GREENBERFIELD LOCKS, BARNOLDSWICK

Lets start close to home (my home that is), at these delightful locks on the Leeds-Liverpool Canal. The locks are situated on the eastern side of the town and provide a picturesque location for a picnic, or a stroll along the embankment. If you head east from Greenberfield you'll pass one of the Rolls Royce factories at Ghyll Brow, then into open countryside where the predominant features are the drumlins. These are small round hillocks laid down during the ice age. The first village on the canal is East Marton, where there's an excellent pub (the Cross Keys) and an interesting double-decked bridge carrying the A59 over the top. If you fancy walking a little further you'll come across the tiny community of Bank Newton, then on into Gargrave on the A65. Another couple of miles and you're into Skipton, known as the Gateway to the Dales.

SWEDEN

Now that in itself sounds like a sweeping statement - how can we cover the whole of Sweden on a website like this? The answer is simple - you can't. But at least we can give you a flavour of our experiences on a seven day break staying with friends. It would be very difficult to sum up the trip in one - or even a few words, but we were all agreed it was simply fabulous; a word you'll see a lot in this article!

We were based at our friends home in Trosa, around 70km south of Stockholm on the Baltic coast. We packed an awful lot into those seven days, thanks mainly to the overwhelming generosity of Hasse and Yvonne. They cheerfully drove us around castles, forests, the city - in fact right around their region every day of our stay.

We went on an eight hour cruise of the Stockholm Archipelago on the Baltic on our second day - it was unbelievable! And the weather was so warm we actually paddled in the sea - there is photographic evidence, but it includes one member of our party using an umbrella to shelter from the sweltering sun, so I won't include it if you don't mind!

This first picture is of a house on the canal bank in Trosa, and is typical of some of the fabulous properties there. Just a few hundred yards to the left is where the canal joins the Baltic Sea

Still in Trosa, the picture on the right was taken in the town centre. It's not a big town, with a population of around 5,000, but it was once known as a city! It's an idyllic location, close to the sea, and attracts some big names. Benny Anderssen of ABBA fame has a summer house near by, and I understand around 16 percent of the population of the town earn in excess of a million Swedish Kroner a year. If it's night life you're after you'd probably be better heading for the city, but I can tell you from first-hand experience, when the people of Trosa do organise a night out, they do it in style! We went along to see a live band at one of the waterfront restaurants and had an amazing time. There was a choice of barbecue or set meal - needless to say we chose the former and the food was amazing! The band were called Rydell and Quick, and performed rock covers. They've sold over 10,000 albums, and have spent ten weeks in the Swedish album charts - so they are well worth watching out for!