Welcome to the land of the midnight sun – where it really never does get dark in mid-summer. If you wait up late enough you can watch the sun graze the horizon, a blazing ball of orange, before it immediately starts to rise again.

The sun shifted, and out of the blue-green waters of the Mediterranean you could see the outstretched arms of Christ 20 feet below, protecting the entrance to the harbour at San Fruttuoso. Sent down to the briny depths in 1954 to commemorate inventor Dario Gonzatti, the pioneer of scuba diving, today it is a magnate for divers, tourists and locals alike, including Great Rail Journeys customers as they travel through the Italian Riviera.

Russia in winter is a breathtaking spectacle of colour. As the CEO of a travel company, I have the fortunate pleasure of visiting many of the destinations our tours explore, and with Moscow and St Petersburg featuring in brand new itineraries, it was time to discover the nation for myself.

A firm handshake and a broad smile; his name was David (a member of Kerala’s Christian community who make up 20% of the population here), and with this and this alone, he welcomed me aboard his giant Chinese fishing net. Here a team of six lowered the netting over 250 times a day into the estuary below, which just a few short metres away transformed into the Arabian Sea.

My journey started with a few days in Beijing and the opportunity to take in all of the city’s great landmarks – in particular Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden Palace...

The Himalayan Toy Train slowly emerges from the infamous “kissing tunnel” and settles into its stop at Barog Station.

Today on The Journey Blog, we follow CEO Peter Liney’s epic journey on The Ghan, as he follows the train’s iconic route from Alice Springs to Adelaide.

It was with quite a lot of pleasure I recently spent five days in Switzerland as a guest of Swiss Tourism and was able to travel on three of the great iconic train journeys...

Read our CEO Peter Liney's account of Classic Japan trip that he took together with his family in July 2015.