Tag Archives: travel

The Humours of Galway

National Geographic recently published its list of Top Ten Literary Cities in the world. I was quite pleased to see that the first three spots were taken by ones that I particularly like. They all happen to be capital cities and I try to visit each at least once a year. Edinburgh made it to number one, closely followed by Dublin, with London in third place. As well as visiting these cities, I’ve also read novels set there and have spent lots of happy hours browsing the shelves of the many fine bookshops located on their streets. The list got me thinking about my favourite Irish bookstores and the recent fine weather made me decide to go and visit one of these a couple of days ago

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Deutsche Grammophon

Used record stores (or any kind of record store) are so rare nowadays that I always try to track them down whenever I’m on my travels. On my recent trip to Germany, I found myself with a few hours to kill in Nuremberg. After a quick search on the internet I saw that there were no fewer than three situated on a street called Jakobstrasse. I found the street quite easily (a rarity for me) and the first shop I made it to was the one you see above, Copacabana Records. The store was longer than it was wide and with a high ceiling, but it was nicely laid out and very tidy. The main area was given over to loads of vinyl records and these seemed to be quite reasonably priced. Unfortunately, I had to ignore these as I wouldn’t have been able to fit them into my luggage. I found the CDs in the corner and these were as neatly arranged as the records. There were lots of jazz, rock & roll, blues and soul and I found a few bargains amongst these. Live in Dublin by Bruce Springsteen with the Sessions Band is a nicely packaged double CD with a DVD and was the most expensive album I bought on this excursion, though it was still good value at two euro below a tenner. The other four I bought here cost that much between them and, having listened to them, some proved to be better value than others. Brook Benton was mostly known for A Rainy Night in Georgia and it’s the best song on Fools Rush In. Sam the Sham & the Pharaohs had a big hit with the hilarious Woolly Bully and, listening to their Greatest Hits, it’s easy to see why they didn’t have any more. I only knew J.B. Lenoir from Elvis Costello’s version of Eisenhower Blues from his King of America album and that’s not even the best song on this collection. I’ve already got far too many collections of northern soul, but that didn’t stop me picking up After Hours 2: More Northern Soul Masters. I found it hard to pick one track from the album but eventually plumped for Archie Bell & the Drells

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Bavarian Hospitality

It’s taken me longer than I thought to follow up my earlier post about my recent trip to Germany. It’s been two weeks since I returned and I’ve been catching up on reading and watching films in that time. I also spent a few days babysitting my nephews and, even though I really enjoyed it, I needed a few days to recover from it. I had spent the earlier part of that German trip outside Bavaria, but the latter half of my visit was spent exclusively in the area that the locals refer to as Bayern. After leaving Micha’s birthday party in Siegen, he drove us both to his place in Nuremberg. Micha was working the next day and I had had a little too much to drink the previous night, so we took it easy and just had a beer or two as we watched a few episodes of the always hilarious Black Books. The next day I wandered around the city of Nuremberg, though I only made it to a few record stores on Jakobstrasse and to a lovely park called Woehrder Wiese. I had been here before and it’s quite large and clean with a nice beergarden. I ate a fine lunch there and was back again that night with Micha and another friend of mine named Christian and his wife Ria, both of whom also live in Nuremberg. We drank one or two beers and decided to call it a night around one in the morning as the lads had to work the next day

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Cartoon Music For Superheroes

Last week I returned from what has become an annual visit to Germany. Over the next few days, I hope to tell you about the second half of my week spent in Bavaria, but today I’ll write about my first few days spent near the town of Siegen (about 90km east of Cologne). That’s where my friend Micha’s family lives and I was there to help him celebrate his 30th birthday party with his relations and friends. Micha had the rather novel idea of getting all his guests to dress up as either a cartoon or comic book character. Amazingly, the vast majority of them decided to wear a costume, with cowboys and characters from Disney and The Simpsons proving to be popular. Micha’s brother Dennis was particularly impressive with his belt of Duff Beer in his role as Duffman

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The Longest Day of the Year

Today’s the longest day of the year and it always reminds me of an earlier summer solstice I spent in Germany five years ago. You may recall that the 2006 World Cup was taking place at the time and some of my German friends had invited me over to check out the atmosphere. I even managed to convince my brother to tag along as I knew he’d get a kick out of it. Our flight was in the early hours of the tournament’s first Wednesday of football and Jack and I started out as we meant to go along. On the eve of our departure we went out in Limerick for a few pints and ended up playing poker at a friend’s house until a little later than expected. We got a taxi back to my place where we just had enough time to pick up our bags and head out to Shannon. A few hours later we arrived at sunny Frankfurt-Hahn where we had the first of many fine beers before getting a bus and a train to Bamberg, the beautiful Bavarian town where we would be based for the week. My friend Anja took great care of us and I also got to introduce Jack to some more of my friends, including a late visit for breakfast on the Sunday. Sorry about that, Katrin.

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Music For Airports

The music video has been in a tailspin for many years, but things are looking up in Limerick at the moment. A duo known as The Rubberbandits are proving quite popular on YouTube with the video for their ode to equine transport, Horse Outside. A horse of a different colour, however, is fellow Limerick native, Keith Forde. Keith used to play guitar for one of my favourite Limerick bands, Vesta Varro, but now he’s flying solo. Last year, Keith came third in the Folk/Singer Songwriter section of an international songwriting competition with Pop Them Pills, his debut single. Well, this year he went one better as he won a competition organised by Hot Press magazine and New York University. He’s in good company as this prize has previously been won by Sinead O’Connor, The Frames and Laura Izibor. The rather impressive award he received was the production of a music video for his winning song, Love at the Airport. Tying in with the song’s theme, the video was shot at the Foynes Flying Boat Museum in Co. Limerick

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Bretzels, Bier & Banter in Bayern

Last week I returned from my first trip of the year to mainland Europe. I spent six busy days in Germany, though it would be more correct to say that I spent it in Bayern (or Bavaria as it’s known in English). My previous visit to Deutschland was last summer when I attended the wedding of my friend Christian and his wife Ria. The main reason for my visit this time was to attend a double birthday celebration in Nuremberg for both Christian and Ria who were born 24 hours apart in 1980. I was also invited to a double going-away party in Erlangen, and I spent a lovely evening with Katrin and Alex in Bamberg and also with Sabine in Augsberg. Here are some words, pictures and music about my visit

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The Wheels on the Bus …

bus

The Patrick Sarsfield Car-Free Parade takes place this Saturday, September 19th, in Limerick city. The parade begins at 1.00pm and goes from City Hall, Merchant’s Quay to the Treaty Stone on Clancy Strand and will feature music and street entertainment along the way. It will also include a sword fencing demonstration and a battle re-enactment at Clancy Strand. The event is part of European Mobility Week 2009, which runs from September 16th to 22nd. The purpose of this week is to raise awareness about the benefits of walking, cycling and using public transport instead of bringing cars into the city centre. As someone who doesn’t own a car (or even know how to drive one) I’m completely in favour of any initiative that will make it easier for cyclists and pedestrians to make their way around the city centre without too much trouble. I’ve just done a post about running and I did one previously about cycling, so here are some songs about buses, bus drivers and the passengers who use this particular form of public transport

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