Mid September and the rough plan is to follow the sun. With the climate starting to cool off in the Alps, some serious Med time is on the agenda and Nice is as likely a place as any for a gateway into its blue waters. T-shirts, shorts and thongs (flip flops for some readers. I don't wear g-strings - in public) the mode of dress for the medium term. This is our second time to Nice and on both occasions finding a bed has been a bunfight. The Riviera is both popular and expensive for digs. With that drama out of the way, we then needed to tread lightly and not risk falling into the trap of comparing everything to the previous week. "Annecy was so much cheaper. Annecy was so much less frenetic. The people ... read more

The world's got me on a string. 7 months of sauntering across the globe, a slew of broad ranging experiences and here I was, eyes closed, operating on 2 senses. Firstly the smell. Is there a more pleasant odour than freshly baked baguettes? Then there were the sounds emanating from behind the counters: "Bonjour Monsieur. Vous desirez"? "Une tradicion s'il vous plait". "Une tradicion, oui. Et avec ca Monsieur"? "Deux palmiers s'il vous plait". "Deux palmiers. Tout de suite Monsieur. Voila. C'est tout"?" "Oui merci". "Alors, ca fait quatre euros cinquante Monsieur". "Voila mademoiselle"." "Merci Monsieur. Bonne journee". A simple transaction in a boulangerie but how come I felt like I needed to go back to our studio and take a cold shower? Paris does that to me and the bread buying process is this city ... read more

If it's a one stop shop for all things medieval you're after and you can ignore some questionable authenticity, then look no further than Tallinn. The buildings of the old city of Estonia's capital look as though they've been lifted straight from the pages of a Brothers Grimm fairy tale. 500 ish years young, Tallinn has received the full makeover. A nip and tuck, breast implants, Botox and the old boiler scrubs a treat. It's not only the structures that are easy on the eye. You want a job in the service industry here? 3 criteria will give you a decent head start: "Young, female, good looking". The minds driving Tallinn's tourism industry have decided sexing up the "if you build it they will come" ethos was a sure fire winner. And come they do. On ... read more

The t-shirt in the shop window said it all: "If we had dolphins we'd kill them too". Hewn into that same t-shirt was a diagram heavy on the graphics. Norway takes some pride in its success at turning the cold shoulder to world opinion on whaling, right down to selling great chunks of whale meat in heavily touristed waterfront fish markets. Snubbing their collective noses at anti whaling lobbyists, Norwegians state: "Don't like it, don't come" In reality, Norwegians don't need our tourism bucks anyway, there's oil in them thar hills. Via that oil, Norway is rich, the perennial top dog in polls centred around the world's most liveable or the highest standards of living.The reasons why Norway is placed on such a lofty pedestal aren't exactly covert. Public wealth manifests itself in an ultra slick ... read more

Russia is near enough to the final European nation that still enforces visa restrictions on most foreign nationals. It's like a Soviet hangover, as if they still have the shivers from the Cold War and maintain a 1000 yard stare across the border to those western capitalist pigs. Neither is getting your hands on a visa a walk in the park. The reddest of tape needs to be negotiated first. Got a month up your sleeve and a spare 400 or so dollars in your back pocket? We didn't. There are a couple of back door options, such as.........A single click of the payment button on the "Vacations To Go" website and hey presto, we had jumped from DIY tourists to cruising for a bruising. For a relatively economical up front outlay, we latched onto a ... read more