Bank Holiday Weekend

Planes grounded, trains cancelled, roads gridlocked ... and it’ll be a washout as well

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It is the ultimate Bank Holiday from hell: British Airways is on strike, roads will be congested, trains cancelled for engineering works.

And it that's not enough, it is going to rain.

Forecasters on Friday warned Britons to get their brollies to the ready after they predicted three days of showers and unsettled weather over the holiday.

The misery will be the final blow for millions of people who had either avoided a Bank Holiday getaway - or braced themselves for travel misery if they did.

The worst disruption will be for British Airways passengers.

The first of three strikes by cabin crew ended at midnight last night - but on Sunday the second five-day walkout will begin.

There seemed no end to the dispute in sight last night after talks between BA and the Unite union ended without an agreement – with staff perks and disciplinary

action still the sticking points.

Even a last-ditch resolution of the dispute will still be too late to prevent some disruption next week - because contingency planning means scores of flights have already been cancelled or re-arranged, with up to a quarter of booked passengers still affected.

BA said conciliation service Acas had contacted both parties to arrange further talks but Unite boss Derek Simpson blamed airline chief executive Willie Walsh for
refusing to reinstate staff travel perks for the continuing strikers.

The airline says it will fly more planes and carry more passengers next week – up to 75 per cent of customers compared with 70 per cent this week – as more staff cross picket lines and resolve among the strikers shows signs of weakening.

However, tens of thousands will still have their flights cancelled as thousands of cabin crew at Heathrow walk out.

And trouble in the skies is only part of the problem for travellers – as domestic journeys were hit by roadworks and congestion as well as diversions on the railways. Experts predict record numbers of Britons will spend the Whitsun Bank holiday at home. Some 15million cars are expected to hit the roads – to be faced with 220 miles of roadworks.

Coastal areas are bracing themselves
for an influx, with rooms in Brighton almost fully booked.

Those opting to travel by rail are not likely to fare any better, with 300 sets of engineering works scheduled for the holiday weekend.

There is some good news, however.
Although temperatures are not likely to reach the dizzy heights of last week, the best of the weather is scheduled for Monday when the mercury could rise above 20c (68f) in some parts.

And parents should not worry. Half term will not be a complete wash out thanks to a band of high pressure which should ensure a bright, warm end to the week. The
Met Office’s Becky Shewry said: ‘It will be rather wet everywhere on Saturday, with an organised band of rain moving eastwards across the country.

‘Gardeners might welcome the wet weather but sun worshippers will have to be patient.

‘We are not likely to see temperatures like last weekend over the next few days, but the weather is likely to get steadily better as we move through the week, reaching 23c (73.4f) in the South by Wednesday.’

After the worst of the weather, today, Sunday will be slightly warmer and drier day for most of Britain, although the South West will be cloudy. By Monday, it will warm up in the Midlands and South East but western areas will be at risk of patchy cloud and showers.

Wednesday should be even hotter, with the drier weather hanging around until the end of the half-term holiday.

Homeward Bound

Travel back home is just the reverse of the outward journey but without the overnight in London. We leave Annecy at 09.30 hrs. and arrive in Scarborough at 21.30 hrs i.e 13 not 12 hours because of the clock change under the sea! Crossing Paris between stations we are lucky not to be held up too long because of a public demonstration on 'equal rights' in the Place de Bastille.

When we arrive home we tumble into bed, tired but with a rich treasury of memories for future days/years.

Exploring Annecy

Today begins with awalk around our local village of Talloires before going on to explore Annecy. First our guide walks us around the best of this 'Venice of France' with its traditional open air market today. Afterwards some take to the lake itself but we linger in the market and its environs before taking a coffee at the Best Western Hotel Carlton at the lake side (Travel Editions other base for this holiday). We climb up to the Visitation Basilica above the town, the pilgrimage centre in honour of Francois de Sales and Jane de Chantal, whose remains are there. Also next door is the foundation monastery of the world wide visitation order. Either on the way in or the way back we complete a full circuit of the lake and enjoy the para gliding descents above and around us. Dinner this evening includes a 70th birthday party and concludes with a giant desert cake alight with fireworks.

Evian and Yvoire

On the French shore Lake Geneva is called Lac Leman and today's towns are typical. We first stop at the charming spa town of Evian which is world famous for its mineral water direct from the glaziers above - not the mention the casino and the hall with a version of Rodin's 'The Thinker' which are warm escapes from the cold wind blowing off the lake today (the week has been mainly sunny and warm for October although snow above 600 feet is forecast for the day after our departure). Yvoire is a preserved medieval village attracting large number of international visitors. The region hopes to be granted the winter olympics in 2018 (to be centred on Annecy), the HQ of the Olympic movement is just across the lake at Lousanne.

Chamonix Mont Blanc

Spectacular mountain scenery on route to Europe's highest mountain, Mont Blanc, and extensive similar range surrounding the town of Chamonix. We do ascend but enjoying exploring the town and views from there, along with our picnic lunch. The outward journey included a short stop at Col des Aravis from where we have our first view of the Alpine peak and the local cows persuade us that the holiday souvenir has to be a cow bell for the kitchen back home.

Switzerland

Local coach and driver for over the border visit into Switzerland - city and lake of Geneva. Our tour manager is linguist and knowledgeable. On arrival we choose to visit the old town for the Cathedral, John Calvin, and Reformation Museum (no time for Jean-Jacques Rousseau museum). After taking a picnic lunch by the lake we visit the new town and on return journey coach take us round the international quarter with headquarters of Red Cross, United Nations, UNESCO, World Council of Churches etc. Back to hotel for dinner and relaxation.

Eurostar and TGV

Early departure from St Pancras International to Paris Gare du Nord, coach transfer to Gare de Lyon and TGV travel (two levels - seats on upper level) to Annecy, coach transfer to hotel at far end of the lake - Hotel Les Grillons. Our room has view across the lake to mountains beyond. We are within walking distance of lake side villafe of Talloires. The party is 45 strong. Young team at hotel with high standards throughout - comfortable rooms with character, excellent food, and spacious gardens. This is last week before short closure between summer and winter seasons.

Europe by Train

After Sunday eucharist and Sunday lunch, we took train to Kings Cross, London and made

an overnight stay at Kings Cross Royal Scot Travel Lodge in order to join Travel Editions holiday

tour to Lake Annecy and The Haute-Savoie tomorrow. We tried to join the same holiday last year

but we were too late. All places were already taken when we applied.

(details of alternative holiday can be found on this blog at this time last year).

Calvin 500

(we hope to visit Geneva before the end of the year)

Happy 500th birthday, John Calvin!

Five hundred years ago today (July 10, 1509) was the birthday of one of the two greatest Protestant Reformers, John Calvin (French birth name: Jean Cauvin). Just a month and a half ago (from May 24-27), there was a huge international quicentenary conference in Geneva, Switzerland, called “Calvin and his influence, 1509-2009.”

Biography

John Calvin was a theologian, pastor, biblical exegete, and tireless apologist for Reformed Christianity, and ranks among the most important thinkers in church history. His theological works, biblical commentaries, tracts, treatises, sermons, and letters helped establish the Reformation as a legitimate and thriving religious movement throughout Europe. No theologian has been as acclaimed or assailed as much as Calvin. Calvinism has spawned movements and sparked controversy throughout the centuries. Wars have been fought both to defend and destroy it, and its later proponents began political and theological revolutions in Western Europe and America. The breadth and depth of the engagement with his works since they first appeared four centuries ago—and their continuous publication since then—testifies to Calvin’s importance and lasting value for the church today. Thinking Christians from the twenty-first century who ignore Calvin’s writings do so at their own peril.

John Calvin was born on July 10, 1509 in Noyan, in France. He began his work in the church at the age of twelve, intending—at the request of his father—to train for the priesthood. Calvin attended the Collège de la Marche in Paris, before studying law at the University of Orléans in 1526 and continuing his studies at the University of Bourges. In 1532, Calvin’s first published work appeared: a commentary on Seneca’s De Clementia.

On year later, he befriended Nicolas Cop, the rector of the Collège Royal in Paris. This friendship resulted in trouble for Calvin when Cop was branded a heretic after calling for reform in the Catholic Church. Cop fled to Basel, and Calvin was forced from Paris. The controversy expanded when, on the evening of October 18, 1534, anonymous attacks against the Mass were posted on public buildings, fueling the violence in the city. Calvin left France for Basel in January. The controversy, and the trouble it caused Calvin, disciplined him in his writing project, and he began working on the first edition of The Institutes of the Christian Religion, which appeared in 1536.

In June, 1536, Calvin returned to Paris as the violence subsided, but was expelled again in August of 1536. He left for Strasbourg, but was forced to Geneva instead, where he stayed at the request of William Farel. He became a reader in the church in 1537. In late 1537, Calvin fled Geneva after a controversy surrounding the Eucharist. He traveled to Basel before accepting a position at the church in Strasbourg. There, Calvin continued working on both the second edition of the Institutesand his Commentary on Romans. At the urging of his friends, Calvin married Idelette de Bure. He returned to Geneva in 1541.

Upon his arrival to Geneva, Calvin began writing prolifically. He continued his revisions to the Institutes, preached weekly, taught the Bible during the week, and delivered lectures on theology. Calvin also continued work on his New Testament commentaries.

His return to Geneva was not without controversy, however. He faced opposition from the libertines, who, in 1552, compromised his authority and nearly succeeded in banishing him from Geneva a second time. His greatest threat, however, came from his theological antagonist, Servetus. The frequent letters between Calvin and Servetus contain elements of their tenuous relationship, which were exacerbated when Servetus visited Geneva against Calvin’s orders, publicly denied the Trinity, and disgraced the church. He was condemned for heresy and executed.

By 1553, Calvin was praised for his work in uniting Geneva and securing the future of the Reformation. The church housed refugees from England—among them John Knox—who brought the Reformed faith to England. Calvin also sent more than 100 Reformed missionaries to France, and frequently corresponded with both political leaders and second generation Reformers throughout Europe. He also founded a school in Geneva, and Theodore Beza became its first rector. Calvin’s influence quickly expanded beyond the vicinity of Geneva.

During the 1550s, Calvin’s health began to decline, prompting him to undertake a final revision and expansion of The Institutes of the Christian Religion. It was published in 1559, and was immediately reprinted and translated throughout Europe. Calvin became ill in early 1564, and preached his last sermon on February 6 of that same year. His health worsened throughout the spring, and he died on May 27. Thousands flocked to view his body, forcing the council in Geneva to bury him in an unmarked grave.

Macintosh Glasgow

Separate hop on, hop off bus this morning to various Macintosh buildings, and some on foot in city centre. Afternoon out by bus to Pollock Park and Burrell Collection.

Hop on, Hop off

Hotel is near to St Georges Square enabling us to board the city tour bus there which, with an all day ticket, enables us to hop on and hop off at more than 20 different significant parts of the city.

Glasgow

Today we travel by train to Glasgow. We have been to Edinburgh many times so thought it was time to see what Glasgow has to offer. We stayed at Ramada Jarvis City Central Hotel, Ingram Street.

Bank Holiday

BANK holidays - don't you just love the glorious, gratuitous pointlessness of them?

Today is the Spring Bank Holiday, quite a piece of timing given that we are a mere seven days from June and the start of Summer. Maybe we ought to have a Winter bank holiday - at the end of February.

Had we the same system in force now as during the Sixties, today's holiday would not have fallen until next Monday - Whit Monday, or the Monday after Pentecost. But Pentecost, or Whitsun, being 50 days after Easter, is a moveable feast, thus offensive to the bureaucratic mind. Out went Whit Monday, in came Spring Bank.

Of course, the replacement holiday is scarcely more fixed than the old one - being the last Monday in May, its actual date can move round from the 25th (as today) all the way to the 31st.

Public holidays have taken a lot of sniping recently from the sort of clenched young men who run assorted think-tanks and other institutions. They are old fashioned, we are told, harking back to an era before the legal entitlement to paid leave. They are divisive, because they reflect Christian festivals. They inhibit the proper 24/7 functioning of a modern capitalist economy. Oh, and it always rains.

This last is true enough. As I write, drizzle falls from a Sussex sky and the decision to go ahead by the organisers of a cricket tournament in which our youngest is taking part looks like a piece of heroic optimism.

But the other criticisms either do not stand up or are not criticisms at all.

Yes, bank holidays are a little old-fashioned, bringing to mind picnicking families perched on the tailgate of a Triumph estate car, the children munching egg sandwiches, mother drinking plastic-flavoured coffee from a plastic cup and dad trying to light his pipe in the blustering wind. So what? In our new age of austerity, such innocent pleasures will make a welcome return.

Divisive? There are eight bank holidays in England, of which only two (Good Friday and Christmas Day) are Christian festivals, a further two (Boxing Day and Easter Bank Holiday Monday) are not Christian festivals but would probably not exist were they not to be next door to such festivals and the remaining four - New Year's Day, May Bank, Spring Bank and the August Bank Holiday - are entirely secular.

They snarl up the economy, do they? Too bad. Given the mess that has been made by the masters of the 24/7 universe during the last few years, maybe it would be a good idea to have a few more public holidays during which banks and stock markets are firmly closed.

Bank holidays are jolly good things. Given half of them fall in the Spring, they mark our progress towards Summer. And no, we do not want a mid-autumn bank holiday. The pleasure of the August Bank Holiday Weekend is sharpened, not dulled, by the knowledge that a long haul awaits us all the way down to Christmas Eve.

Bank holidays are good for the economy in two ways - they may dampen activity in some areas but boost spending in others. More to the point, they help keep members of the workforce sane, happy and in touch with their families, friends, loved ones - or even just their hobbies.

So ignore the goggle-eyed think-tankers. Enjoy it all. Have a burnt barbecue sausage on me.

Rain permitting.