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As the capital of formerly Soviet Ukraine, the city of Kiev (or Kyiv) is the hyper kid on the Ukrainian playground. Beyond the casino-lined downtown plazas that blossom off of Kreschatik Street, the city still carries the dusty, broken sidewalk stigma of a country steering slowly away from corruption. But Kiev is nonetheless a very stroll-friendly city. Summer and early fall are the best times to go, unless you don’t mind thawing your face and fingers every 10 minutes in front of a steaming bowl of borsch at random restaurants along the way, or ducking down into the palatial and pricey underground malls with entrances in certain metro stations. If nothing else, absolutely do not miss Andrevski Spusk, or St. Andrew’s Way, in the oldest part of the city, Podol. This winding cobblestone lane is straddled by lively, local artists selling their wares, a highly unique assortment of arts and crafts not to be found in other parts of the city. Along the way you can stop at any of the charming cafés, and once you reach the top, you arrive at St. Andrews Church, with its deeply ornate interior and perfect vantage point over the city.

Face it, we’ve all experienced moments as a budget traveller where we’ve arrived in a new city and had to decide: do we go and learn more/see more/do more in this city, or do we have a real meal tonight? If you have never had to make this decision before, then I envy you. Instant noodles and day-old bread can make even the most exciting destination taste dry and stale.

But now you don’t need to be faced with that difficult challenge. Unsure about whether that city walking tour is worth the cash they want you to shell out? Not a problem anymore with the Sandemans New Europe walking tours. Located in Berlin, Amsterdam, Paris, London, Munich and Edinburgh. New Berlin Tours also offer free walking tours in Berlin.  These tours work on the principle that you try before you buy. The tour guides work for tips, and they do their best to earn them.

In Berlin, the city tour starts outside the Starbucks in front of Brandenburg Gate. They leave three times a day, and several days a week also run tours out to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp or down to the castles of Potsdam. In summer you’ll find several hundred people at the meeting point, but the company makes sure there are always plenty of guides and the mass of tourists is broken up into groups of around thirty.

If you still don’t think you can get up the energy for a three and a half hour walk through Berlin, there are free bike tours (including free bike rental) which start at the Postfuhramt on Oranienburger Straße, or for those more into the nightlife there’s a free pubcrawl starting at S-Bahnhof Hackescher Markt.

While this is a great opportunity to see the city for absolutely nothing, don’t forget that the tour guides are relying on tips to ensure their own meal tonight. Do the tour, experience the city and give the guide what you think it was worth. Then go and get that kebab you’ve been craving.

Five out of the six beaches awarded the Blue Flag in Scotland are in the Fife region in eastern central Scotland.

Burntisland Beach

Aberdour, Burntisland, Elie, Leven East and St Andrews West Sands have all been judged to offer bathing facilities of the highest order and receive a Blue Flag award.

Sunset at St Andrew’s beach

One of the best ways to see all the beaches is to follow the Fife Coastal Path. You can spend 5 - 7 days walking along the 150 kms path or have a shorter walk on one of the sections.

I was back on home territory in the Scotland in the Borders area this morning, braving the elements, with a walk along the River Tweed from Union Bridge and around the woodland walk at Paxton House.

View of Union Bridge from riverside walk

There was a period of steady hailstones leading to an accumulation of around one inch. It made the walk really pretty and we didn’t even get wet as the hailstones just bounced off our jackets.

View from Paxton House woodland walk

My photo of  Duddingston Loch in Holyrood Park, Edinburgh  has been short listed for inclusion in the 2008 Schmap Scotland Guide. The Schmaps guides offer a dynamic, interactive integration of maps and guides content.

Duddingston Loch, Holyrood Park, Edinburgh

The photo is part of my Edinburgh:  Off the beaten track guide where I describe things to do in Edinburgh away from the tourist trail. Holyrood Park is an amazing open space a couple of miles from the city centre.  If you’re feeling energetic you can climb Arthur’s Seat (in the background of the photo) for great panoramic views.

I think I’ve taken some better photos of Edinburgh but hey any publicity has to be good.

New Berlin offer free walking tours. I saw the leaflet in the Generator hostel where I was stayiang and there was a daily pick up at the hostel, so I and decided to give it a try. Normally I wouldn’t go on a tour, my preference would be to explore at my own pace. However I only had one day free in Berlin, as I was mainly there to attend the Travel Trade Fair. It does explain in the leaflet that the tours operate on a tips basis, you decide on the amount at the end of the tour.

Our guide was Nikolai, who was born in Bulgaria but moved to the States as a child. He’s lived in Berlin since 2005 and is an actor (very useful as a tour guide). He did explain about the tips again and said that the average tip per participant for the three and a half hour tour was 7 euros but we should feel free to tip according to ability to pay. There was no more mention of tips after this.

Nikolai in action at the Jewish memorial

I thought that the tour was excellent, mainly down to Nikolai’s presentation and personality. I studied quite bit of German history at school and he did an excellent summary to put things in context. We covered the main sites and the commentary was of a consistently high standard. It was funny, entertaining, full of facts. and objective.

There was a half hour lunch stop, where I assume New Berlin receive some commission for taking so many customers but the food was fine, it cost 6 euros for a soft drink and a small pizza. The only problem was there was only one ladies toilet, leading to a long queue.

There was some promotion of the other paid tours offered by New Berlin but no hard sell.

I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed the tour and was fortunate that the weather remained dry throughout as there had been snow and rain earlier that week in Berlin.

This post was featured in the Carnival of Cities on March 12 2008 and the Carnival of Travel Guide on March 16 2008.

There are several free events around British Tourism Week in March 2008.

In London from 21 February - 9 March 2008 you can visit the Britain on View exhibitions of photos celebrating the UK’s countryside and coastline at the Oxo building.  On Saturday 15 March there are several free guided walks around London around “Great British” themes such as music, nursery rhymes and food.

Tate Modern, London

In Chester there are free guides walks at 10.30 and 14.00 on Saturday 15 and Sunday 16 March.  Chester is a beautiful, historic city in the north west of England which I’ve visited several times over the years.

River Dee bridge, Chester by orangecid

Described as “a silver thread in a ribbon of green” the Water of Leith Walkway runs alongside this small river for 12 miles as it flows through Edinburgh from Balerno to enter the Forth Estuary at Leith. It is remarkable that within a couple of minutes you can leave the hustle and bustle of the city and be in a quiet, green oasis. The walkway is pretty level, so a fairly easy walk but it can be muddy in some sections after rain. It’s well signposted as sometimes there are slight detours and diversions from the riverside.

The Water of Leith near Canonmills

I still haven’t managed to walk its entire length but you can easily do short sections of the walk. You can take a bus to one section of the walk and pick up another bus after you’ve walked as much as you want. The walkway takes you close to the Gallery of Modern Art and the Botanic Gardens, although it is a short uphill walk. There are public toilets at Stockbridge and Canon Mills in the city centre as well as several cafes and restaurants.

The river flows into the Forth estuary in Leith, Edinburgh’s port. You can see illustrations of Leith in it’s heyday at the side of the walkway. The area has been regenerated recently with blocks of luxury flats sprouting up. Ocean Terminal houses shops, a cinema and various cafes and restaurants.
Street art at the Walkway in Leith

It’s very interesting at the Slateford section as the Union canal flows in a 500 foot high, eight arched viaduct as it crosses the Water of Leith. There’s a Visitors Centre here with a cafe and information and displays about the Water of Leith. The Visitor Centre has leaflets of the “Slateford Saunter”, a short circular walk where you cross the viaduct, walk to Colinton Dell and then along the Water Of Leith. I did the saunter and enjoyed it, again amazed that I felt I was in the countryside although I was in a city.

The Union Canal at Slateford

Edinburgh is a truly beautiful city with a lot more to offer than just the castle and the Festival. Here are some other ideas for getting off the beaten track in Edinburgh.

This post is featured on the Travel Guide no 7 blog carnival on 4 February 2008 and the Carnival of Cities on 7 February 2008.

I spent an extremely pleasant November evening strolling along the Thames Path from Tower Bridge to Westminster along the north bank of the river. I started at Tower Bridge Underground station, walking down to the river as dusk was beginning to fall.

Tower Bridge at dusk

I headed west along the well signedposted river walkway. You go through tunnel at Southwark Bridge with have several murals depicting London through the ages painted on to the tiles.

Southwark Bridge foot tunnel

Some of the best view were over to the Tate Modern with the London Millenium Bridge enabling pedestrians to cross from St Pauls Cathedral over to the art gallery.

The Tate Modern and Millenium Bridge from the city

The London Eye is illuminated in a beautiful shade of blue.

The London Eye

It took me around an hour and a half to walk the two miles, mainly because I stopped so often to take photos. The path is well lit and there were people around in all the sections I walked, a mixture of tourists, families, joggers and cyclists. I felt quite safe walking on my own. I was lucky that it was a clear, dry evening only slight chilly in a breeze. There were clean public toilets open at Tower Bridge and Embankment and several pubs and restaurants along the way. I thought that the walk was probably more enjoyable because it was dark and the illuminated buildings and structures were so beautiful. You can see video footage of a daylight boat trip down the Thames at Travelistic.

After a frosty, foggy start it turned into another beautiful, sunny day in the east of Scotland today. I walked along the cliffs in Dunbar, East Lothian, this afternoon and the contrast of the red stone and the blue of the sky and the sea was amazing.

View from John Muir walk, Dunbar

The walk is part of Dunbar to North Berwick section of the John Muir Way which stretches from Edinburgh to the Scottish Borders

This was the location of the Dunbar outdoor swimming pool, demolished in the 1980s when high maintainence costs coupled with falling attendance due the allure of warmer weather offered by cheap foreign package holidays proved a fatal combination for the pool.

Outdoor swimming pool courtesy of Dunbar Community Photo Gallery