https://www.jungfrau.ch/en-gb/ Archives - Jim Murty’s TravelTravelTravel

Party in 2023

31st December 202231st December 2022 funtime65

Thank you 2022, old friends and new so now let’s party in 2023.

As is tradition at this time of year it’s fun to look back on what we all did over the past 365 days.

Of course even the most travelled of us will spend most of our time at home.

And we’re blessed to live by the sea near one of the great cities, Edinburgh, which is why we have been fortunate to receive visitors from around the world.

Swish Swiss

Put them on a podium: With Fran and Myriam

Auld Reekie’s winds and bends have long captivated the most imaginative which is why it’s oft-used for film locations.

And that’s part of the fun of it all as even those who thought they knew Edinburgh’s streets found themself taking detours around building works.

Before alighting on the charming Ondine on George IV Bridge, in between St Giles’ Cathedral and the Camera Obscura.

Royal watchers, of course, would become acquainted with the historic Royal Mile and St Giles Cathedral.

With Queen Elizabeth taking up residence there in September (but more of that later).

Brigitte too far: With the inestimable Brigitte

We were around this locale earlier in the year to meet our amis from Switzerland.

To recall scary Swiss hoteliers, taking the highest train journey in Europe, the Jungfrau, up the Eiger.

And yodelling in the valleys with Brigitte, a supersonic septuagenarian.

And hearing about what Switzerland has in store for us for the coming year.

Which, of course, Switzerland’s most famous and knowledgeable man (my new amie Myriam I discovered is its most clued-up woman) Roger Federer will be happy to share with you.

We rounded off the afternoon warming ourselves with Scottish drink in the institution that is the Greyfriars Bobby pub which like Bobby we always come back to.

As we will Switzerland, and had, earlier in the year when we tarried as long as we could in Zurich airport and the Montreaux Jazz Cafe Geneva which does exactly what it says on the tin.

Ski and easy in Val D’Isere

There was dancing in ski boots on the slopes of Val D’Isere too as skiing got back on the slopes after Covid.

It’s safe to say that I’m more comfortable at the apres than the ski as I raved at La Folie Douce.

And fell on the magic carpet up to the slopes.

With the help of my new amis I managed to stay upright on the mountains.

Although flat on my back in the ice pool.

Back in Barbados

Ri Ri and me me: At Rihanna’ childhood house

Now I think we’d all agree that five years is too long to stay away from the ultimate party island.

But I’m glad to say that they allowed me back, Crop Over high jinks aside, and this time they even put on a Scottish party for me.

The Barbados Celtic Festival is a celebration of all things Celtic but with a heavily tartan tinge.

All of which means dancing Gay Gordons, Eightsome Reels and Dashing White Sergeants on the baking-hot Boardwalk.

A big difference from cold church halls in the Heelans of Scotland.

Whisky was taken with well-versed Bajan pals and rum, of course.

We reversed that later in the summer with my buddy Shane, Barbados’s man on the ground in Scotland, and new travel trade pals here.

Wending our way down an Edinburgh canal on a rum-tasting tour before well-deserved nightcaps in the city’s Princes Street.

My cup of tea

Of course, it wasn’t all boozy days and nights (OK, it was) but there was more civilised libations taken… tea, and lots of it.

On my long-anticipated return to Boston, scene of my summer of love after university in 1987.

The one missing experience from those months in Beantown was the Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum because it wasn’t there then.

But it was now and beckoning me on from my Envoy Hotel window.

As was a return to my old haunt, the Irish Black Rose pub and Faneuil Hall and Quincy Market.

And a trek on the tracks to other wonders of New England in arty Providence in Rhode Island and kooky Connecticut with its academia and culinary pizza and hamburger heritage.

More America

I wasn’t finished with the Oo Es of Eh, and it hadn’t had it with me either, and while we weren’t dancing in the streets of Detroit we were singing its praises.

Albeit in Glasgow with old friends from the Motor City and the Great Lake State.

Detroit has long been the one that got away when I commissioned a colleague to enjoy its charms only for her to return with nary a tale.

Either of Stevie Wonder‘s sweetie machine and the dimes laid out for him to eat his favourite peanut candy.

Or the historical wonder of Ford’s museum and the JFK cavalcade from his assassination in Dallas, Texas.

The Lone Star State will hopefully be the next destination in 2023 when I hope to reconnect with the American travel fair, IPW. And also Michigan.

I might even get time to see Favourite Cousin in Washington DC in 2023.

And while I’m rhymin’ a happy new year to you all and let’s party in 2023.

MEET YOU ON THE ROAD

Countries, Europe, Sustainable Tourism, UK

150 years of swish Switzrailand

9th June 20229th June 2022 funtime65

And as Britain’s trains career off the tracks with mortgage-price fares and looming strikes here’s where they do it properly… 150 years of swish Switzrailand.

1847 was when the first Swiss train route, the Swiss Northern Railway, opened between Zurich and Baden, and nicknamed the Spanisch Brotli Bahn.

Because previously gentry’s servants had to set out from Baden at midnight on foot with Spanish buns.

Bun ride

The buns are a light, flaky pastry filled with a mix of roasted, crushed hazelnuts and apricot jam.

And they were apparently derived from those made in Spanish-ruled Milan during the 17th century.

The new line took just 45 minutes to traverse the 20km route, just a little more than it takes me to get from North Berwick to Edinburgh.

And this is more challenging Swiss terrain and 150 years ago.

I know Swiss trains from my ride in the country from Interlaken.

And observed that they’re priced at the wherewithal of you and me with the Swiss Pass and not the gentry.

Even the ones, the unique ones, that scale the Eiger… the tallest railway ride in Europe, the Jungfraujoch.

Swiss funday and fondue

Only one Ondine: Ondine restaurant in Edinburgh

All of which reminisces we shared as we reconnected with our Swiss amis in the en vogue Ondine restaurant in Edinburgh.

Take the two-hour Luzern-Interlaken Express whose rails we rode taking in five crystal-clear mountain lakes.

And for those of you of the trainspotter penchant (that’s my father-in-law Casey Jones) then here’s the science…

Shortly before starting its steep, winding ascent to Brünig Pass.

And there the train changes to cogwheel drivetrain technology in order to conquer the gradient.

On the right track

Swiss misses: With Fran, Myriam… and Bobby

Trains, in truth, are a joy in many countries across Europe and as easy as American pie on Amtrak in the States.

Fat as a lord and lubricated with the best white Swiss wine and brimming with the latest Swiss advances we went out into the daylight.

And paid homage to Edinburgh’s most famous son, Freeman of the City of Edinburgh Greyfriars Bobby.

Before thinking about catching the train to North Berwick… I’m just back!

Not a worry they’ve ever had in 150 years of swish Switzrailand.

America, Countries, Europe, Ireland, UK

Let the train take the strain

8th September 20208th September 2020 funtime65

As we’ve been planning a wee train trip when we can again, and I don’t mean North Berwick to Edinburgh, I’ve been checking out my friends’ recommendations.

And I’m indebted here to my old friend Aileen, who is more Roaring Twenties than Boring Twenties, for her shout in Paris.

With Aileen flagging up Le Train Bleu Restaurant (formerly the Buffet de la Gare de Lyon) located in the Gare de Lyon railway station in Paris.

So I’ll pull up to the bumper, baby, and give you my fave trainy-related places I’ve been.

And all those Eastern European and Central Asian palaces will just have to wait.

The only way is up

An Alpine hand

The Jungfraujoch, Kleine Scheidegg, Switzerland: They had me sold when they said my ears would pop.

The journey from Kleine Scheidegg up to the Jungfraujoch is Adolf Guyer-Zeller’s major feat of engineering.

That’s 9km up to the top of Europe between the Bernese Highlands and the Valais.

And you’ll get an ice bar with Swiss whiskey, a Tiso watch shop, and a Bollywood restaurant to accommodate those sari-clad ladies on the peaks.

Golden touch

Golden, Colorado: And the Wild West was built on the railway.

The Colorado Railroad Museum gives you an insight into what life was like for those pioneers puffing through the plains.

With a guided tour. The only thing that’s missing is Butch and Sundance standing down on the banks.

Also check out the Art Deco frontage railway station in Mile High City, Denver where dreams of the Gold Rush were hatched.

A Wales of a time

Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, Anglesey, Wales: And far from being a party pooper here but this long Welsh name is a Victorian Age contrivance.

It used to stop before the ‘wyng’ bit but a tailor from the village added the rest to form the word.

Which means: ‘St Mary’s church in the hollow of white hazel near a rapid whirlpool and the church of St Tysillo near the red cave.’

Alas, the bigger they are the harder they fall.

And the jobsworths have closed the station because the platform is too small because of social distancing.

And ten minutes later you’ll be on the water

Water way to travel

Padova to Venice, Italy: Now I grant you there are more romantic ways to first see the Grand Canal.

By water, of course.

But for most of us we’ll first approach the city on the lagoon by train and through that bottleneck at the station.

But the thrill when you enter Venice is worth it.

Just bear in mind the erratic Italian trains, and forget what Mussolini said.

And leave yourself enough time if you have a cocktail reception to get back to in Padova’s Botanic Gardens.

Particularly if you’re in your boardies, Dragon, and haven’t brought a change of clothes.

A familiar trip

Dublin to Greystones, Co.WicklowA: And as much as I gave out about the DART through Bray Head on my daily journeys to work…

No matter how I felt about going into work. this is a stunning stretch past Dublin Harbour.

It is not for nothing that it is compared with the Bay of Naples and used as a film substitute. And that Bono bought the view.

And, of course, it has the ultimate seal of approval in that Isambard Kingdim Brunel built the tumnel.