www.menorca.es Archives - Jim Murty’s TravelTravelTravel

What’s captured my Dad’s attention has been lost in the mists of time as has he and Dinky the Donegal dog.

But Shovlin’s Guest House is still there on the Portnoo beach.

And my Mum, my Auntie and myself were back there a few years ago. And, yes, I needed my drink that night.

Donegal www.govisitdonegal.com, my Mum’s heartland, was where my Dad looked most relaxed, away from the phone and his work.

Donegal for ever

Donegal links: Portnoo. www.donegalcottages.com

So, it’s good to know that he chose to spend eternity up near Ballybofey… with my Mum’s family.

Being a late child and having formed a bond with my Irish cousins my parents farmed me over there for summer holidays when I was 12.

So my holiday memories consisted mainly of playing on the beach while they sunbathed.

But there were vacations abroad, usually alternating years with going to see my grandparents in Donegal.

Ibiza beezer

One year the family split with my brother staying home with my Dad and me, my Mum and my other brother going to Ibiza http://ibiza.travel/en/.

My mum must have sold it to my Dad because we went back as a full family where waiter Pepe made a fuss of me.

And where I got to have a half of glass of red wine with my dinner.

I obviously took to the taste.

The Balearic Islands were the go-to package holiday destination for Seventies families.

Menorca corker

And we broadened our horizons to take in the Balearics’ second biggest island, Menorca http://www.menorca.es/portal.aspx?IDIOMA=3.

Where I got to have wine poured into my mouth from a porron out on a boat trip… a bit of a theme going here.

My early Bakearic Adventures has instilled a love of those islands in me, and I never pass up the opportunity to visit.

Magic Majorca

The last occasion being Majorca, with work on a stop-off from a cruise ship https://www.google.ie/amp/s/jimmurtytraveltraveltravel.com/2020/01/21/smooth-sailing-around-the-western-med/amp/ and on a family holiday.

It wasn’t always plain sailing though and our trip to Portugal almost didn’t happen.

When we got to the airport and we found out that Dad’s passport had expired.

Gentler days then, and I don’t know how, but he managed to get it renewed and we got on the flight.

And, yes, I’ve been going back to Portugal regularly since… https://www.visitportugal.com/en and Secret Portugal.

I’m not judging you Dad over our passport with my details in it. I’ve had more than my fair share of scrapes in airports myself.

I guess the apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree.

HAPPY FATHER’S DAY, JAMES G.

The Ancient Greeks and Romans did it and Sir Francis Drake kept the Spanish Armada waiting until he’d finished his game.

And now those of us in Scotland www.bowlsscotland.com, where it was turned into a modern sport, will be able to get out and roll some bowls again.

Was it an unprecedented restriction on liberties? No, we’ve been here before.

Our Medieval predecessors who had less choice of pastimes loved a good oul’ bowl.

But monarchs from Edward I to Henry VIII. banned the sport of lawns – possibly because it got in the way of archery practice.

Keep ‘em rolling

Now I picked up boules long before I even rolled grown-up bowls.

A summer in Menorca in the Balearic Islands with Uwe, a German boy, on my last holiday with my parents.

Neither of us knew a word of English but Uwe being a German knew that he had to win at all costs.

Nein! Uwe was delightful company and i had found my friend for my holiday.

Beach life will be different for a while in Menorca and other sunspots http://www.menorca.es/portal.aspx?IDIOMA=3 with parents and children asked to adapt.

But as a wee Scots boy and a German Junge prove you only need a set of boules… or mobile phones!

For more on the Balearic Islands visit https://www.seemallorca.com. And its biggest island Majorca on a cruise https://www.google.ie/amp/s/jimmurtytraveltraveltravel.com/2020/01/21/smooth-sailing-around-the-western-med/amp/.

Of course while us Scottish people will roll our bowls in a genteel fashion our continental neighbours will pitch theirs.

Visit any small town in France and Spain and you will see a group of chain-smoking men huddled around their boules.

For me it is quintessential Basque Country https://tourism.euskadi.eus/en/.

I dipped my toe in the French side of Basqueland on a thalassotherapy and cultural trip to Biarritz https://tourisme.biarritz.fr/en and Water way to go in Biarritz.

While my earliest holiday memories, even before Uwe and Menorca were in family-friendly Santander.

I’m noticing that the Scottish Bowls Championships still look to be on from Sunday, July 26-Saturday, August 1 in Ayr.

So, if I practise hard enough here in North Berwick, the Biarritz of the North http://north-berwick.co.uk and www.visitscotland.com.

Although as the Scary One will be quick to remind me I am not the bowler in my family.

Full with child (the Son and Heir) she took me down on the lawns of Blackpool in the north-west of England.

Tag: www.menorca.es

My Father’s Day

Donegal for ever

Ibiza beezer

Menorca corker

Magic Majorca

My Sporting Weekend – bowling all over the world