Happy St Andrew’s Day.
From Banff to Barbados, Turriff to Tenerife, Lewis to Limassol, Sauchie to Sochi, Keith to Kiev and Thurso to Thessaloniki.
You get the picture – it’s not just Scotland, we all celebrate Andy as our patron saint.
So let’s pick the bones out of the apostle and his links to these countries.
Scots Sandy
St Andrews, Scotland: We’re here at the Home of Golf and the third oldest university in the UK,
The story goes that St Regulus (me neither) brought Andrew’s kneecap, arm, three fingers and a tooth here.
And King Oengus built a holy settlement on this collection.
You’ll want to stay at the Old Course Hotel and look out at where the legendary stickmen took the plaudits.
Fly the Canary flag
St Andrew, Tenerife: I’m not going to spoonfeed you here though as to how St Andrew came to be associated with the Canaries island of Tenerife.
Only to say that Scotland and Tenerife where I visited with CanariaWays share the same white cross on blue background.
San Cristobal de La Laguna is more Havana (it models itself on this World Heritage site) than Hamilton.
But you will find the iconic flag flying here.
Windies’ Andy
And my old half-Scottish pal Jevan is here
Barbados: The island call Little England has an area called Scotland.
Three hundred and sixty five days of sun, a bit like the Scotland in Europe!
Barbados is split into regions named after saints…
The one where the Rooneys, Simon Cowell, Cliff Richsrd, and, er me, like is the Platinum Coast in Saint James obviously.
All Greek to Andy
Greece and Cyprus: The old white beardie man (and there’s nothing wrong with that) is literally an icon in Greek parts.
You know those wooden framed pictures the Greeks love.
St Andrew is said to have been crucified in Patras.
It is Greece’s third biggest city, the regional capital of Western Greece in the northern Peloponnese.
And the Greek Orthodox basilica is the holy site for Andreans as we’ll call followers of Andrew.
And they’ll think nothing of the 215km trip from Athens.
Eastern Andy
Russia and Ukraine: Our adventurous Andy loved to travel. Much like us.
And our Galilea trawler got himself up to the Black Sea and beyond.
We hope too that he was more than just a fisher of men.
Now should you get on the right side of Vladimir Putin in Russia you’ll get the tap on the shoulder.
And the Order of Saint Andrew the Apostle the First-Called.
It is the highest order in the Russian Federation.
Get it wrong and you’ll get something slipped in your tea and sent on a plane out of the country.
One man’s assassination is another’s martyrdom!
HAPPY ST ANDREW’S DAY