And I’m indebted to my pal Travel doyen and ITNN group editor Fionn Davenport for steering me on this one, as I revisit an old favourite, here’s Flyday Friday’s beautiful beasts of the sky.
The Airbus Beluga XL flew into Shannon Airport this week for some high wind testing.
In the belly of the whale
And got us all dreaming of riding the beautiful beasts of the skies again and reflecting on their eye-catching liveries.
So you say whale Fionn, well, I raise you a shark.
Oh, the Shark, babe has such teeth, dear
Embraer: This beauty has some bite, it’s the Embraer E190-E2 and it swallowed me whole in Ireland.
Sharks in Ireland? Well there are plenty in its parliament, the Dáil, but otherwise this is the closest to the Jaws of the sea that you’ll ever see there.
Of all the strange and wonderful mornings I spent in 13 years in Ireland the hours I spent flying from A-B, or Dublin to Waterford, on a shark is an experience I clearly never imagined having.
The beauty of the Embraer is not just on the outside with the interior spanking and with the best feature no middle seats.
Tiger, Tiger burning bright
Purrfect: The Aeroflot subsidiary
Aeroflot Siberian Tiger: The Russians, of course, are consistently in the world’s crosshairs.
So credit where credit’s due with Rossiya Airlines dressing its plane up as a tiger to draw attention to the plight of the Siberian Tiger.
In 2015 research showed there were only 500 left in the wild.
Panda air
Bear necessities: British Airways
British Airways: Now all of us here around Edinburgh where we have two beauts in the Zoo love a panda.
And so do British Airways who celebrated their route to Chengdu, home of the Giant Panda, marked the occasion with this livery.
Of course, Brits have a lot in common with pandas… sitting around all day doing nothing but graze and scratching our asses with sleepy black eyes.
Oh Mickey you’re so fine
Mouse tales
Now every mouse has a tail, obvs.
Mickey is always guaranteed to put a smile on your face and this is clearly what WestJet had in their mind with their ‘Magic Plane’ which features Our Mouse in his role of Sorcerer Mickey.
Or for big fans of Mickey you might say a Flight of Fantasia.
Tintin can
Shivering tailfins
And we are, of course, suckers for our hero, the adventurous young journalist Tintin.
Brussels Airlines are bigging up the famous Belgian boy on the back of the film Red Rackham’s Treasure and theres’ a submarine theme running through it.
We’d only hope Bianca Castefiore didn’t board. Her singing would shatter any window.
Stars of the skies
The sky side
Star Wars: And, of course, you would expect Star Wars to be all over the skies.
And the never-ending franchise has plenty of images from which to pick, of course.
We’ll go with a favourite. Airline, that is, and United Airlines and its The Rise of Skywalker livery.
Of Star Wars we know little but were there for its arrival at Disneyland in Anaheim and got to enjoy the galaxy far, far away.
Now everyone’s got a place in our choir, so whichever is your favourite, let’s get back on these beautiful beasts of the skies.
There have been 45 presidents of the US since King George III was sent packing. The US, though, has had three Kings, who have left a lasting legacy.
This year is the 50th anniversary of Dr Martin Luther King’s assassination and last week we followed in his footsteps from Memphis where he made his Mountaintop speech and was assassinated to the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum and the opening of a new chapter in the Civil Rights story.
This week we look at B.B. King, the Blues and Beale Street, before finishing in Graceland with Elvis Presley, the King.
The King of Beale Street
Woke up this morning. Well, this is the home of the Blues, Memphis, Tennessee, so there was only one thing for it, I headed down to Beale Street.
Which is, of course, the first place visitors come when they arrive here.
Even this early in the morning, 9am, the Blues is blaring out from the bars and clubs even though they won’t open until early evening.
We were in B.B.’s Blues Bar the night before, dancing to the early hours to the house band,
Working off the Barbecue chicken, rice and catfish and going back for seconds, rolling down the river to Tina Turner’s Proud Mary.
Riley King first came here from his native Mississippi in his late teens.
I’ll blow your trumpet for you: WC Handy
But he first started making his mark when the sole black radio station in town, WDIA, championed him
in his early 20s when he was christened Beale Street Blues Boy, abbreviated to Blues Boy (he was just B to his friends).
B.B. has been intertwined with Beale Street ever since.
His club is at the foot of the pedestrianised stretch where revellers mill every night, spilling out of the clubs, taking the party outside.
W.C. Handy, the ‘Father of the Blues’, looks down the road at us all,
From outside the pedestrian cordon further down Beale Street…
His boyhood shack has been recreated in exact detail nearby.
It was Band leader Handy, travelling around the Mississippi Delta over the turn of the 20th century who curated the sounds.
Which would become the Blues.
And developed it and brought it to the mainstream in Memphis,
And Beale Street comes alive at night
His standard Memphis Blues, which was originally called Crump’s Blues, was written for the Mayoral candidate.
Handy, his trumpet in hand, stands across the road from the Robert Church Park.
Named for the South’s first black millionaire, who along with Handy did most to turn Beale Street into a cultural and commercial hub for black Memphians.
Today it is a tourist hub but is also a living, breathing, musical experience.
And as is explained to us it provides work for gigging local musicians.
And it has the seal of approval from the Blues specialists in our group.
At the heart of Memphis life then, as now, is the Church and the historic First Baptist Church has special resonance.
They all came here to worship and sing Gospel.
The Blues today
Gospel was B.B.’s first influence when he watched his own pastor play guitar in church back in Mississippi.
Jerry Lee Lewis’s club is down Beale Street.
One of many jumping joints, including the highly-recommended Rum Boogie Bar.
Where our own Wolfgang got up to play harmonica and earned a tenner from the band, his first-ever commission.
There’s an Irish bar too, obviously.
Silky O’sullivan, with duelling pianos, a Blues museum, numerous soul diners.
And also Lansky’s which boasts that it is the clothier to the King.
The Blues Trail
Elvis, like B.B., was from Mississippi which is where we’ll go next to see where the Blues all started.
The Blues Trail is a 200-marker route through time and Mississippi.
It chronicles all the great Blues singers, B.B. Muddy Waters, Charley Patton, Son House, Sonny Boy Williamson, John Lee Hooker et al.
And retelling their stories.
If you are an independent traveller you should make use of the Blues Trail app.
I can never trust either my sense of direction regardless of how straight these roads are.
Much of it is the vertical Highway 61, the Blues Highway..
Or my command of technology.
But that’s just me, and thankfully our 20-strong party, has laid-back and knowledgeable Southerner Clint driving us.
And educating us in the Blues, cranking up the CDs on the decks.
Short of sleep… all these Bluesy nights, I drift off into a dream as we pass the open flat brown fields.
Everybody loves their Grammy
That at one time teemed with black slaves and sharecroppers.
‘Oh, I wish I was single because my lady is driving me mad.’
And suddenly I’m back. It’s the music.
In truth, you could never mistake Modern-Day Man with Bluesman, they were a different species.
No woman nowadays would allow it.
Not that they seemed to then either.
The Baddest Man in Blues: Robert Johnson
Every Bluesman has his wife leaving them ‘because his woman done them wrong’ though there’s always the assumption that he’ll talk his way back.
All Bluesmen are the same, the same but then different.
And then on top of all that there’s Robert Johnson, ‘the Baddest Man in Blues,.
Who legend has it made a deal with the Devil at a crossroads.
Near to where we stop off at Dockery Plantation.
After which we returned to town with a new-found guitar style which set him apart from his peers.
Whatever the truth, and who wouldn’t want to believe this story, we do know that Robert was a bit of an oul’ Divil for the women.
He seemed to have one in every port or town.
Birthplace of the Blues
More often than not somebody else’s which ultimately was his undoing.
When he was poisoned at 27, the wife of a jealous husband lacing his whiskey with Strychnine.
Our own hero B.B. loved, and was much loved by women.
He even named his guitars after women, or one woman in particular, Lucille, a damsel in distress.
Legend has it that two fellas were fighting over her at one of his gigs.
When a fire broke out interrupting the concert forcing everyone to evacuate the building.
We look the part, don’t we?
B.B. realising that his favourite guitar was still inside rushed into the building to retrieve it and thereafter named his guitars after her.
I get to caress Lucille later in our trip at the Westin Hotel in Jackson.
Where there is a promotion with replica guitars of the greats left in selected rooms.
Women held a special affection for B.B. He married three times and sired 11 children at least, maybe even 15.
When love came to town, B.B. certainly didn’t turn it down.
And that’s worth singing about.
Travel facts
United we stand: Boarding United Airlines
Jim flew with United Airlines, Dublin to Newark, New Jersey and then onto Mississippi, returning Jackson, Mississippi to Houston, Texas.
Then onto Newark and onto Dublin.
Car hire, three nights Memphis – Peabody, one night Cleveland – Hampton Inn, two nights Natchez – The Burn B&B, two nights Jackson – Westin. Costs may vary.
Pacific City – Huntington Beach, California: Now I have to confess here that I only saw Huntington Beach by night… watching Snoop Dogg at the American Travel Fair.
And that voice in the background, no, not Snoop but my pal Bladhana from www.americanholidays.ie who know everything there is to know.
While the picture at the top is Visit USA’s and United Airlines’ www.united.com Aoife (sans bandana).
Onto other matters and here’s what Surf City USA has to offer… and, yes, there are boardies!
You’ll notice first off the quirky stores housed in modern craftsmsn beach bungalows.
And an artisan market inspired by California cuisine with patio dining, outdoor movie nights and plenty of places to hang out.
Now Rachel flags up Urban Outfitters, who dress the Son and Heir, but you’ll forgive me but Free People, Brandy Melville and Vissia.
There have been 45 presidents of the US since King George was sent packing. The US, though, has had three Kings, who have left a lasting legacy. This year is the 50th anniversary of Dr Martin Luther King’s assassination. We followed in his footsteps, from Memphis where he made his Mountaintop speech and was assassinated…
— Read on jimmurtytraveltraveltravel.com/elvispresley-the-king-of-kings/
Way down… in Memphis, celebrating Elvis, The King of Kings, on the 4th of July. From your Travel Editor of the Year.
