When you’ve already visited 120 countries (there are 195) then it’s difficult to choose your best… but here to mark her 70th anniversary of her coronation today, are the Queen’s platinum destinations.
That leaves just 75 countries for Queenie to visit too (and she won’t let her 95 years put her off).
Among them Greece, where Philip had some unresolved issues, Madagascar, Cuba, Israel and Peru.
And that leaves the rest of us in the ha’penny place (her head was on that too) when it comes to the Queen’s platinum destinations.
And as the gratitudes are handed out over the course of the year, what most people will be glad of, is the four bank holidays Britons are getting this year.
As promised more Black Friday offers (and like all the best Fridays they stretch into the weekend).
It’s always nice to share your favourite hotels with your friends.
Dublin’s delights
in with the fixtures: At the InterCon
And I’m glad to have passed on the charms of my favourite Dublin hotel, the iconic InterContinental in Ballsbridge, with my old pal and multi-award winning Travel writer Yvonne Gordon.
You’ll save 25% off their best flexible rate and enjoy:
A spacious deluxe guest room or a choice of luxurious suites with many with balconies.
And a special recommendation here from my own mermaid who rave about their 14m heated indoor pool and relaxation area.
And their 10% off ESPA products.
There’s limited time to book through Friday, December 3.
And the offers are for stays between Monday, November 29 this year and September 4 next year. And book three days before arrival.
Lusty helpings
Lusty Beggers… can be choosers
And you’ll have lusty helpings all right with the famous hospitality in Northern Ireland.
The deliciously named Lusty Beg Island Resort in Fermanagh is giving you 40% off a B&B courtyard stay for two for £105 per night.
Or book two nights B&B courtyard for two for £265 and receive. £70 voucher to use during your stay.
The offer is open from January 1 to March 31 and is open through tomorrow.
Donegal Mammy
Search and replace: That couple could be you
And, yes, no dip into Ireland can be complete without a namecheck for its northernmost county… my Donegal Mammy would never forgive me.
The scenic Harvey’s Point, set in the idyllic surroundings of Lough Eske and with the Bluestack Mountains as a backdrop, is just where you want to be at this time of year.
Or any time, to be fair.
Now if you book your gift voucher online before midnight on Monday you will get a 10% discount.
That’s towards the stay offers or can be used to enjoy an Afternoon Tea or a meal in the Lakeside Restaurant or Harvey’s Bar and Terrace.
So, even though it’s Saturday, I make no apologies for giving you Craic Friday.
Stiff Little Fingers (Alternative Ulster): And first up is the pride of Ulster punk.
Belfast boys SLF used the backdrop of The Troubles for material and recorded the first single Suspect Device disguised as a suspect bomb.
The producer thought it was real and contacted the band for a real one. Instead we give you the brilliant Alternative Ulster.
Get your kicks
Call them up on the telephone: The Undertones
The Undertones (Teenage Kicks): It is the stuff of punk legend that SLF and Derry’s finest The Undertones did not get on.
The Undertones accused SLF of sensationalising The Troubles and the violence.
Teenage Kicks famously initially had the line: ‘I wanna hold it, hold it tight’.
An Ode to Derry
Star composer: Phil Coulter
Phil Coulter (The Town I Loved SoWell): When a composer speaks with honesty and experience about his world (Derry)then the results are memorable.
Phil, of course, had musical pedigree before this, his signature song, having written Eurovision classics Congratulations and Puppet On A String.
Comedy classic
Harmon harmonies: Divine Comedy
The Divine Comedy (National Express): And you’ve got to love a band with a lyric: ‘And it’s hard to get by/when your arse is the size of a small country.
Derry’s Neil Harmon also penned an album The Duckworth Lewis Method. Geinius.
Van the Belfast Man
Hat’s the boy: Van the Man
Van Morrison (Madame George): The poet laureate of Belfast, Van may be a grumpy old sod but he’s never forgotten his roots.
You can still see him at one of his legendary cabarets at the Europa Hotel although, alas, characters like Madame George are long gone,
And a special mention too to the three Ulster counties in the Republic of Ireland…
It’s one of those annoying Government buzzwords so let’s claim it back with a Rainy Days and Songdays Green Lighting megamix around the world. Our favourite songs with ‘green’ in the title and the countries where they transport us.
As a recruiting call for Ireland our pals at Tourism Ireland would have been proud as in true singer style Johnny namechecks everywhere on the Emerald Island.
Quite who the girl from Tipperary town with the lips like eiderdown is Johnny would never say, perhaps because June would have killed him.
The old rogue Burns was pure rock’n’roll and could pen a lyric and a tune which is probably why he is held in such high regard by the greatest singer-songwriters of the latter half of the 20th century.
With Bob Dylan, no less, crediting the Scot as his greatest inspiration.
The Milanese Verdi had the support of Gaetano Donizetti from nearby Bergamo whom he visited in Vienna which, of course, was the capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
And that included Bohemia, or the current-day Czech Republic where the thing to do when you’re in Prague is take in a production at the opera house.
Every nation sacrificed its most promising generation in No Man’s Land but for those from the furthest outposts of Empire… well, it just seems to be all the more pointless to modern sensibilities.
Eric Bogle, a Scots-born Australian, explores the pyschological cost to one survivor ‘young Willie McBride’. And it was all the more poignant after I’d seen the statue of the Scots soldier in northern France.
The story goes that the Stax house band were waiting around for the Sun artist and rockabilly singer Billy Lee Riley to turn up and developed the song.
And why Green Onions? Well Booker T. Jones self-deprecatingly said it was because green onions were the nastiest thing he could think of and something you could throw away. We never would.
Either way it’s flag-waving, Americana. And even if you don’t know the song you’ll recognise the tune.
Particularly if you’re a fan of Celtic FC who famously play in green and white hoops and who have adapted the song and lyrics into a favourite fans’ song With a Four-leaf Clover on My Breast.
The evergreen Cliff belts this one out from the Seventies.
The Peter Pan of Pop who was born in India, grew up in England, and has had homes in Portugal and Barbados, though he is selling up in Bim (and yes I’m interested).
Ireland: And for my Dear Old Mum that’s Donegal where she grew up in a hotel in a rural hamlet, and holds court every time she goes back.
At Powerscourt Waterfalls in Co. Wicklow
Of course the Donegal natives go along with her Diva-like behaviour and indulge her.
Green, green Ireland
It gets us a free pot of tea every time we go back to the now renamed Ramblers Inn.
The Queen of Queens
New York attitude
There’s an advert which the Irish are all too familiar with where two old ones batter the heck out of each other because each wants to pay the bill.
It is quintissentially Irish and it annoys the Scottish half of me to boiling point.
Of course when my Dear Old Mum is with her own siblings and relatives her need to show her largesse goes off the scale.
And so when we went to my cousin’s wedding in Queens in New York she berated me in front of my extended familly and insisted that she pay for the pre-wedding meal.
Before bossing me around Manhattan. Well, I didn’t ask her to wear high heels.
A wee break in Scotland
The Royal Wave
And I can’t even get that.
Anyone who has been to a major golf tournament (2000! Open, St Andrews) will tell you that the queue for the Portaloos is long.
And that when you eventually get in then you will make the most of it.
Of course, too long for my Dear Old Mum, who sent a random spectator to knock on the door and ask how long I was going to be.
She obviously wanted to see Tiger.
But of course I got my own back and outran her, and jumped the Swilcen Burn with the crowd to see him lift the trophy.
Piping up: In Glasgow
One of my favourite trips was when I took her into her adopted city and my homestead of Glasgow to see the World Bagpipes Championships.
Another particular quirk of the Irish is to be dumbfounded that you could ever by hosted by anyone else. She, of course, wanted to pay!
My brother, that is who emigrated to Canada after meeting a Torontonian.
I broke the habit of a lifetime by being responsible and putting my studies before a few days in Canada to see my brother get married.
But my Dear Old Mum didn’t forget me then and brought me back a Davy Crockett type hat which became my signature look from then on in my student town of Aberdeen.
Phew (pause for breath) Rio‘s Christ the Redeemer and the One World Trade Center in New York among the more than 300 around the world going green.
Viva Green Vegas
I’ll put it all on green: Vegas
While the Welcome sign in Las Vegas will be emerald too…
Hopefully in preparation for the delegation of Travel professionals from this island going out to their American Travel Fair in the Autumn.
Our friends at Tourism Ireland earlier this month announced details of those famous attractions and reminded us too of the debt we owe to Wales.
It is after all the birthplace of St Patrick, where the village of Portmeirion will green up.
The Mannekin Piss in Brussels
Over the coming week, Tourism Ireland will roll out its St Patrick’s film in 12 markets around the world.
Including Britain, the United States, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Canada, the Nordic countries, the GCC (Gulf Cooperaton Council), the Netherlands, Belgium and Switzerland.
Seth’s magnus opum
For a broader sense of Ireland’s Greening of the World, check out the beautiful book of that name by renowned Irish journalist Seth Linder.
And because every picture tells a story, here is a further selection from his book.
Rio de Greeneiro
Should it not be Moulin Verde?
I Greensterdam
Colossal: The Colosseum
Empire state of green mind
A little bit of Scotland
The Kelpies in Falkirk
Of course, there will be a corner of North Berwick, here in Scotland which will be Forever Green.