Home again, home again...

"No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow."

So I'm back in Glasgow, the rucksack is back in the cupboard, the washing is in the machine and I've got a pile of mail a foot high. Since several parts of our journey were guided by "Top Ten" guides, I thought I'd finish with my own top ten moments of the journey.

1 - Seeing the train for the first time at Vladivostok and thinking - I'm really about to do the Trans Siberian Express!!

2 - Piroshki. We only discovered these fabulous pastries on the third day - what a waste...

3 - Snow in Siberia. So exciting to look out of the window to see a world of white, the mountains around Lake Baikal being particularly impressive.

4 - Walking on water. In fact jumping up and down on the frozen surface of Lake Baikal. Though I also look forward to going back in the summer some time and sailing on the lake.

5 - Orthodox service. I only spent a few minutes in the church in Perm, but listening to the choir sing was sublime.

6 - New Tretyakov Museum in Moscow. Fascinating to see the history of the last hundred years in Russia reflected in their art.

7 - Red Square by night.

8 - St Petersburg. Beautiful and characterful. Honestly, I think I might have to go there every year for my birthday...

9 - Swedish sauna and massage. Just the way to start the last leg of the journey home.

10 - Blagging our way into Tivoli and onto the roller coaster. Getting in was way more fun than the ride!

So that's it. Thanks for joining me on my wacky journey, and I'll keep you posted on my next plan. Hmmm, I wonder how I'd get home from Vladivostok going the other way round the globe...

Amsterdam's been Tangoed!

Well we've slept our last night on a train. I say slept - given the shoogeliness of my bunk and the drunk Danish blokes next door, sleep was in short supply. The morning brought us to Amsterdam, which is celebrating Queen's Day today. This seems to involve the whole country closing down, everyone dressing up in orange and wandering round town for a big hoolie. Finding ourselves in a great big party was fun. Unfortunately, they'd closed down left luggage along with everything else, so we had to make do with donning orange and taking a boat trip (the one tourist attraction we could reasonably do with a muckle great rucksack). Now on the ferry to Newcastle, I think I'm in the finishing straight...

Wonderful Wonderful Copenhagen

I've enjoyed the 24 hours we spent here. Last night we blagged our way into the funfair and on to the roller coaster (should have cost about 20 quid) which turned out to be entirely underwhelming... Today we have walked about all day, looking at churches and old buildings. We also visited an underground art installation of glass work, which was refreshingly different from anything else we're seen so far. The Danes appear a little more laid back than the Swedes, but are still rather cool... Still, in my Pippi Longstocking pigtails I think I look rather cute if I do say so myself!

What, no Ikea?

Just passed through Sweden and have failed to see that familiar blue and yellow icon. But I did have a sauna and a massage... I expected our ferry from Finland to be a glorified version of a Calmac, but it turned out to be more like a cruise liner, so we made the most of the facilities. We arrived in Stockholm in time for a two hour wander - enough time to convince me I should come back. Now it's off to wonderful wonderful Copenhagen, on a super fast train. Which is currently travelling about 5 mph due to signal problems. Sound familiar...?

Flying the flag

The Finns do like their national flag - I counted 10 in the main square alone, and there's at least one on every block we've past. Our train into Helsinki was an hour late (first late train we're had) so we've just got time for a quick trip round the city on a tram, before jumping on our ferry. This will bring our total different type of transport this holiday to eight - plane, train, taxi, metro, bus, trolleybus, tram and ferry. Are there any we've missed?

Farewell to Russia

Our last view of Russia. Or it may have been our first view of Finland - there were a couple of points that might have been the border, it was hard to tell. Still, they let us out, and the Finns have let us in, so it's all go for our whistlestop tour of Scandinavia - woo hoo!

You know you're mad when...

... you leave the house in thermals and a woolly hat and you end up paddling in the Neva. It is no longer frozen, but it is still pretty cold! I'm now sitting listening to the bells of St Peter and Paul's cathedral. The sky is clear blue, the early evening sun is shining - the perfect way to end my stay in St Petersburg.