Head towards Rustempasha mosque, away from the Egyptian Bazaar or Spice Market. You'll find twisty streets full of tiny shops, including many selling wooden implements such as paddles for pide ovens, huge sieves, forks and spoons. The spice shops here are half the price of the Egyptian market, too, and if you're lucky you'll see the hamals (market porters) at work, or find a cubbyhole selling cay (tea) inside one of the old han courtyards.

Around Rustempasha mosque, Eminonu

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On Peykhane, one of the streets running off Divan Yolu and about ten minutes' walk from Cemberlitas. Unassuming, bright diner, with excellent, cheap meals (pide, kebab, salad, soup), no hassle or hustling, friendly staff, and the best fresh bread we tasted in the whole city. 12-20 liras for two. Convenient for Sultanahmet hotels but out of the tourist beargarden.

Karadeniz kebab, Peykhane

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A fine Indian restaurant with a €11.50 set lunch (not Sundays) and lovely decor. Something different from steak frites - and in a country where Indian restaurants are still a rarity, well worth finding.

Rue de la Clouterie, Chartres - old city centre, 5 mins walk from the cathedral

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Churros con chocolate is a great Spanish traditional breakfast. There's a little churreria stand on the square between the Alcazar and the Caliphal baths.

Order your churros (sort of long doughnuts), watch them being fried, and eat them on the hoof. Much better than a slice of toast and coffee.

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A massive beer hall and good, monk-brewed beer. But, to get the best out of it, you need to know the ropes.

Buy your food from the little shops that line the corridor; sausages and roast pork; olives; cheese spread and stuffed peppers. Remember, the bread comes from the bakery, the butter from the delicatessen!

Then queue up to pay for your beer, and collect your receipt. Next, grab a mug and finally, present it for filling at the tap. Then relax and enjoy!

Lindhofstrasse 7, Muelln, Salzburg

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This is cider country. There are gnarled apple trees everywhere - some in orchards, others just in lines in the middle of fields.

Try the 'cidre artisanal'. If you want something stronger, there's 'eau de vie de cidre' - which can only be called Calvados if it comes from that departement.

www.calvados-tourisme.com/loisirs/route/route5.asp

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The 6.30 pm mass is celebrated in one of the Romanesque crypts of the abbey. Turn up at the abbey entrance ten minutes beforehand and you'll be escorted up to the church.

In winter, the floodlights shining through the huge Gothic windows give the church an eerie moonlit feeling. In summer, it's your chance to see the church for a few minutes devoid of tourists. And the singing is usually good.

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This isn't Norman cooking - it's Alsatian. But it's darn good, there's a value set lunch, and it's on one of the nicest street corners in the city.

rue Martainville

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Never mind the caravan park. Keep going, through the pines and grass, through the dunes, and down to the beach. You can walk for miles on the golden sand, or stay in the dunes and hope to see a Natterjack toad with the natty yellow stripe down his back. And it never seems to get that crowded, because the East Anglian landscape and the huge East Anglian sky make this beach feel very big indeed.

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The stretch of canal around Llangollen is one of the most scenic anywhere. Just follow the towpath and you will eventually find yourself walking on air, crossing Thomas Telford's majestic Pontcysyllte aqueduct 126 feet above the valley below. Even scarier on a boat - there's no handrail that side!

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From the ramparts of this huge prehistoric hill fort, the view opens up to the Somerset Levels below - mile upon mile of fields and hedges, and twelve miles away, the isolated shape of Glastonbury Tor. Whether in golden sunlight or winter mist, this is a magical view. This may or may not be King Arthur's Camelot, but it does sometimes feel as if it's on the frontiers of another world.

Five miles north west of Yeovil

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Greenwich Observatory was built to look at the stars. But it's a fantastic place to look at London, too.

You look past the green lawns and Palladian architecture below, across the Thames, past the Dome and Canary Wharf, to the whole of north London spread out on its hills above the metropolis. Nowhere else do you get this feeling of the sheer scale of the city, and binding it all together, the sluggish grey ribbon of the river.

From Cutty Sark DLR station - it's an uphill walk so come motivated!

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If you're fit and you have a whole day, and a friend (or a taxi) who can deliver you to the south end of the hills, the Malverns are one of the best single day walks you can have.

The hills lie in a single north-south bumpy ridge, like walking along a dragon's back. To the left, you can see to the Welsh border, and the Brecon Beacons; on the east, the low lying valley of the Severn. I've seen it flooded, the whole plain below reflecting silver in the light; or dusted with snow. You can see as far as the edge of the Cotswolds, and there's only the rounded, low Bredon Hill with its patchwork of hedges and fields between you and Oxfordshire.

Hollybush car park on the A438 (south end): Clock Tower car park, Great Malvern

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You're going to have a stiff hike to get here, and that's one of the wonders of the place. Climb up beside the foaming waterfall of Cauldron Snout, and then you're trekking across a flat, forbidding moorland plateau. Nothing prepares you for what comes next.

High Cup Nick is like an axe blow cloven into the moorland. The land falls away below you; the Eden valley stretches out towards the horizon, a patchwork of green fields. To the side, basalt crags tower, like the spires of a primitive cathedral. Climb down into the Nick and the wind suddenly stops; you're poised above the world.

Best to start near Middleton in Teesdale or at Cow Green car park

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The old city of Noto was destroyed by an earthquake in 1693. Which wasn't such a bad thing for the modern tourist, because the whole city was rebuilt in Sicilian baroque style. The creamy, fine local limestone glows warmly in the sun, or shines eerily white on a stormy day. If Bernini had lived in the Cotswolds, he would have built Noto-on-the-Water... Prepare to be impressed - or to fall in love.

40 minute bus ride from Siracusa

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The bones of Santa Rosalia, patron of Palermo, are preserved in this cave. A network of metal bars and gutters directs the seeping water from the roof of the cave into little bottles; it's supposed to be miraculous. The whole place is slightly surreal - natural rock contrasting with baroque glittering furniture.

Monte Pellegrino - outside Palermo: you'll need to drive.

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This is the artichoke growing heartland of Sicily. The season starts in December - so if you're after summer sun, watch out for huge mounds of them in the market - and eat them in the restaurants while the season lasts.

Cefalu - anywhere!

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An excellent and inexpensive place to eat - panini stuffed with meat or veg. "Panini are sandwiches, Jim, but not as we know them!"

Volta di San Piero 6/r, the covered passage at the Santa Croce end of Borgo degli Albizzi;
tel: 055 234 0838

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Turn up early (7.30, 8, 8.30 services) and listen to mass or Lauds in the cathedral. The early light makes the stained glass glow, and when the bells start ringing the whole building seems to vibrate with thunder. A little time out before a day of busy tourism.

Santa Maria del Fiore, Piazza del Duomo;
www.duomofirenze.it/attivita/liturgical.htm

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