I never expected to have much to say about the food here, but I am seriously impressed. German cuisine leaves less to be desired than I imagined, and here in Bavaria it isn't just sausages either. On arrival we headed straight to Klosterbräu, Bamberg's oldest brewery. It was of course the traditional Franconian dishes in their restaurant that attracted me, not the home-brewed dunkel beer. Hearty dishes such as slow-roasted pork shoulder with gravy are typical,...

A couple of hours after dawn a Porsche broke the monotony of the most boring stretch of road I have ever driven. The driver must have seen the sign ahead that said welcome to Germany, and he left Belgium behind and passed us at a speed of about 150mph as the long, boring road turned into an autobahn. Apart from losing a wheel trim somewhere near Cologne, our long journey from Manchester was fairly uneventful. During 18 months of travelling through Asia and Sou...

The arctic terns were dive-bombing our heads because they had laid their eggs close to the boardwalks, but it didn't seem to bother the odd-looking eider ducks that had done exactly the same thing and just settled down in the long grass. It was amazing how close you could get to the birds here - guillemots, razorbills and shags were close enough to touch. Only the puffins kept their distance, but even they were close enough to observe as they waddled comically ...

I thought I had visited most of the UK, but felt a bit embarrassed when travellers from foreign lands would often recommend that I should visit Bath. So here I am for a city break with Helen to see what all the fuss is about. I'll say one thing - those travellers can't have been on the budget I was on. It's very expensive, even by English standards. But in for a penny, in for a pound; we made sure we didn't miss out on any of the must see sights, such as the A...

A horrendous racket, sounding like some sort prehistoric monster was coming from the trees. I realized after a while that it must be one of the appropriately named howler monkeys, and sure enough there it was sitting in the trees to one side of the path. Five minutes later I said to Helen that it would be really nice if we also saw some of the tiny marmoset monkeys that live on the island. And right on cue, a group of about 20 of them started leaping through the ...