June 2024. Rimini. San Marino was to be the big country tick, but we were almost as excited about a first visit to Rimini on the Italian east coast. I’d booked the bus out to San Marino in 3 hours time, surely enough to do justice to an unregarded seaside city of 149,000, smaller than… Continue reading REMARKABLE RIMINI

June 2024. Milan. Day 3 of the micronation tickathon. From Milan we’d head to Rimini on the coast, and then to Mrs RM’s 41st and penultimate euro tick in San Marino. But first, let’s admire the central station for an hour, having given the Duomo and epic cemetery a miss. It’s a gem of a… Continue reading SCORING THE CASK AT MILAN CENTRAL STATION

June 2024. Milan. Our lone night in Milan before trundling east to San Marino had us staring across at one of the world’s great football stadium. The first time we’d seen the San Siro in daylight, too, our previous visit coming in Christmas 1996 when Mrs RM and I turned up from Bologna at 8pm… Continue reading JOHN SMITHS AT THE SAN SIRO

June 2024. Vaduz – Milan. Day 2 of our 4 day raid on the micronations; a 4 hour coach ride from Vaduz into Milan, the UK equivalent of the train from Llandrindod Wells to Swansea, with the splendour of Lake Lugano and Flix Wi-Fi the highlights. Then umped at Lampugnano bus station, a seedy suburb… Continue reading THE OLD TENCONI, MILAN

June 2024. Vaduz. Liechtenstein. Monday morning in Liechtenstein, coach off to Milan in the afternoon, a few hours to see what makes Vaduz vital (or not). I’ll say this, they do a good healthy breakfast in that Youth Hostel. Fresh bread, a cheese board, bircher muesli with fruits, four espressos, and that view. Vaduz, like… Continue reading VITAL VADUZ

June 2024. Vaduz. Liechtenstein. You’ll remember Mrs RM’s world map, the equivalent of my 2022 Good Beer Guide, and these little pins as precious as my marks in that GBG. Last weeks “4 nights in Europe” completed Mrs RM’s raid on the “micronations“, which is the travel equivalent of doing the pubs on Sark, Scilly… Continue reading LIECHTENSTEIN LICKED

June 2024. Sargans. Switzerland. Back at Basel station, you can see why the streets are so quiet; it’s like Cambridge on steroids. We’d resisted the £25 schnitzel in the Braunen Mutz, but these gooey, cheese-filled concoctions were equally calorific at a fifth of the price. And then an efficient (expensive) rail trip across the width… Continue reading SORRY, SARGANS

June 2024. Basel. Frank Zappa said that a real country has to have a beer (and an airline); I don’t think you can really claim to have visited that country without going in a “pub” (exclusions apply e.g. Vatican City, which might prove Frank’s point). Basel was our only stop in Switzerland before heading east… Continue reading ZUM BRAUNEN MUTZ, BASEL

June 2024. Stansted. Basel. Two years ago I was in the middle of unrelenting UK travel that would only end with the completion of the Beer Guide. I really must tell you about that someday. Now it’s Mrs RM’s time to tick, as she homes in on European glory as surely as Scotland in Stuttgart… Continue reading A SWISS TICK