Among the fisherman's nets with the cod and herring and jagged barnacles - and if BBC4 crime dramas are to be believed, then a severed head too - are ...

Neither tall enough or blond enough enough to ever live in Copenhagen, it remains one of my favorite cities in the world. Easy to get to, I will jump at any excuse to get on a plane for a dose of the Danish - after all, these are the people that invented Joe & The Juice, absolute genius.

The city of Turku is easily accessible by air from the UK and is both the beginning and end of the route. It's worth spending at least a night there before you head out to the archipelago. Now I'm going to cheat slightly, as I only have a few days to spare, so I won't be cycling the whole route.

"I am fed up of this rain." My friend's seventy-year old mother who had just flown in from Norway continued, "summers are normally good in Scandinavia, but this year Oslo is just like London!"

Finland has long maintained a high profile in the world of international design. Spend a day wandering the streets of the capital, Helsinki and you'll soon see why.