https://www.visitliverpool.com/ Archives - Jim Murty’s TravelTravelTravel

Ja beauty… we’re bringing German Christmas markets to Britain, well, we’ve history of it going back to Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.

Queen Vic’s husband who is credited with bringing the Christmas Tree over to this island.

Every town by now has a Teuton tree and Deutschland decorations adorning our marketplaces and danke for it.

Now as a citizen of a Second City in Scotland, in Glasgow, we’re happy to flag up that the biggest German Christmas Market on this island is not the London metropolis.

Pa rum, Brum, Brum, Brum

But Birmingham’s Frankfurt Christmas Market in Victoria Square which claims to be the biggest outside of Germany and Austria.

Offering everything from pretzels, bratwursts, and roasted almonds to gluhwein, weissbeer (wheat beer), or tasty hot chocolate.

Handcrafted wooden decorations and delicate glass baubles and crystal lamps, toys, jewellery and games.

All to the backdrop of traditional music and this being the English Midlands, 2 Tone ska.

Of course London being a metropolis of towns each borough tries to outdo the other.

Everything in Garden is Chrismassy

For us Covent Garden will always draw us magnetically particularly at this time of year.

When our favourite London market it displays its Christmas installation of more than 40 gigantic bells with bows and the vintage Christmas sleigh.

On Thursdays the market resounds to choir performance raising money for Save the Children..

Liverpool Scousemas

If it’s tunes you’re after, and it is, then Liverpool bills itself as Britain’s music city, particularly since hosting Eurovision.

Head for St George’s Place for the Liverpool Scousemas and take a ride on the giant Ferris wheel.

Ride on a vintage carousel and belt out the tunes on the karaoke ski lifts.

Edinburgh rocks

Streets ahead: Princes Street, Edinburgh

Now the Edinburgh German Christmas Market will always be close to our hearts, especially for the Son and Heir.

As he enjoyed his last Christmas there as an only child before his sister came along.

Now we can’t remember if they had this when we lived there first time up nearly 30 years ago but I don’t need a maze to get lost even in familiar surroundings.

At the Princes Street Christmas Market they’re now showcasing their Christmas tree maze.

Or you can ride the funfair rides if you’re brave enough and go easy on the gluhwein before you do.

This being Scotland there’s mulled Irn-Bru and Harry Potter-themed gifts too with JK Rowling an adopted Scot.

There’s ice skating on the George Street ice rink to match any you get in Canada and twinkling lights at our old fave stomping ground the Dome.

All Wunderbar we think you’d agree.

Or as we say in these parts. Ja beauty… we’re bringing German Christmas markets to Britain.

America, Countries, Music

The Merseyssippi Blues

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It’s 4,351 miles between Jackson and Liverpool but nothing between them musically which is why today we’re celebrating the Merseyssippi Blues.

The blues and rock’n’roll-inspired Beatles and Merseybeat assured Liverpool’s place in the musical landscape.

And so it was only natural that when the string-plucking musicos of the Magnolia State decided to branch out.

To mark the Blues beyond their borders they decamped to Liverpool.

To unveil a Mississippi Blues Trail Marker, their first in Britain, at the Cavern Club where the Beatles made their names.

And where the Sixties British musical invasion of America took shape.

And where now stands a special Blues plaque at the Club to commemorate the special relationship.

Devilishly good music

How better then to mark the occasion than through music?

And who better than a Johnson… award-winning Mississippi blues artist James ‘Super Chikan’ Johnson?

Known for his electrifying shows at Morgan Freeman’s Ground Zero Blues Club in Clarksdale.

Super Chikan obvs has a Blues birthright as a Johnson.

Nobody did more for the Blues before BB King than Robert Johnson who sold his soul to play guitar at the crossroads at Dockery Plantation.

Which is the centre point for any music fan’s odyssey on the Mississippi Blues Trail.

Love, love me Blues

If Johnson is Blues royalty then Lennon is Beatles royalty.

And Julia Baird, John’s half-sister, represented the Fab Four, was there to roll out the Blues carpet for the Mississippians.

Of course, just as Johnson’s Crossroad should be on anybody’s visit to Mississippi.

Then the Cavern and the Beatles Story and any one of The Beatles tours out of the club should be on a tourist’s Liverpool itinerary.

And what better than the Magical Mystery Tour, run by Holly Johnson’s brother Jay.

See, it’s all circular.

So if you live on this island why not start your Deep South odyssey at the Cavern Club, the home of the Merseyssippi Blues.

Countries, Music, UK

Dustin down Eurovision Liverpool

10th May 202310th May 2023 funtime65

Of course the party will be missing its biggest reveller with the elimination of Ireland but we’re still Dustin down Eurovision Liverpool.

Now there have been many turkeys over the 67 years of Eurovision.

But only one Turkey, the cult puppet and personal pal, Dustin the Turkey.

And you probably saw him taking pride of place amid the VIPs at the semi-finals.

Eurovision is, of course, the hottest ticket in town this week.

Tourist magnet

Easy Ryder: Last year’s UK entrant Sam Ryder

And it is, obviously, a tourist magnet with 100,000 visitors expected to be in Merseyside this week.

With the attendant spike in hotel rates.

One semi-final under our belts and we can see that the contestants have all got the memo about name checking The Beatles.

With the singers and dancers making the pilgrimage to The Cavern.

Hard Day’s Night Hotel

And many staying at The Hard Day’s Night Hotel, new on my radar but one I imagine could have a hard day’s night and the next morning.

And despite Liverpool beating my own home town of Glasgow to the punch it seems the perfect fit for Merseyside to get Eurovision.

Now we’ve followed The Fab Four from Liverpool, our old stomping ground, to Hamburg… and back.

And it is refreshing to see that in the past 25 years the city has rebuilt itself in their image.

So that you can enjoy The Beatles Story at the Royal Albert Dock and they are getting on board for Eurovision.

As well as the iconic Cavern Club from which tours go out into the Beatles’ Liverpool.

Ours being the Magical Mystery Tour with Jay Johnson, who’ll be Holly’s.

Musical legacy

Of course British hopes will be with Mae Muller and I Wrote A Song.

And the Liverpudlians have forgiven her for being a ‘Landiner’ and adopted her as their own.

As they did myself, a Scottish-type person, in my time there.

There has been a history of Scousers singing in Eurovision, of course, even if they couldn’t get the Beatles to enter.

Cilla Black, a huge singing star in the Sixties, came close but decided to pass on succeeding Sandie Shaw.

She thought it unlikely that the UK would back up Sandie’s win so the UK went for Cliff Richard instead.

Alas his Congratulations was misplaced and he came second, although he blamed, of all people General Franco (some truth in it mind).

We’ll pass over Jemini’s efforts, the duo getting nul points, but there were sterling performances from Prima Donna and Sonia, who both lost out to Ireland.

While it was far from Wonderful Copenhagen for Molly who was 17th in 2014.

Puppet on a string

Still this year Liverpool has two entries really through dint of them hosting on behalf of Ukraine… and they’re bound to get a big political sympathy vote.

Back to my pal Dustin the Turkey and of course he is pure Eurovision following in the legacy of barefooted Sandie Shaw who sang about a puppet on a string.

So I’m right behind him and I’m Dustin down Eurovision Liverpool. Calm down, calm down.

Countries, Europe, Music, UK

Liverpull of Euro music

9th October 2022 funtime65

It is little surprise Merseyside has won the race to host Eurovision for Ukraine because it’s always been a Liverpull of Euro music.

It may have been a surprise surprise (well that’s our big-up to Liverpool’s favourite daughter Cilla Black done).

Yes, Glasgow put together a good bid but who can realistically compete with The Beatles as host ambassadors?

And lifelong supporter of Liverpool Paul McCartney will doubtless be front and centre when Eurovision kicks off next year.

Love me do

It’s apt too that Liverpool should get the nod 60 years on from the release of The Beatles’ first single Love Me Do.

The tens of thousands of Eurovision fans descending on Liverpool next year will flock to The Beatles story on Albert Dock.

They’ll get a picture taken with the statues of The Fab Four at Albert Dock and the Eleanor Rigby monument on Matthew Street.

And channel our inner Beatles at their old stomping ground The Cavern Club.

Tour de four

Take one of the tours around the city and tick off Strawberry Fields, Penny Lane and The Beatles birthplaces.

And you may be lucky too to have a driver with a pop link (everyone in Liverpool is a musician).

Ours was Holly Johnson’s brother on the Magical Mystery Tour.

The invasion of European music fans to Liverpool then is nothing new.

And its place in the continent’s thinking existed too back in the late 50s.

Hamburger thrill

When talent spotters headed to the north of England to find bands to feed American servicemen’s appetite in Hamburg for the new rock’n’roll music.

The thinking was that they would be cheaper than the London bands.

The Beatles were a late pick but they honed their skills on the Reeperbahn with exhausting sets.

While days of seeing and enjoying Beatles music in the German port city are long behind us.

The Stef of dreams

The best Beatles experience you can have there is signing up for Stefanie Hempell’s Beatles tour.

Where she will take you around Hamburg’s Beatles’ landmarks.

And strum her way around their hits on George Harrison’s favourite instrument, the ukulele.

That’s the Liverpull of Euro music for you and why we’re endorsing Merseyside as the best choice for Eurovision 2023.

And that’s coming from a proud citizen of Glasgow.