The cities we are in just keep getting prettier and prettier. We absolutely loved Stockholm, with its network of islands, then we arrived in Copenhagen and were blown away again, finding it even prettier. Now we are in Amsterdam, and it has taken it up another step. Part of Copenhagen is called "little Amsterdam", and now we see why. Miles and miles of serene canals, lined with tall gabled houses, brick or painted glossy black. There seems almost no part of it that is not quaintly pretty. Copenhagen is not quite the same, but has an immensely liveable feel to it - wide streets, relaxed atmosphere, nice buildings, and of course some canals as well. And our Australian princess lives nearby too, of course.

What I liked about Stockholm was the slight wild edge to it. The landscape under and around the city is islands of granite and fir trees. You still feel like you are quite far north, and only inches from wilderness. We took a ferry out to a small island on the closest edge of the archipelago (which stretches for tens of kilometres, and on that could almost imagine we were miles from anywhere. You could walk around the whole place in ten minutes, and there were a few cafes and so on, but on parts of it you could stand among stunted trees growing straight from the rock and look out towards heavily forested larger islands, with not a building in sight. We sat on a rock by the edge of the water and watched the sunset - only enhanced by the huge apartment building in the distance towards the west.

In Copenhagen we were totally back in civilisation. It did not at all feel like we were surrounded by dangerous wilderness. It was tamed and artificial, but not in a bad way. It suffered several bad fires in the 18th century, so most of the city dates from then, and of course this provided the opportunity of a rebuild. Hence the roads are wide and straight, with heaps of bike paths. There were nearly as many bikes there as here in Amsterdam, and we got a couple of free ones thanks to a scheme being run by the council and rode around the city for a couple of hours, seeing among other things the "Little Mermaid", a famous statue of a Hans Christian Anderson character. Afterwards we took to the water on a tour boat, which took us around many of the canals of the city, some of which are lined with very expensive-looking yachts - these canals have access to the sea.

Amsterdam of course is even less isolated than Copenhagen, and is dense and lively and gorgeous. In the old centre the streets are often tiny and twisty, and there are canals absolutely everywhere. They are covered in the evening with people out on little boats, leaisurely cruising and having dips and wine. The streets are jammed with people on bikes, all of whom look very cruisy, and there are bikes chained to every pole and fence. I have no idea how the place can be so busy all the time, even during weekdays, but it must have something to do with the tourists - the museums here all have huge queues, unlike anywhere else we've been. At night it seems everyone heads to the red light district, where there are many good bars and pubs, as well as the uniquely Amsterdam establishments; the "coffee" houses. It's not as seedy as I expected, which may have something to do with the beautiful canals running through it, and the fact that people still seem to live there as well.