JUST after World War II, the authorities in Bergen and Inverness faced a similar dilemma. Should they keep historic features of their towns or sweep them away as part of a modern, optimistic future?

IT might be too far to go for a slap up meal, but the Opus One restaurant at the New County Hotel in Perth rivals some of the best in Inverness.

DESCRIBED as one of Britian's most romantic hotels, it is difficult to think of a more perfect spot.

WE might be in the grip of a recession, but that does not seem to be acting as a brake on the rash of new hotels being planned in Edinburgh.

MY super-fit daughter Elena had torn up the steep hairpin path that links Lynmouth to Lynton in less than a third of the time it would take most people.

EVERYONE should take a trip to paradise once in their life. With a big "0" birthday coming up, I decided now was the time.

FOR a Hollywood film star, Charlie Chaplin seemed to have a remarkable preference for seaside resorts in the chilly Celtic nations.

SCOTLAND does not have the monopoly on bagpipes. Our Celtic cousins in Ireland also have something of a piping tradition (even if they tend to cheat by using bellows instead of their good honest puff to fill the bag with air).

AUTHOR, poet, essayist and bon viveur Samuel Johnson was not overly keen on Skye and recommended that nobody born in other parts of the world should live there.

LUNCH in Bergen — was it to be a reindeer burger, or perhaps an open smoked salmon sandwich? Browsing around the city's daily open air fish market, the vast range of choices available at the various kiosks was proving something of dilemma.

HAVE confidence in your crampons, instructed the guide as he brought our group to an abrupt halt. Roped together with a dozen others and armed with ice axes, we had climbed the lower section of the Nigardsbreen Glacier in Jostedal at the heart of Fjord Norway.