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Countries, Europe, Pilgrimage

Get outta town on the Camino… Adios Pontevedra

2nd October 20262nd October 2026 funtime65

Stage 4: And we get outta town on the Camino … Adios Pontevedra and we’re back in the country.

In truth, we’ve never really stopped walking, that’s Big Brother and me, as Pontevedra is known as the Pedestrian City.

Now because of my notorious sense of misdirection I double back on myself.

Around the big tree roundabout near our billet, the Galicia Palace, until I get on the main drag.

Shelling out

I am headed for the noted Church of the Pilgrim Virgin and its floor plan in the shape of a scallop shell in honour of the symbol of the Camino.

I bless myself with the holy water from the mollusc shaped fount.

And beseech Him for guidance for the last 60kms of our Camino Portugues from the Portuguese/Spanish border.

And I throw some on the floor for those on fire below.

They’re playing our tune: The Literary Circle in Modern Coffee outside Cafe Moderno

We break bread off the Praza da Peregrina and wrestle with barcodes to get our menu.

Before pointing out impatiently that the next table has a paper one, only to be told they are children and it’s colouring-in paper.

The only Way

Have boots, will travel: And I’m still holding up

I am now reunited with brother Ed after he had gone walkabout on our route in from O Porriño.

But I will not lose sight of him again, particularly as today’s leg is a 22km trek into Caldas de Reis.

And nor will I stop meeting new peregrinos pals and pussies, and greeting old ones.

Like American dad and lad Jim and Jamie and Aussies Alan and Peter.

It is the Camino and it is the only Way.

At a crossroads

The Way, the Truth and the Life: Of a pilgrim

Dutch Ria does her best to separate us when she flags up the beauty of the left fork in the road which some are taking.

Until an experienced peregrino asks how long extra that might take and smilingly she tells us three days.

Which would double our journey.

Who knows what the next, our last three days before we reach Santiago de Compostella.

But as the sign says God loves you.

MEET YOU ON THE ROAD

Countries, Pilgrimage

As Chivas regal and we’re drinking in the Camino

1st October 20266th October 2026 funtime65

Day 3: And the bottle tops are mounting up on Alan & Peter’s table… As Chivas regal and we’re drinking in the Camino.

As Chivas being our rural idyll billet for the night, just up the hill and off the Way.

And the Spanish name for the farmhouse’s permanent residents, the guests.

That Alan and Peter are Australian is unsurprising.

Aussie, Aussie, Aussie: The Aussies, me and Big Brother

And takes me back to Top Deck days on a repurposed double decker bus to the Oktoberfest in Munich.

When Rambo would bite the tops off the bottles when we lost the bottle opener.

We pass the late afternoon in the sun sharing war stories of this trek and others.

Hakes and hikes

Julio and Davide run an easy, informal tab, where you mount up bottle caps into a mountain and pay on departure.

I feast in the evening on two hakes, patates (chips) and green veg with Brusssel sprouts.

And the next day roll back down the hill to rejoin the Camino Portugues.

A couple of kilometres down into the village of Arcade and then back into the woods en route to Pontevedra.

Big Brother is watching

There will be more Aussies, Americans, South Americans and ten likely lassies from my hometown of Glasgow.

With whom I spend far too much time for Big Brother’s liking and he marches ahead.

Each time their own and every Camino is your own.

I form more attachments along the Way including a lucky black cat.

Out of puff: The ascent takes it out of you

And fill a second page on my Camino passport and splash on the holy water in a Wayside chapel dating back to the 1690s.

We will meet up again at the Galicia Palace in Pontevedra at the end of our 16kms stretch.

Only 70kms to go to Santiago de Compostella and, yes, we’ll…

MEET YOU ON THE ROAD

Countries, Europe, Pilgrimage

Goaaaaaal… our Camino Portugues Arcade Game

30th September 20266th October 2026 funtime65

Day 2: And we’ll get there, it’s the day after the Spain game and this is our goaaaaal… our Camino Portugues Arcade Game.

The biblical deluge did arrive last night and gracias Dios it was when we were safely off the Way.

And in our billet at Hotel Azul in O Porriño in Spanish Galicia.

But anxious about our next leg, the 23km undulating and longest stretch yet, to hilltop Arcade.

A sports hack half my career and a football fan all my life I didn’t expect.

To be trudging through the puddles to find a bar for the game.

Or giving up on the mission to watch Lamine Yamal and the world champs beat Croatia 4-1.

Only there may have been an insight on how the locals view the national team in this graffito on the wall.

Now our own wee team Scotland, the last to beat Spain a whole two years ago, have found it uphill ever since.

Like today’s 12km climb on my Camino Ways odyssey.

Thankfully Hotel Azul have served us, that’s me and Big Brother Ed, the breakfast of champions.

The first supper: To set me up for the day

You see, the beauty, of course, in a longer leg on the Camino is more time to take in the beauty.

Although I could certainly do with longer legs for those steep inclines.

And the bigger distance affords more chance to spend time with fellow peregrinos.

Where’s the little donkey? At the bottom of As Chivas

Like American brother and sister Mark and Mary who bookend this stretch down from our farmhouse billet As Chivas

With Mark offering to adopt the name Joseph temporarily for this money shot coastal picture over the valley.

Mark billing me as Jesus on account of my ‘Jesus is my Home Boy’ T-shirt.

The thing is though as a James Joseph I offer to double job.

It’s a family affair

I am walking 11 years after my first Camino.

This time with my big brother, the third of the Three Wise Men, the other brother is back in England.

Caminos have always been familial affairs and Ed and I break bread with American dad and lad Jim and Jamie… well, it is St James’s Way.

Sheltering from the morning’s delayed showers in a path side cafe.

Where naturally we get another stamp for our Camino passports which will qualify us for a certificate.

When we get to the end of our 100-mile trek to Santiago di Compostella.

Peregrinos, or pilgrims, will be lucky if their walk is in gentle breeze as opposed to blistering sun or pelting rain.

Carmen and the Hunchback of Rotterdam

God is watering his garden today but we are prepared with foldaway waterproofs.

While Dutch Nonda is covered too with a poncho covering both her and her rucksack.

The Hunchback of Rotterdam Filipino Carmen calls her… she’ll cut herself one of these days, she’s so sharp.

And despite rolling her ankle on an early leg Carmen is off now at a fair lick.

We’ll see her again, God willing, like we have Mark and Mary.

That’s the Camino for you.

MEET YOU ON THE ROAD

Countries, Europe, Pilgrimage

Old the border for 720 years

28th September 2026 funtime65

And while the rest of the world has been trying to keep each other out here’s where they decided to old the border for 720 years.

We have, of course, the 1297 Treaty of Alcañicas to thank for the Portuguese-Spanish border, weas if we need to tell you that.

But we reckoned that milestone needed marking.

Which is why you see me stood here on the Valença International Bridge or Friendship Bridge.

Taking my first steps from Portuguese Valença over to Spanish Tui on my Portugués Camino.

Which conveniently for us, that’ll be me and Big Brother Ed, is 116kms to Santiago de Compostella.

Long enough to qualify for another Camino passport to go with my Frances Way one from 11 years ago.

A day in Portugal’s fortress town

Now, seeing we’ll only be in Portugal overnight we’d best have a look around.

Where we find a horde of Spaniards from just over the Minho trawling along Rua de Mousinho de Albuquerque for cheaper linen.

For all that the two countries have been at peace for 620 years.

There is a visible reminder that the Portuguese protect themselves ably.

And visitors will want to scale the Valença Fortress for the best views to Galicia.

While we’re advised that O Faz Figuras is best for traditional Minho dishes like bacalhau cod.

CaminoWays do the heavy lifting

We’re staying at the A Torre Do Xudes hotel in Tui.

Our first billet on our CaminoWays odyssey to Santiago de Compostella.

Where the bones of St James the Greater are venerated in the Cathedral.

Which is why pilgrims, or peregrinos, have been walking there for hundreds of years from all over Europe.

To earn grace and penitence and get time off Purgatory, the holding bay for Heaven.

Now back then in the Middle Ages, Michael O’Leary was just a twinkle in a great-great-great-great-great-great grandfather’s eye.

So you would have to leave from your own doorstep and walk across land and sea to get here.

While I saved myself the guts of a few weeks extra walking by taking a two-hour 50 minutes Ryanair flight from Edinburgh to Porto.

And while many peregrinos still carry their full backpacks and stay in hostels, or albergued, along the way.

CaminoWays do the heavy lifting for you, taxiing you to your first stop in TUI from Porto or Santiago.

Putting you up in your hotel and transporting your luggage to your next stay, all in your package.

The Way of James

Now the Way of St James will always mean something unique to everyone who travels it.

And for this James it is following in the footsteps of James the Elder.

James Gerard Murty, who would have been 100 but is gone 18 years now.

And although he will have found his way to Heaven, with only limited time in the Purgatory holding bay.

He continues to guide my path, and no doubt will lead me back on track when I undoubtedly go off course this week.

So come this Way with us and…

MEET YOU ON THE ROAD

Countries, Europe, Pilgrimage

James or not you’re quids in on the Camino

17th July 202417th July 2024 funtime65

Now I’ve a name that opens doors in travel but I’m happy to share, so whether you’re a James or not you’re quids in on the Camino.

With my old amigos CaminoWays who are offering a 10% discount on all new bookings made before July 31.

All to mark the feast of Saint James and Galicia’s National Day on July 25.

Of course, the Camino draws Jameses, Jamesinas, Jacques, Iacomos and Santiagos, and all variations in between to St James’ Way.

Santiago de Compostella is, of course, the final destination for all pilgrims, or peregrinos, Jameses or not.

With the Catedral the final resting place for Jesus’s disciple, James the Greater.

Fun and James

For those for whom Sunday School and school are a distant memory you may have forgotten that there was a James the Lesser.

Though for those of us you share that mantle then all roads lead to Rome and his grave in the Basilica dei Santi Apostoli.

Life as a lesser James, in my case as a James Junior has in truth been a blessing because of the father who inspired me.

A devout Roman Catholic I believe he was still looking over me on my own Camino from Sarria to Santiago.

Like many of us of my generation, and those before us, the convention was to pass a father’s Christian name on to the son.

And so this James felt a special connection with Jimmy G, all other Jameses before me and my nephew James.

As I dedicated my Camino in their memory.

Galicia belongs to me

Now everyone has their own reasons for doing a Camino, spiritual, social or athletic.

And I have yet to meet anyone who regrets it.

Companies such as CaminWays specialise in the great pilgrimage and its sister trek to Rome, the Via Francigena.

Both of which I’ve been guided on by forces human and spiritual.

Now any time is a good time to reach Santiago.

But for those who can stand the heat at this time of the year, and water and Estrella lager does help, then the eve of St James’s Day is a special time to arrive in the old city.

At midnight, locals and visitors alike gather at the Praza do Obradoiro to enjoy the traditional fireworks and display projected on the facade of Santiago Cathedral.

Swing low Botafumeiro

While on the big day Santiago Cathedral hosts its High Mass, usually attended by the king or one of the royals.

Although the real stars of the show are the red-robed priests who swing the incense holders, the Botafumeiro.

Now the fun and James comes to a close with the sky lighting up with fireworks on July 31.

Now to activate your discount then STJAMES24 is your key to open the door to savings.

So James or not you’re quids in on the Camino.

America, Countries, Europe, Pilgrimage, UK

Easter Monday all the John Muir Way

18th April 202218th April 2022 funtime65

And today’s the day when you walk it off which is why it’s Easter Monday all the John Muir Way.

The John Muir is a 134-mile walking route across Scotland from Helensburgh in the West…

To the Great Conservationist’s home town of Dunbar in the East.

And a 15-mile hike from my back yard of North Berwick, or six-hour saunter up hill and down vale.

A walk with a pal

All in the company of my old pal Wee Jon who has become one of life’s great Outdoorsmen in his old age.

Although he showed little indication that he had a Kilimanjaro ascent or London to Brighton cycle ride in him…

When he was jumping around barefoot like a flea on the burning sands of Manchester, New Hampshire back in the day.

And our post-University summer in Boston, Massachusetts.

Particularly with New England on my radar.

Memory Lane

Bray to go: The Scary One in Greystones with Bray Head in the background

A good brisk walk is, of course, for all ages and physicalities.

And it allows you the time and space to talk and reflect on shared experiences and your younger selves.

And so the seven-and-a-half miles, three-and-a-half hour trek, to the village of East Linton became a trip down Memory Lane.

We could just as well have been in our old stomping ground of Aberdeen where Wee Jon was known to spend a night on the grass island Mounthooly Roundabout.

Or London and Brighton where we variously enjoyed the bright lights of Leicester Square and Chinatown or hosted Spanish students down the pier.

Or on the Wicklow Way or Bray Head walk in Ireland’s Garden County.

And picked up by car by The Scary One. And today too.

Life’s journey

Whichever walk your taking today, and be sure you do one, take the time to think positively on your life’s journey until now.

It may be the twists and turns of a Camino, Via Francigena, Tenerife coastal walk.

Or across the mountains from the Austrian Tirol to Bavaria in Germany.

Or your favourite route from your home, either around your town or city or countryside.

But whichever it is putting one foot in front of the other is the first step in life’s great adventure.

And so for me it’s Easter Monday all the John Muir Way.

Africa, America, Asia, Countries, Culture

Happy World Kindness Day

13th November 202013th November 2020 funtime65

And on this, World Kindness Day, a shout-out here to those who have shown me random acts of kindness on my travels… and sometimes me them.

And firstly a recommendation… if you ever leave your mobile phone back in your Mississippi hotel on my American Trilogy in the Deep South.

You only realise it when you’re 50 miles along the highway then here’s your go-to guy.

Hit the road Zach

Zach arranged to get a courier to bring it from Jackson to Cleveland and the Two Mississippi Museums.

The next year Zach sought me out at the American Travel Fair, IPW, in Denver when I left my mobile phone down as I went for a coffee and he tut-tutted. Legend!

Zuhair, a hero

And a shout-out here to all who observe Ramadan which puts a Christian’s Lenten fast into sharp focus.

Zuhair, our G Adventures host on our trip to Jordan, was the ever-welcoming face for his country.

Despite not being able to let a drop of water or morsel to his lips despite the travel and 30+ temperatures and desert until early evening.

When even Petra camels could.

Rachel, a ray of sunshine

Sometimes when you travel the world for a living you forget how lucky you are.

And that’s when you need a star like Rachel to pick you up.

Often it’s wine and a prehistoric South African valley which will remind you that whatever’s happening at home can wait.

And which is why I’m delighted for her (and me in the future) that South Africa is opening up again for international travellers with a negative test.

Your honour, Onur

And I’ve reserved this place for my favourite Turk, Turkish Airlines’ Onur, and very nearly favourite person in our industry.

Which is why he, like me, is also a past recipient of Irish Travel Media’s Pleasure To Work With Award.

Now if there was an award too for Most Accidental Tourist I’d win that too… every year.

I’ve enjoyed Onur’s company on the little island of Kuramathi, too small even for me to get lost.

Though Istanbul is and when I did get waylaid somewhere around the Blue Mosque who cane to collect me?

And I’ll carry your cross

And Finisterre after the Camino

And sometimes I’ll be your hero on your travels.

Just as I was when I carried a tearful American’s backpack on her final steps of a stretch of the Camino with CaminoWays.

Only for her to have to remind me to give it back.

America, Countries, Culture, Europe, UK

Driving entertainment in lockdown

13th October 202013th October 2020 funtime65

It’s all come a long way since the days when a drive-thru was getting out of the car and picking up the family’s takeaway.

Now because of COVID we can stay in our hermetically-sealed cocoon and enjoy all manner of thrills.

Park by the Pole

Lucky Devil Lounge, Portland, Oregon: And here’s where you can get extra with your bun… two buns actually!

Customers who order food can pay $30 per car and driver (plus $10 for any passengers in the car) to use the drive-thru and watch a show.

In normal years I find myself in the US around Gay Pride.

And my friends at the American Travel Fair, IPW, put on a fabulous Gay Pride night… Washington, Denver, Los Angeles/Anaheim.

Bless me, Father

Limoges, France: Maybe you’ve not been out enough over these lockdowns to have compiled enough sins but come on, all that food and drink.

And Sainte Jeanne d’Arc in Limoges will hear your darkest secrets from your car.

When all this is over, of course many of us will be going all Medieval and giving thanks to the Great Redeemer.

In France, that’s Lourdes, in Portugal it’s Fatima, Italy is Rome, Spain the Camino and Medjugorje in Bosnia & Herzegovina.

Probably the best gig

Denmark: And Mads Langer doesn’t let a small thing like lockdown make him down his mic.

Mads sold 500 tickets for a concert at Tangkrogen outside Aarhus, Denmark’s second city after Copenhagen.

The cars were rockin’ and rollin’!

Airport movies

Bringing some colour into our lives

Edinburgh Airport: And all of this drive-thrumania has been triggered by the news that my local airport Edinburgh is putting on a Halloween offering.

Drive-ins were always the stuff of James Dean movies (the first drive-in cinema was actually New Jersey, not LA).

You never forget your first time though and that for me was Toronto and a Bond movie, The Living Daylights. And while our first albums are usually embarrassing I’m happy with that choice.

Anyhoos back to Edinburgh. You’ll get Ghostbusters, Hocus Pocus, Coco, The Lost Boys, Jaws (not nearly as terrifying at Universal Studios Hollywood) and Halloween.

November brings us Back to the Future, Rocketman, Mamma Mia and more.

There’s entertainment galore, food and drink from local producers Cold Town Beer and Alandas plus DJ Captain Calverto will entertain you before each film with car discos. singalongs and quiz fun.

They’ve offered me (and I guess you too) the chance to win tickets.

And you might even see a plane flying overhead… and hopefully I’ll be on it.

Countries, Culture, Europe, Ireland

Holiday Snaps – An Irish solution

28th June 202027th June 2020 funtime65

It’s an Irish solution to an Irish problem as they like to say over there but even this one has never been tried before… shared leaders.

The Irish have taken four months to agree that they can’t agree but, and you have to get into the Irish way of thinking, that’s no bad thing.

So Micheál Martin will get the first two and a half years as Taoiseach while his predecessor Leo Varadkar wiil resume power for the last two and a half.

For those of you who think that that long without a new government is careless should look to Belgium https://visitbelgium.com and Northern Ireland www.discovernorthernireland.com.

And this is a flick of how these countries run In Flanders fields, Belfast Chilled and Belfast’s rich tapestry.

And talking about shared leaders just think of the fun and possibilities if Donald Trump split the next Presidency with Joe Biden www.washington.org and Easy DC.

Or Boris Johnson and Sir Keir Starmer… www.visitlondon.com The London life.

While this is how I saw Ireland in…

Swiss Miss

I make no apologies in dedicating this next Snap to the force of nature that is Sara Roloff.

Sara brought us Swiss bingo, Swiss wine and beer and much more besides in my time in Ireland.

And champion skier and Marathon runner that she is she was always the fittest person in any room.

Alas, Sara was struck down with COVID-19 93 days ago and only started her recovery 43 days ago.

But last week she got the all-clear from her cardiologist and guess what she’s planning a marathon.

That’s what the Swiss are like Swhisskey on the rocks and www.myswitzerland.com. You have to go.

And me? I’ll take the gondola.

Home Department

This lockdown has reminded us all that we should appreciate our own country.

And Travel Department, who know all about the world, know too that Ireland is the best of the world.

Which is why they’re launching Homegrown, their domestic trips from September.

My first professional Travel trip was from Wales to Cork and Kerry on the now discontinued Swansea-Cork shipping route.

It was the poor young PR’s first trip and she wasn’t prepared for how rough it would be with half a dozen hacks.

Or how choppy the sea was as we all fell down with sea sickness.

The return journey was almost as bad with us being kept off shore for a couple of hours.

I learned two things… that without our holiday providers and hosts we are rudderless and that Co. Kerry is one of the most beautiful places on God’s Earth.

TD has a guided four-night Kingdom of Kerry walking trip and a seven-night guided seven-night Kingdom and Cork’s Rebel County itinerary.

Check out https://www.tdactiveholidays.com/ireland-adventure-holidays.

And you must know by now how much I love an oul’ walk… www.CaminoWays.com, A pilgrim’s prayer and www.FrancigenaWays.com and Small roads lead to Rome.

The Special Relationship

I’ve often felt that we’d be better off if we put broadminded Travel people in charge of the world.

Rather than the leaders we have.

And I wholeheartedly support the US Travel Association’s response to the European Union further shutting its doors on Americans.

Tori Enerson Barnes: ‘This is unwelcome news and will have major negative implications for an economic recovery. – particularly if this ban results in cycles of retaliation as is so often the case.’

What would our forefathers who fought side by side in two World Wars have made of this disintegration of a once unshakable friendship… In Flanders fields, https://gtitravel.ie and www.visitusa.ie and www.visitusa.com.

Countries, Culture, Food & Wine, UK

Opening time – my Five best English pubs

24th June 202024th June 2020 funtime65

Whose round was it?

It will be seventy-six days since the pubs shut their doors when they reopen on July 4.

So why is that important? Well because that was how long it took Wuhan to come out of lockdown.

And it will be the same number of days between the UK lockdown and us emerging blinking into the sunset.

And, of course, July 4 was the day your Nostradamus of a travel blogger predicted it would take for us to get back to some kind of normal.

So in celebration of that here are five English and Welsh pubs I know and will toast…

While I’m waiting for the Scottish pubs to reopen.

Ye Olde boozer

Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem, Nottingham: The oldest pub in England, dating back to 1189.

Carved into Castle Rock, upon which Nottingham Castle is built, it’s sad that pilgrims would stop here on the way to Jerusalem.

And you know how I love a good pilgrimage, and tankard of ale A pilgrim’s prayer, Small roads lead to Rome, www.CaminoWays.com and www.FrancigenaWays.com.

Nooks and crannies and history and if you want to make like your a local they call it ‘the Trip’. See https://www.visit-nottinghamshire.co.uk.

A masterpiece

The Dundas Arms, Kintbury, Berkshire: Sitting proudly in Chez Murty I commissioned this painting from a photograph of The Scary One’s local.

The grumpy owner, David, was of Scottish origin and cartoons hung up behind the bar of him and his Dad.

The counter had polished copper coins embossed into it, while at the bar were an eclectic bunch.

Including the 6 O’Clock Club, off the train, Terry, the spoons player, Chris the estate agent and horse tipster and me and Miss F. Visit https://www.dundasarms.co.uk and https://www.visitsoutheastengland.com/places-to-visit/berkshire.

No show without Punch

The Punch and Judy, Covent Garden, London: Covent Garden is a mix of trader, buskers, kerching shops, office workers and tourists.

And the Punch and Judy spans generations for me.

From us travellers taking a pit stop and drinking on its balcony to a return visit to take in Beautiful: The Carole King Story with The Scary One.

Great memories… and more to make https://www.visitlondon.com, https://www.coventgarden.london/pubs/punch-judy and https://www.google.ie/amp/s/jimmurtytraveltraveltravel.com/2020/03/29/carole-king-youre-beautiful-londonwestend-musical/amp/.

The apple of Liverpool’s eye

Flanagan’s Apple, Liverpool: Now you’re not wanting fancy-dan wine bars… this is Liverpool after all.

And being an Irish pub I had to seek it out the first time I visited Liverpool for a job interview.

And on many occasions after in the year we spent in Liverpool and brought a Son and Heir and Liverpool’s greatest fan into the world.

See https://www.flanagansappleliverpool.co.uk and https://www.visitliverpool.com.

Grapes of froth

The Grapes, Sheffield: And another Son and Heir related hostelry.

And where his favourite band The Arctic Monkeys played their first gig in their home city.

And which we had to seek out on a return trip where we namedropped to try to get a free drink… the father-in-law, of course, who hails from Steel City.

Visit http://www.welcometosheffield.co.uk/visit, http://thegrapessheffield.com.

And www.visitengland.com.

MEET YOU IN AN ENGLISH BAR