One of my favorite post-travel traditions is to create videos of my trips. It’s a great way to go through the hundreds (sometimes thousands) of pictures and video clips I bring back on my phone as well as a fun way to get the creativity juices flowing.

I enjoy choosing the background music – sometimes the choices make themselves evident while I’m traveling, whether it’s a song I hear in a restaurant or in the case of the Olympics, a couple songs which had become themes at each venue. On some occasions, the songs are picked before I even leave.

Today I finished the four parts from Europe 2024: Olympics Past and Present. Here are links and some background on the music for each.

For Part 1 I went with Berlin’s “The Metro”. Although I hadn’t made it to the city of Paris (or a metro) by this point, it’s a catchy tune and I did ride a couple of trains.

The music in Part 2 is all about Paris 2024. Two of the themes which were played at each venue include Gala’s “Freed From Desire” and Johnny Halladay’s “Allumer Le Feu”. Allumer in particular HAD to go on here – one of my favorite moments was the crowd at the 3×3 Basketball venue raucously singing along to the rocking tune. In this video, I’m able to synchronize video of that moment with the background music.

I also start off this part with two ‘10s songs from Phoenix, who I never knew were a French band until I saw them perform at the Closing Ceremony on television. Allez Les Bleus!

Deep Purple’s “Smoke on the Water” was one of those songs I knew I was going to use here even before I left for the trip. I had planned to visit Montreaux, which is where the band wrote that tune after the infamous casino fire which the song references throughout.

ELO’s “Mr Blue Sky” also seemed appropriate as I was lucky to see so much blue sky throughout the trip. And when I searched my collection for an appropriate song for Athens, I turned up The Who’s “Athena” which I think worked rather well.

Three of the four selections for Part 4 were made long before I departed. I became a big fan of Caroline Polachek’s album “Desire, I Want to Turn Into You” last year and used a couple of her tracks on my Japan trip video. Her songs “Sunset” and “Welcome To My Island” are ready-made for a Greek islands trip video. I ALMOST could say I booked this cruise BECAUSE I wanted to use those two songs on a trip video. Almost lol.

Canadian rockers The Tea Party were big in the ‘90’s and I always loved their song “The Bazaar”. A perfect selection for my two days in Istanbul.

I reached back to the 90s as well for the Robert Plant / Jimmy Page collaboration “Yallah”. I love how the spoken intro to the song fits so well after my recording of the afternoon call to prayer.

The trip video closes with a snippet of the Moody Blues’ “Your Wildest Dreams” as I fly home. So appropriate for a trip that was one of my wildest dreams.

I hope you enjoy watching the videos! 🍿