribute to Olympian Eric Liddell.

Liddell’s legend lives on less in his home country of Scotland than on the big screen.

As the God-fearing star of the Oscar-winning Chariots of Fire.

The film which chronicled his and fellow British sprinter Harold Abrahams at the 1924 Paris Olympics.

With Liddell entering the pantheon of sporting greats by winning the 400m gold.

But only after sacrificing his place in his favoured event of the 100m.

Because it would have involved him having to run on a Sunday, the Lord’s day.

Bring Eric into the open

Happy Hundred: Liddell fans inside Edinburgh University

Now you would imagine that such heroism would have earned Liddell a permanent podium in a town square.

But, of course, this prophet in his own land was overlooked for the usual slavers and empire builders who look down on us from plinths.

And the Flying Scotsman is hidden away in Eltham College (no, us neither).

And hidden inside his alma mater of Edinburgh University.

Also as a stained glass window in a church in Holy Corner in Morningside in the Scottish capital.

Paris revisited

The great sprinter will no doubt be eulogised by commentators in the City of Light to inspire our Paris 2024 hopefuls.

Without a mention that China, who will no doubt be pilloried by our Little Britainers, pay more homage to Liddell than we do.

And there is a statue of Liddell at his Japanese internment camp in China.

With the People’s Republic even claiming the Chinese-born Liddell as their first Olympic champion.

With a memorial to the Scot who lies there for eternity having died doing missionary work in the Far East.

It might be worth reflecting that the original Olympians in Hellas performed for the greater glory of the Gods.

While today’s athletes compete for greater riches, clicks and social media followers.

The OG Olympians

Those OG (as the Gen Z millennials) Olympians in Greece would call them became immortalised in statue.

And wouldn’t it be fitting then as a centennial tribute to Olympian Eric Liddell?

To erect a town square statue to a real Edinburgh hero… and we salute the sterling work of the steering group The Eric Liddell 100.

And God knows, there is no shortage of redundant erections around the city which we could start ripping down now.

Europe, Sport

From Olympia to Paris as we let the flames begin

16th April 202416th April 2024 funtime65

Now it’s been flickering since the first Classical Olympics so for the day that’s in we’re going on an odyssey from Olympia to Paris as we let the flames begin.

All to mark 1,000 days until the start of the XXXIII Games gets underway in the City of Light.

The flame burned brightly all through the original games in old Hellas in reference to Prometheus stealing fire from the gods.

Now you might think that the Athenians would have revived the flame.

When the Games were revived in 1896 but maybe the gods had been appeased.

Burning ambitions

Olympic adventure: Olympic Airlines in Greece

It took the Dutch to bring the flame back for the Games in Amsterdam in 1928 for a more prosaic reason… to show people where the Olympics were being held.

The grandiloquent Germans of the Thirties took it up a step though not for the best of motives for the Berlin Olympics in 1936.

There was no precedent for the torch relay but then The Third Reich were reinventing everything they came across then.

was introduced by Carl Diem at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany.

And seeing they were burning their way across Europe at the time they thought nothing of beating a path.

From Olympia to Berlin over 1,980 miles with 3,331 runners in twelve days and eleven nights.

Where minor protests in Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia were put down by the local security forces.

The Greatest

King of the ring: Cassius Clay/Muhammad Ali

The torch relay became a fixture for the next 72 years becoming ever more unwieldy.

Before being discontinued after all manner of disruptions and protests on its way to Beijing in 2008.

Nowadays the torch relay only takes place in Greece and the host country.

And that’s what we saw yesterday in Hellas with the Vestal Virgins stealing the show as they always do.

Now while that’s a staple in the Home of the Games each host country has it in its gift.

To choose the figure who will light the torch when it reaches its venues.

And there was to be no more emotional moment than in 1996.

When a warrior who wouldn’t have looked out of place in Ancient Greece.

Former Olympic champ Muhammad Ali lit the flame, hands shaking because of his Parkinson’s.

So there you are and we hope you’re not too whacked after our odyssey from Olympia to Paris as we let the flames begin.