The Blog

Lucca, half an hour from Pisa by train: the walls, the Guinigi Tower, San Martino, tordelli and buccellato, and where I stayed inside the walls.

King's Day in Delft: orange crowds, canal boats, the vrijmarkt yard sales, and William of Orange's tomb in the Nieuwe Kerk.

Six hours in Växjö on a cheap Alicante–Växjö–London routing: the airport bus, Tegnér cemetery, the cathedral, gardens, lakes and a Skyscanner 'anywhere' tip.

Armistice Day is also Poland's Independence Day. What I saw at the Warsaw march, why Poles are so proud, and what Britain could learn from its neighbour.

Skip the sunbed for a day: Hadrian's Gate, the walled old town of Kaleiçi, the Yivli Minare, the ancient harbour and a necropolis found under a building site in Antalya.

Malta’s mysterious cart ruts at Clapham Junction near Dingli: who made them, when, the Għar il-Kbir cave dwellers, Filfla at sunset and how to visit.

Above Victoria, Gozo’s Cittadella has guarded the island for 3,000 years: the 1551 raid, an old prison carved with ships, a painted dome and tips for visiting.

On Gozo, 14 marble statues climb Ta’ Għammar Hill to the Resurrection, and Ta’ Pinu keeps the voice Karmni Grima heard in 1883: the story, a sunset and visiting tips.

On Gozo’s Xagħra plateau, Ġgantija predates Stonehenge and the pyramids: the legend of Sansuna, the Victorians who cleared it, and current tickets and hours.

Walk Valletta from the George Cross memorial to Fort St Elmo’s last stand and Caravaggio’s Beheading, with current Co-Cathedral and museum ticket prices.

Walk the Tarxien Temples — older than the pyramids — for spirals, animal reliefs, the colossal skirted statue, and current Heritage Malta hours and tickets.

Climb the Rotunda of Mosta — Malta’s Pantheon — hear the 9 April 1942 bomb that never exploded, and get current hours, tickets and the bus from Valletta.

Deep in a Mitte hostel basement near Rosenthaler Platz, Berlin keeps a shrine to David Hasselhoff — Baywatch kitsch, Looking for Freedom, and a chunk of Wall.

Dinosaurs and deep time under Warsaw’s Palace of Culture — an honest look at the Museum of Evolution (Muzeum Ewolucji PAN), tickets, labels, and whether it earns an hour on a short Warsaw trip.

A Londoner explains why hop-on hop-off buses are usually a waste of time and money — and what to do instead.

Sofia’s compact craft crawl: bottle shops, grunge taprooms, English cask at BiraBar, and enough Balkan IPA to argue for an extra night.

Saint-Maximin’s Gothic basilica still claims Mary Magdalene’s relics — a Provençal visit to unfinished stone, crypt, and the Sainte-Baume legend.

Toulouse is la Ville Rose — an afternoon walk from Capitole square to Saint-Sernin and the Garonne, with practical France travel links.

Warsaw's Old Town was rebuilt brick by brick after wartime demolition — I walk the Barbican, beer streets, market squares and Castle Square in the film, with practical Poland travel links.

At The Marquis on Chandos Place I drink where Claude Duval was said to have taken his last free pint — Grade II timber, Brydges Place, vinyl nights, and the Covent Garden stories coach tours skip.