You should have been there

We recall, or at least try to, some of the oddest drinks we've encountered during our travels and attempt to describe their flavours and their effects!

Simon and Mick are joined by travel journalist, Helen Coffey to ponder some of quarantine's big questions. Where was it first practised, how do you cope with being quarantined and hardest of all, what are the UK's current restrictions? 

Souvenirs come in all shapes and sizes and, of course, in various shades of naffness.  We compare our own favourites and talk to Julia Ferguson, a Business Psychologist, about the value that we place on these symbols of abroad. 

Simon and MIck are joined by Anna Hughes, Director of FlightFree UK, co-author of Peaky Climbers and a champion of cycling. They share the pleasures (and pains)  of cycling and wonder what could be done to make getting on your bike an easier experience in the UK. 

We hear from people who have walked the Camino de Santiago about the joy and pain they have experienced, and muse on the similarities between tourism and pilgrimages. Many thanks to Debra, Richard and Louise for their contributions

Simon and Mick compare notes about their respective attempts to enjoy some time off. But was it better to be scaling Holland's highest peak or to be walking through a road-free valley on the way to a pint of Sussex ale? Well, we'll let you decide!

A typing error leads Mick and Simon to wonder about the desirability of travelling in threes. When is three a better number of people than the standard two?  The answer seems to be - when you're in a boat with a dog, when you're up a snowy mountain or when you're flying on a low-cost Spanish airline on Valentine's day!  

Travelling and embarrassment seem to go hand in glove.  Simon and Mick wonder whether it's an essential part of being a tourist and also, if we are often the authors of our own discomfort, not to mention that of our children. The tale  of the false beards is a case in point.  Thanks are due to Poppy and Daisy Calder for dishing the dirt on their dad! 

Are you a responsible traveller?   See if you measure up to the standards proposed by some of the movement's new gurus, and enjoy the poetic pledge created by the Tourist Office of Finland.  Thanks to Anna Hughes of Flight Free UK for her interview  and to  Aaron Burden@unsplash for his photo.

What is that makes us stretch every sinew to get to the top of things? Simon and Mick's favourite high places include the Blackpool Tower, Buenos Aires' Barolo Tower, Mount Aconcagua, also in Argentina, and The Cirque de Gavarnie in the French Pyrenees. Joining them are Silas Webb, who scaled Mount Kilimanjaro and Ed Douglas, whose book, "Himalaya, a human history" is published on the 27th August by Vintage-price £25. Thanks are also due to Christian Bjoerklund for letting us use his musical track, Hallon.