FACTORALY - E95 HOLIDAYS

Episode Date: July 3, 2025

Holidays are fun - usually. In fact most of the fun of a holiday comes from its antici pation. We didn't mention it in this episode, but here's a link to a study... https://www.nathab.com/blog/anticipation-is-the-happiest-part-of-a-travel-journeyThey're good for your health, too, and to enhance one's perception of this wonderful ball we all live on.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello Bruce. Hi Simon. How are you today? I'm blinded by the shirt you're wearing. Oh thank you this old thing yes well you, one tries one's best. I mean, how many palm trees can you get on a shirt? I've counted them, 173. I think it's important to dress appropriately when you're hosting an audio-only podcast. Yes, nobody's ever going to see that shirt, thank goodness. And I must say, your sparkly sequly sequin covered cravat is equally charming.

I never go anywhere without it. Hello everyone at home who can't see our bedazzled, bejeweled outfits. The day that we start doing this on video is the day you need to run. Yeah, or it's the day you suddenly realize we've been lying all the time and we're just dressed in our jammies. So this is a thing called factorily, which delivers facts orally. And we try and pick a subject that's fairly dull. This subject isn't. No, it's a whopper. It's holidays! It's holiday time! Yes, it is actually coming up to holiday season isn't it so it's quite appropriate that we're doing this. Yes absolutely. So do you go on holiday?

Have you ever been? I have been yes. Yes I like a nice holiday. I'm traditionally, I'm quite a UK based holiday goer. Okay. So I love exploring these green and pleasant lands of ours. Yeah, I used to go on holiday to Devon and in particularly the Isle of Wight quite a lot when I was a kid. And yeah, I just think that there are an awful lot of lovely, lovely places in this country that I haven't seen yet before even poking at the ones overseas. Interesting. Somebody the other day said to me, what's the most beautiful place you've been on holiday?

And I said Scotland. And they said, that's a really interesting answer because I was expecting you to say something amazing. Yes, well you're quite a well-traveled fella, I think. I am, yes. But yeah, like me, you've got an appreciation for what's right on your doorstep as well. Absolutely, well I love London as well, I live here.

Yeah, exactly. Which is a big holiday destination, especially around where I live. Well, it's literally right on your doorstep as well. Absolutely. Well, I love London as well. Yeah, exactly. Which is a big holiday destination, especially around where I live. Well, it's literally right on your doorstep. Yeah, quite literally. Yeah. So, holidays. I guess it's got something to do with holiness.

It has, yes. So, holiday comes from Holy Day yes originally old English Harlech dug okay nobody's gonna tell you that's the wrong pronunciation because they're all dead yes exactly yes not terribly many records of it being pronounced either you know Cliff Richard didn't jump on a bus and sing we're all going on our summer harlequin dug exactly but there we go and um yeah so holy days so they they were originally there were no summer holidays there were no statutory four weeks off work there was no international travel any of that but traditionally you're going

back hundreds even thousands of years you had holy days. You had, you certainly had things like Christmas and Easter but also other other saints days, other particular holy days in the Christian calendar and other faiths and other cultures as well. I guess Sunday is a holiday if you're Christian. Yes I suppose it is. It sort of fits the definition, you know, a single day off for religious observance. Yes. Just happens that that one happens once a week, whereas the others happen once a year. Yes.

And you can't get very far on a single day. No, you can't. No, exactly. You can't just sort of nip off to Benidorm for the afternoon, can you? Not really. Unless you live in Benidorm. No. But yes, these things, these holy days were spent in your local area. You know, you went to church, you had a celebration of whichever particular holy day it was. And then you sat

at home and ate and communed with your family and friends and then back to work the next day. You know, it was just a day of religious observance you know nothing more than that but they were things to look forward to you know there was a certain amount of partying feasting yes eating drinking dancing singing but we're not going to be talking about that sort of holiday are we because otherwise we were talking about Christmas and we've already done yeah exactly yes. I usually break down holidays into three types of holiday. Oh go on. So there's a break which is a short holiday which is usually involving a city.

Right okay. So it's like to see things. It's like to investigate on a deep level a particular place, one particular place. Then there's a tour, which is where you go from place to place, possibly in a car, to see a number of different places and the landscape in between them. And then there's a holiday, and that's where you lay

on a beach, put your hand up, and someone brings you a burger and a beer. Excellent. Right, in that case by your definition I have never had a holiday. What? I have tours so whenever I go on holiday it's it's car based, it involves traveling around, it involves cramming in as many National Trust properties as possible, learning about the local culture, history etc. I can't stand the idea of a beach holiday. I'm a naturally

restless person, I don't rest very well. So the idea of laying on a beach and enjoying the sun and that being the whole event, I don't get that. I appreciate that people do, but I don't. A restful holiday is very good for you. So I've heard. I mean, for example, women who go on holiday twice a year Hmm have a significantly lower risk of suffering a heart attack than those who only travel every six years or so. Well, it's well Similarly if if women go on holiday twice a year, they're also less likely to suffer from depression

Hmm and men who don't take a holiday at least once a year Have a 20% higher risk of death and a 30% greater risk Of heart disease. So holidays are good for you. Goodness me. Wow. Okay, that's quite impressive Yeah, I mean the other thing about it is that you know, if you spend money on Trump Can we sort of include traveling with holidays? Yeah. Oh, yeah, certainly. Yes. I think it's it's a given. Yeah, so so Yeah, oh, yeah, certainly. Yes. I think it's it's a given. Yeah, so so Couples who travel together have deeper relationships than those who go on separate holidays or don't go on holidays at all Okay, so there's sort of a bonding thing. Yeah, the couple that travels together stays together

And and then also it's about happiness as well Yeah So if you spend money on a holiday You're likely to feel better about it So if you spend money on a holiday, you're likely to feel better about it than if you spend money on something material. Basically, you go on holiday to be better for your wellness. Very good. I was sort of looking at the rise of the summer holiday. When did this really become a thing?

Yes. Um, and a lot of it was about going somewhere healthier for the health benefits. So, you know, we saw the rise of spa towns in, in this country during the, the, the 16, 1700s. Yeah. Um, and people would go to take the healthy spring Sparwater yes The seaside, you know, it's I mentioned I used to go on holiday to the Isle of Wight when I was a kid To me that is the epitome of summer holiday going to a British seaside

Eating fish and chips building a sandcastle playing in the amusement arcades. That's my kind of holiday and amusement arcades that's my kind of holiday and they're great too though exactly so you know again this has always been a thing you know if you work in the city you know in the industrial era you're sort of getting a lung full of coal smoke every time you breathe yeah nip down to the seaside get some fresh air bathe in the salt water which has all kinds of invigorating rejuvenating properties yes and you're much better off for it interesting so you talk about going on

holiday in the UK one of the best known travel companies in the UK that's no longer exists it's defunct was Thomas Cook don't just book it Thomas Cook I used to do the advertising Thomas Thomas Cook. Did you? Not surprised. I've done a couple of posters which did quite well, won awards and things. But Thomas Cook himself lived in the 1800s. Oh he was actually a person? Oh yeah yeah. I thought it was going to be one of those fake names. He started work as a gardener's boy. He left school at 10 and then he became a cabinet maker and then he became an itinerant Baptist preacher okay and this is the guy right who

invented the all-inclusive travel holiday yeah and his first holidays were about temperance oh my goodness what a turnaround which is something you don't see at all what happened to him so? I don't know. So it was his first foray into tourism was a railway excursion to Loughborough for members of the Leicester Temperance Society in 1841 and then that was very successful and then he started to organize tours further afield in the UK and then to the US and to the Holy Land. Right, yes. So he greatly believed in touring the world as a religious thing to do.

Yes. He set up Sunday schools, he did all sorts of things. Yeah. Of course that was the major experience of travel for certain certain classes over the centuries wasn't it? You're going on a pilgrimage to the holy land or you know going to mecca lords or mecca or anywhere like that that was a large purpose of travel absolutely. So yeah so so Thomas Cook started to organize tours which which were including the travel and the hotel. So basically it's a package holiday.

Yes, yes. If you like. And package holidays have kind of come a long way since Thomas Cook. I wonder whether Thomas Cook had a particularly significant moment in his life where he turned away from religious intemperance and said, you know what would make this even better? Endless booze. Yes, jugs of woo woo.

Maybe it was his descendants who decided to take the company in a slightly different direction. I suspect it might have been. Brilliant. So you say that you take your holidays mostly in the UK? Mostly yes, I've been Brilliant. So you say that you take your holidays mostly in the UK? Mostly yes. I've been to a few places abroad. I've been to Austria a couple of times, been to France, been to America on one particular holiday.

But yeah, I keep coming back to the UK. The average person in the UK has visited 10 countries. Really? Yeah. By comparison, Germans have been to eight. The average French person has been to five. And in America, only 29% of the population have ever been abroad.

Really? Gosh. Only a third of the American population actually have been abroad. Wow. But to be fair, if you live in America, you've got beaches, you've got mountains, you've got skiing, you've got everything that you could possibly want in one country.

You've also got quite a long way to fly before you get anywhere else. Yes, that's true as well. Unless you go to Canada or Mexico. Sure, yeah. Can you tell us how many countries you've been to? I could. How long have we got?

Ha ha ha. Ballpark figure. 100? No. Maybe? Crikey. Yeah. Okay. I've got, I've got six. Wow. I mean that's a very, very loose ballpark. It might be bigger than that but I don't know. bigger than that but I don't know. Where do you think is the most visited country in the world then? Um, most visited country in the world? I don't know. And you know I'm going to hate the answer to this one. Oh it's not France is it? Oh Bruce, shame. Yep, France is the most visited country in the world.

I mean what have they got that the rest of the world haven't got apart from culture and history and art and food and sunshine and things? And the south of France and wine. Yeah. I mean apart from that. Apart from that. So there's about 89 million visitors to France every year. Crikey. Compared to, I mean the US has about 80 million, so about 10% less, and Spain has 85 million, so they're the top three. Right, okay. 8.2% of the

gross domestic product of France is tourism. Gosh, yeah. Wow. So France is the most visited country in the world. Yes. Do you know which country is most visited by us Brits? We have a particular favorite holiday destination. I would guess Spain. It is Spain. Is it? Okay. And it has been Spain for several years. I've never been there so I don't particularly know what I'm missing. But Spain does seem to be the most popular destination for Brits. After that, it's then France, Italy, Greece, Portugal. Those are the top five destinations for us Brits to go to. And they're all in Europe, suppose that that makes sense because they're quite quite nearby. We're all next door. Yeah.

Then after that it's the USA for us that's our next sort of popular destination outside of Europe and we we do seem to go abroad quite a lot I found some statistics from 2022 that said UK residents made a total of 86.2 million trips abroad. Wow. So we do it a fair bit. In 2023 we spent an estimated £72.4 billion on going overseas at one point or other. That's a other. So we do like a holiday. If you are going to France, I mean Paris is obviously a fabulous place to go. It is the most romantic city in the world, followed by Venice and Florence. And the Louvre is very popular. It's actually the largest museum

in the world. Is it really? 73,000 square meters. Gosh. And has about nine million visitors every year. That's a lot, isn't it, actually? Nine million, yeah. It was originally built as a fortress in the 12th century. Yes, I remember reading that. Yeah, and it was a palace after that as well, wasn't it? Yes. Wow. vive la France. Oui. I mentioned the good old-fashioned British seaside holiday. With postcards. Yes postcards and things like that. And yes you know I sort of picture the the

rise of the the British seaside holiday as being a very Victorian thing you know you look at places like Brighton and Eastbourne absolutely riddled with Victoriana, the architecture, the bandstands, the promenades, the piers, the statues, all of that stuff it's all very very Victorian and that was certainly when it was the most popular but it started you know a reasonable amount earlier than that I found them, you know, bathing machines. Yes, it's like a caravan that you put in the sea. Exactly, that's it. So to preserve your modesty, you'd sort of hop into this one-person carriage

on the beach, fully dressed in your weekday attire. The carriage would be drawn by horse or sometimes winched or pushed manually down to the water's edge. You'd change in the machine. You'd often change into nothing at all actually before bathing suits became popular. It was quite a thing to swim in the nude. And then you'd go down a few steps at the back of the machine into the edge of the water, but you'd stay close to the bathing machine so that no one could see you. It was there to disguise the fact that you were having fun. So you were basically taking the waters, not really exercising.

Exactly, yeah. There wasn't an awful lot of swimming involved. You were dipping. And these things often had awnings around them, canopies. I see them as sort of red and white. Often, yes, often stripey. So again, a very Victorian thing.

Apparently they actually started in the mid 1700s. There's evidence to say, well, there's certainly evidence that they were being made in Margate in Kent in 1750. There's a suggestion that they were actually around in the 1730s. So they're a Georgian invention, not Victorian. But obviously then, you know, it was quite a rare thing. Only the wealthy could sort of take the horse and cart ride to the sea. Then when the trains came in in the 1800s, that became more accessible, more popular. And then the droves just went for a day or possibly a weekend at the seaside and then all the paraphernalia that came with it people started selling ice cream at the seaside

fish and chip shops sprung up the penny arcades sprang up in the early 1900s and it just became what it is now but I love the idea of of people going from the city to places like Brighton and Eastbourne before they were developed, you know, when they were just quaint seaside towns pre-tourism. I'd like that idea. I actually really like a beach resort in the winter. I think there's something rather magical and special about a British seasideort with sort of great steel grey skies or possibly driving rain. Yes, it suddenly reminds you that people do actually live there. It's not just a tourist destination. I spent one summer as a deck chair attendant on East

Bourne Beach. Did you? Yeah. Brilliant. I like East Bourne. It's a nice place. I mean, you get really fit because the beaches are made of stones. Yes it is. So if you're walking up and down flogging deck chairs, I was very very fit by the time I finished. Great. There's a day called Peak Airline Day, which is usually a Friday in August or July between 2 and 4 p.m. Right. So just before tea. At that given time there are likely to be 16,000 airplanes in the air worldwide. Goodness. Yes. Wow. So that's a lot of people in the sky at one time. That is, I mean, moving around on Earth as well, you get quite a lot.

Sure, yeah. So the beginning of the Chinese New Year, people who work away from home go home. I always see you right. So there's about 385 million Chinese people will travel home for the holiday for the Chinese New Year, which is massive. That is huge, isn't it?

That's like a migration. Yes, but they're all going to different places. In Iraq there's a lot of people just going to one place. So you know you hear about these pilgrimages to Mecca which I mean they look pretty big but by comparison they're quite small compared to the Arbaeen pilgrimage which is the world's largest public gathering. It's held in Iraq and it's twice the size of Mecca. In 2023 there were 22 million people who went to this thing and they all sort of travel their walk

their pilgrimage. It's incredible. Wow. God that's big. Yes. I mean most of the year all the accommodation is empty Hmm. Yeah, of course is it's for this one one time of the year Wow when everything fills up? So holidays obviously can be quite expensive things, you know, you've got to pay for your travel, pay for your accommodation, food, entertainment, etc. Especially these days it's really expensive. Really expensive. Years and years ago it used to be even more expensive by virtue of the fact that you didn't get paid from your employer. It's all unpaid holiday. Yeah. Wow. So there's been sort of quite a long history about people fighting for the right to be paid by their employer for taking holidays.

We go back to those one-off holy days. Yes. You were given that day off, but you didn't get paid for it. Yeah. And any time you took off work was unpaid. So, you know, you couldn't afford to take much time off because otherwise you had no money. Yes. to take much time off because otherwise you had no money. And it was surprisingly late in the day that paid leave actually came in. It's always sort of been at the employers discretion. Maybe now and then

you might get a very generous employer who would give you a bit of money to take a day off. But by and large, no. It wasn't until 1938 that the Holidays with Pay Act came out in Britain, which was a law that enabled, didn't enforce, but enabled wage regulating authorities to introduce paid holiday for workers. So it gave employers the opportunity to pay their employees to take time off. But obviously that's money that comes out of the employer. So it wasn't, wasn't terribly popular at the time. And this, this sort of argument went on, you know, decade after decade, there were various strikes throughout history of people's, you know, demanding

to be paid for their time off. Um, yes, the EU came up with a delightful sounding thing called the Working Time Directive, which just makes me think of the Prime Directive from Star Trek. Yes, yes, of course. Which made it mandatory for employers to offer four weeks paid leave per year. This didn't happen until 1993. So really quite late. The UK abstained from the vote at the time saying no that'll cripple us. We eventually did it in 1998 so almost you know the next millennium did we get that sort of statutory four four weeks paid leave. There is still a country in the world that doesn't have a single legally required paid vacation day there. Really?

Where's that? I mean you think it would be like the Middle East or something right I would have thought yeah America USA beg your pardon so technically the United States is the only developed country in the world without a single legally required paid vacation day it's all voluntary really yeah huh and they usually only get two weeks a year right I mean they get they get sort of Martin Luther King Day and President's Day and all that stuff. Sure, Labor Day and stuff. But yeah, so you don't have to be,

I mean, technically those can be unpaid. Wow. On those holidays. Gosh, that's worrying. Yes. And then that brings us quite nicely into bank holidays. Oh yes. Those glorious one-off days that we all sort of count down to so that we can have a single extra day off work. The ones that rain. The ones that rain, traditionally. Are they

gonna be on a Friday or a Monday? Can I extend them into making a long weekend? Yeah. Et cetera, et cetera. Why don't we ever have a bank holiday in the middle of the week? I assume because it would just annoy people too much. But if you have Wednesday off, then it's like working two short weeks. You have like a Monday, you have like come back to work on Monday morning, having a weekend off, then you work Monday, Tuesday, then you relax on Wednesday, then you go back to work on Thursday, Friday. That is true.

That is a nice idea. I suppose for people who want to sort of extend their weekend by a day, you know, is more justifiable to perhaps go away for a couple of nights on a three-day weekend than it is on a two-day weekend. So I guess maybe that's more valuable to people. I'm going to push for the bank holiday Wednesday. Bank Holiday Wednesdays. And these were again, you know, the major Holy Days were always recognised but not enforced or you know, formally recognised by law. In 1871 in this country we had the Bank Holiday Act which made those particular days an official thing upon which the banks shut. That's why they're called bank holidays because the banks shut. And since the banks are shut then all the

other businesses might as well shut as well. We can't possibly work without a bank. No, of course, absolutely. Well 1871, you know, that was truer than it is now. I guess, yes, true. And one of the most popular bank holidays in this country is the May bank holiday, May Day. Yes. And I had a quick look into May Day. Okay. This bizarre day where rural villagers gathered together around a big stick, tie ribbons to it and dance in circles. A maypole.

A maypole. One of many, many very obscure British traditions. Yes. But this apparently goes back to a Celtic tradition called Balthayne, which was a festival that sort of celebrated the first day of summer and a nice day off for the farmers who were about to have their hands full for the next few months. And later there was a Roman festival called Floralia, which again was sort of late spring, early summer. It honoured the goddess of flowers and springtime.

And these things have sort of come together to be the May Day festival that we have now. A celebration that's centuries, if not millennia old but you know was only officially recognized as a bank holiday as part of this Victorian act and now these bank holidays are sort of so set in stone that you know we mark them on our calendars we desperately look forward to them we complain that we don't have enough of them compared to other countries and and so on. But sometimes we cheat don't we so for example sometimes there's like Easter or Christmas or something like that or fall so that so that the the bank holiday Monday actually falls on the Sunday oh yes right

so we get two bank holidays got like Monday and Tuesday yeah two for the price of one yeah very odd I had a quick look at some public holidays in in other countries you know saying that we always complain we don't have enough. We have eight public holidays a year. Yes. So that's bank holidays and religious days as well, you know, Christmas and Easter. The country that has the fewest is Vietnam. They only have six public holidays a year. Yes. Except that one of them lasts for seven days. That's cheating. Absolutely. Which country would you say has the most public holidays per year? Germany. Nepal. Okay. Nepal, I don't quite understand this, has between 35 and 45

public holidays a year. They must be religious. Must be religious. Why the differing number? Maybe it's sort of a bit like leap years. Maybe one of them only occurs every few years or whatever. But yes, they have 35 to 45 public holidays a year. I couldn't quite find out whether they were, you know, you're forced to not work. Because if you are, that's an awful lot of days

where the workers all suddenly down tools, isn't it? ["The New York Times"] if you are that's an awful lot of days where the workers are suddenly down tools isn't it but these are days when you have a day off we know a lot of days when you don't have a day off there's this they're called to like national days oh right and there are so many of them national poop day and do we february the 9th, no that's American. Oh fine. Thumb appreciation day. Fill our staplers day. So give me a day. Can we just linger there for a minute? Fill our staplers day.

What are they doing in the office on all the other days? They're using half empty staplers. That's just bonkers. Okay give me give me a day we'll do a couple of days any day of the year. All right let's go for my birthday 30th of January. January the 30th. January the 30th is croissant day. Oh good happy birthday me. Happy birthday me! Give me another one. The 12th of June. 12th of June? The 12th of June is Red Rose Day. Lovely. Yeah that's much better. 6th of October. 6th of October is Mad Hatter Day. Where we celebrate the works of Lewis Carroll or where we celebrate people who make hats. Or you just wear a hat.

Great. Yes. Who comes up with these things? It's the day after Chic Spy Day and the day before Frappe Day. Oh, that explains it then, doesn't it? Great. But there are some very unusual... I tell you what, we have a blog.

Oh, here it comes. So we put together some show notes and there are links in this blog to all sorts of stuff that we'll be talking about today. And in there, you'll find a whole calendar of days of the year and what sort of national days they are. And you'll find those at a place called factorily.com. Factorily.com? It's a website.

Hence the dot com. Yes, and there's a blog there and you'll find one or say episode such and such, holidays. And just go there and you'll find more information about holidays than you ever really wanted to know. What a wonderful way to spend your holiday. For example, did you know that April 17th was blah, blah, blah day? Again, who decides this? July 21st, invite an alien to live with you day.

July 20th, National Ugly Truck Contest Day. I mean, I don't know who comes up with this stuff. We had National Cheese Day recently, didn't we? We did, yes, just the other day. truck contest day I mean I don't know who comes up with this stuff we had cheese day recently didn't we we did yes just the other day um there there are days which have two days oh it's like the weird one on October the 30th obviously Halloween sure create a great funeral day but also haunted refrigerator night goodness sake oh I just keep spotting these September the 23rd national dogs in politics day it's also national apple cider vinegar day anyway I'm gonna stop

there cuz this is can anyone just apply for one of these things you know yes you can can you you can as long as you as long as you have enough backing you can have these accepted as a national day. What could we do? Or national, I think you'll find, day. That would be good. Most people stay in hotels, don't they? Or A&Bs these days, especially. Do you know the world's largest hotel?

Ooh, I want to say the Burj Khalifa just because it's really really tall but I don't know if it's large in terms of much capacity yeah mostly offices and so no I don't so it's in Malaysia right it's called the first world hotel. Okay. Okay. Here we go. How many rooms are there at the Malaysian first world hotel? Bearing in mind it's the largest hotel in the world. Yeah, I'm just trying to picture some of the hotels I've been in and what the highest room number was so a thousand up 2,000 up five up ten. No too much 7,000 2000 up five up ten no too much 7351 rooms goodness me

That's a lot of people being on holiday at once seven and nearly seven and a half thousand rooms in a hotel gosh That's all it's faulty would have a nightmare. I know well It's only just beaten the Venetian and Palazzo complex in Vegas hmm because that that complex has just over 7,000 rooms right it also has 40 restaurants good grief yeah sport for choice I know it's mad that's like a small town do you feel the needs to travel I begin to feel a little bit itchy and restless if I haven't been anywhere nice for a while. Do your parents travel? Not a lot. Interestingly, because the desire to travel may be genetic, so if your family

don't travel much it may mean that you don't travel much. Oh really? And there's a thing called the wanderlust gene. I was just going to mention wanderlust, yeah. Yes. So it's associated with increased levels of curiosity and restlessness and dopamine levels. So the wanderlust gene is one of those genes that you can have in your genetics or not. Right, how interesting. And it may mean that some people are more predisposed to go on holiday than others. How interesting.

In Japan, there's a company called Unagi Travel, which is a Japanese travel agency for stuffed animals. So you can send your stuffed animal on holiday without you. And this company will take photographs. No way. without you and this company will take photographs no way and they'll take photographs of your of your stuffed animal in various different places in Japan and they'll send you postcards with your animal in various places okay I mean you could depending on how much that costs yeah you could just go on

holiday yourself and take your stuffed animal with costs, you could just go on holiday yourself and take your stuffed animal with you. Well you could. So they charge you 1300 yen, £6.70 per postcard and they'll take your your stuffed animal on three trips a month. Again you can read all about this on the blog. That's great. I suppose if you enjoy reading travel blogs then you know. Yes. The novelty of seeing your own teddy bear in them. Here's Teddy in Nagasaki. So jealous of Teddy, he's always going to such fun places. So Simon, I imagine there's quite a few holiday records. Yeah there are, I really struggled with this because there are just so many.

And there are records about individual holidays. So obviously there are lots of Christmasy ones, lots of summery ones, etc. Well, especially when you put holidays into Google, it comes up with the holidays. Automatically comes up with Christmas. Exactly. Yeah, it's quite hard to narrow down. So I just decided to pick a few random ones and see where we go. The world's tallest sandcastle. Oh I love making sandcastles. I do too. This is a thing I regularly do with my son if we if we go somewhere sandy. We use a bucket. Oh, bucket and spade. We've got a sort of a large sandcastle shaped

bucket as well as regular buckets. Oh with crenellation. Yes exactly. Yes. Yes fortified the sand castle The world's tallest sandcastle was built in 2015 by a team from Virginia Key Beach in Florida thirteen point nine seven meters tall That's like a two-story building. Mmm Yeah tall. That's like a two-story building. Yeah. Then there's a chap called Fred Finn from the UK, holds the record as being the most traveled person. He has flown over 15 million miles

and has visited 139 countries. Wow. So he's doing all right. Yeah. There's someone from Brazil called Anderson Diaz who has the record for visiting all 195 countries in the world in 543 days. Gosh. So a year and a half. That's a lot of traveling isn't it? That is an awful lot of traveling. Crikey. I'm trying to find the most expensive summer holiday. It's impossible because they're just so personalized and do you include things that you bought whilst you're away, etc. But I did find the most expensive cruise, which hasn't actually come out yet they're taking orders for the 2027 season right this is a 140 day world cruise yes visiting 71 ports it goes from Miami and ends up back in New York it visits six continents 40 countries etc etc 1.7 million pounds yes that's's the Seven Seas Splendour. The Seven Seas Splendour is the name of the ship, yes. Wow. Yeah, I mean it is pretty, I mean if you look at it, it's

pretty luxurious. That includes staying in a four and a half thousand square foot suite. Oh crikey. I mean that's bigger than my flat I think. Yeah, that fee works out as roughly nine and a half thousand pounds a night. Wow. It's, I think we can say that's probably going to be for the select few. I would say so. Well I think I need a holiday. Yes I think I need a break as well.

How about we have a week off people wouldn't like that You know if we took a week off you'll say where's our fact already this week? Yes, absolutely There's no fact or any the the system would come grinding to a halt And then how would they like and subscribe and all those other things that you need to do? They wouldn't be able to be sad wouldn't it? I know imagine waking up on a Thursday morning and not getting a notification saying that a new episode has arrived. Yes, and not being able to leave us a five-star review. No. Which we expect. That would be terrible. Like a five-star holiday. Yes. Okay, so let's not do that then. Let's just carry on. But if you do go on holiday, when you're on

holiday, if you bump into any nerds Hmm, you could mention this to them. You certainly could and say hello. I listen to a podcast called factorial and they'll walk away You could even find the translation to say that in the language of whichever country you're visiting Google is your friend. Yes So, thank you very much for coming and listening to us, we do appreciate it. We do, absolutely. Please come again next time to listen to some more fun-filled, fascinating facts on... Fact-O-Liday! Fact-O-Liday! Nice. Goodbye!

Au revoir!