One of the largest earthquakes in history struck Chile days before we were due to fly there… then Norway rounded up Al-Qaeda terrorists the day before we arrived in Norway… and now, there are 250 forest fires around Moscow, a blanket of smog, and warnings to wear face masks. And my next holiday destination doesn’t take much guessing!

Oh well, at least we can use the face masks we were given when caught up some years ago in the SARS epidemic in China. In that case we were not able to return to central Beijing at the end of our tour, and consequently I am one of the few tourists to visit the capital and not see Tiananmen Square. That aside though, we have rarely actually had trouble when out there, so I am keeping my fingers crossed for Russia.

On the contrary, two days after 9/11 we flew to Egypt and had a fantastic trip, aided by the fact that all American groups and many others had cancelled, so the sites were almost clear, and security at high level – perfect! Places often seem less dangerous when you are there, while from afar we worry about how bad a place may be – I remember an American friend of mine being told “don’t visit London – the IRA have made it totally unsafe”.