High on a hill was a lonely goatherd, Lae Ee Od Lay Ee Od Lay Hee Hoo – The Sound of Music
And who hasn’t yodelled when they’ve found themselves in the foothills of the Alps? I know I hodelay-hodelay-hodelayhee-have.
Although we couldn’t get superstar septuagenarian and amateur yodeller Brigitte to clear her throat when she took us walking above Interlaken in Switzerland.
Yodel eh? In Austria
We did though get awesome octogenarian Arthut, or Ehrwald Presley as I coined him, doing his verbal gymnastics last year on our Top Flight for Schools trip.
Before the night ascended into an Irish wedding-type hooley.
Now your favourite music on our travels column has been over yodelling before in this series.
But on the occasion of 60 years of the Irish Austrian Society which we’ll celebrate tonight let’s explore how yodelling was carried on the wind around the world.
Gene genie
Gene’s gaffe: The Angels at Anaheim
If you’re of a certain age, or if you’re versed in cowboy movies, you’ll know all about Gene Autry.
The Singing Cowboy, who hit the heights from the Thirties through to the Sixties.
And became such a big star that he even bought himself a baseball team in 1961, the Angels, who in their current iteration are the LA Angels.
Playing for the jersey: Gene Autry, the Angel
Gene may be 22 years gone (an angel for ever now) this month.
But not, nor will he ever be forgotten, in Anaheim
There is a shrine to him at Angels stadium which you can visit ahead of a game.
The Angels held Gene in such high regard that they added him to the roster and then retired the No.26 number.
And because this week I’ll be hooking up with my German pals for a virtual celebration of Beethoven, this being the 250th anniversary of his birth, I give you the classics.
Ear, ear Beethoven
This one’s for Elise
Beethoven, Teplice, Czech Republic: And you’d expect to see Ludwig in this wellness town back in the 18th Century.
Because Bohemia was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Vienna and Prague were musical centres where Germans flocked to.
I paid my tribute to The Great Man this year at the Beethoven Spa Hotel in Teplice where he stayed, and his room is still there for him.
And he got treatment for his ears, tried out some funky horns and left his death mask.
We also tried out the titular cafe, and the hot chocolate and chocolate cake for research purposes. An empty piano awaited the maestro.
If Beethoven had written a Fur Katarina I’d point you to that in celebration of our host and my pal, but we have the equally enchanting Elise, so here’s Fur Elise.
Rock me Amadeus
Eine Kleine Sadie Music
Mozart, Salzburg, Austria: And, yes, the Austrian singer Falco toasted Mozart with this hit.
A Wiener, he was what Mozart wanted to be, though almost certainly not in musical terms, but certainly in his origins.
Wolfgang was no fan of his home place, Salzburg, which he thought had a small-town attitude.
High standards. We loved it on out ski trip to Soll (it is a Sound if Music Mecca too).
Although the museums are too spread out, you do get right under Wolfie’s skin ;and hair). Here’s Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, pretty much the only German I know.
Vivaldi’s Veneto
The Dragon, Constsnce and Bandanaman in Venice
Vivaldi, Padova/Veneto: And for many, particularly the Eighties generation, punk violinist Nigel Kennedy, and his rendition of Four Seasons, was it for classical music.
I don’t know if Kieran ‘The Dragon’ who was in our party in Padova was an aficionado but he took casual chic to a new level.
I take some responsibility as I’d wheeled him and fellow Venice newbie Constance out to Lagoon City.
We were back late but had each taken a change of clothes while Dragon was still in his boardies.
While the orchestra were kitted out and the waiters and waitresses too in the sumptuous Padova Botanical Gardens.
Puccini, Prague: And long before rockers namechecked cities, the Classical composers were doing it.
Whisper it, the opera is set in Paris, the Bohemian bit is the fun label attached to what are modern-day Czechs.
And so, for me, the ideal place to watch Giacomo Puccini’s Classic is the State Opera in Prague.
Everybody loves to party in Prague, monks in the Strahov Monastery Brewery and priests swigging Champagne during the intermission at the State Opera.
Handel with care
No cats or mice allowed
Handel Dublin: And George Handel chose Dublin, the second city of the Empire, because he felt the London audiences had started to take him for granted.
No shrinking violet George, there was a statue to him erected in Dublin while he was still alive.
The premiere was packed and ladies were asked not to wear hooped dresses so as to allow more in.
That show was performed at the Musick Hall in Fishamble Street. Now you’ll want to go to Christchurch Cathedral for your opera fix.
But not the place for a cat or a mouse whose mummified remains are on display in the cathedral’s crypt…. they’d got stuck in the organ.
It’s immortalised in James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake.
Anyhoos Christ Church Cathedral puts on recitals and thanks to my friends at Travel Department we channeled old Handel one balmy evening.
Though there was a time on board the MSC Preziosa when it was particularly slippy because of the Norwegian rain.
Photo album
And she looked as if she might fall overboard. I very nearly caught her too!
So opening up the album here are my Frostie’s Favourites and some of her creativity has even rubbed off on me. See if you can spot which are hers and which are mine?
The fjords
Which one’s the troll?
And She was up every morning bright and early to capture Norway’s waterfalls, inlets and try to spot trolls.
There was one still sleeping off the previous night’s wine, in our MSC Preziosa cabin room.
Bitesize Hamburg
Walking on air in Copenhagen
And when She wasn’t putting her feet up in the beach bar in tbe Rieperbahn she was snapping life around the port.
Amsterdam by George
Can I be trusted on a bike? In Amsterdam
And sometimes we make a rod for our own back because after staying at the Dylan Amsterdam where George and Amal stay then everywhere else is a disappointment.
Heart and Soll
White delight: In Soll
I fell for you Heart and Soll as Cole Porter sang. And while I was falling down the slopes She was getting the ski boots off and capturing the SkiWelt Wilder Kaiser.
The power of Powerscourt
Towering talent… one of mine
And the two things that She loves more than anything in life and neither of them are me are in Wicklow that’s gardening and shopping.
Powerscourt has them both... and don’t my credit cards know it?
One of Hers
And one of Jose’s
And lastly here we are the picture of happiness as taken by our Portuguese guide, photography fan and pal Jose.
And Alex does the ‘best song of all time’ justice, and a bunch of others with his ‘Candy’ well worth a mention.
I even forgave him saying that Paolo Nutini had ripped it off REM.
I’ll be in one of those huts
All this, and did I say that they have a game where you hammer a nail into a block of plywood with the acute end?
Which funnily enough you won’t see in the pubs of Glasgow, Liverpool or Dublin.
We travelled to Soll with ski specialists Top Flight and I have hiked up the hills with them too since.
And that’ll be the beer then
Top Flight, who also with good reason call themselves the Italy specialists, are suffering like so many in Travel.
And they had to make the heartbreaking decision to let some staff go last week.
Which I know from dealing with them would have been the last thing they would have wanted.
It may seem like all uphill right now while downhill doesn’t seem too appealing either.
And the locals are real friendly
But skiing proves that we can ride the bumps and come out still standing at the end of it all.
And there’s a Jagermaester at the end of it all at the end of it all and a rocking music set. It’s apres-ski and it’s everything.
*Everything – The Real Life Story which chronicles the career of the first all-black British band to reach No.1 in the UK charts screens on BBC Four on Friday at 9pm.
Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Egypt, India, Israel, Mexico, Morocco, South Africa and the US.
With the last two turning my clown into a frown.
Having set in train all my trips this year around these countries I’m having to make do with North Berwick beach these past couple of months.
Barbados hotpots
You see I don’t fancy much being one of half a million on Bournemouth beach.
Give me one of Barbados’s beaches, and I’m reminded now of a tub of chicken stew and bottles of Banks beers in Bathsheba, St Joseph East… Let’s rumba in Barbados and My kiss with Rihanna.
Of course the beach is a Bajan’s dining room where the locals put up bars like we do brollies.
And where the flying fish jump out of the sea and onto your plate.
Fish of the day
There are many different varieties of cutters including liver, cheese, ham, egg and more.
Clubbing together: Club Barbados on the Platinum Coast
Or even easier are their fish cakes… do like a local and order a ‘bread and two’. On a bun.
The Bajans will be only too happy to show you how to cook up a treat…
And, yes, I know that that last post is on Athens but it’s just a teaser.
And on that trip to Athens, Kythera and the Attica region my colleague Dutch Bas flagged up what he thought was Greece’s best city, Thessaloniniki.
He obviously knows his stuff… it’s just I like to check these things out for myself.
Lauda and louder
I didn’t always turn the telly over when the Grand Prix came on… in the days of Nikki Lauda and James Hunt I did follow them around the chicanes (whatever the heck that is).
While, of course, the film Rush with Chris Hemsworth, also reminded us of the fantastic story of their rivalry and ultimate friendship.
I’m reliably informed by my female friends that Chris Hemsworth in a film greatly increases the enjoyment levels.
Nikki Lauda, who we lost this year remained a huge figure in Formula 1, broke into airplanes (and by that I mean launched his own livery rather than cracked the lock).
Ryanair’s fully owned Austria subsidiary Laudamotion is to increase frequency on its Vienna to Dublin route from daily to eleven times weekly from March 29-October 25.
And here’s a reminder of what Austria http://www.austria.info has to offer both in winter and in the spring, summer, autumn…
And seeing we’ve just put one election to bed in the UK and are preparing for an Irish election over here while the Americans also have it all to do next year too..,
Yodel eh? In Austria
Eine Kleine Sadie Music
The Dragon, Constsnce and Bandanaman in Venice
I skied some of those mountains… yeah, right!
I’ll be in one of those huts
And that’ll be the beer then
And the locals are real friendly
