Like savoring caviar and vodka, one cannot come to Mother Russia without attending a ballet, and this is why the Palladian Traveler files his ninth dispatch from inside the ornate Hermitage Theatre as the lights dim and the curtain goes up on Swan Lake.

It’s probably the most unusual, even weird, tourist attraction you’ll ever come across. The fact that the motivating force that moves it forwards and backwards is about as powerful as a “Made in the West” lawnmower is equally bizarre. Yes, its power (?) plant is a 500cc two cylinder stroke engine.

Under an unbelievably blue sky, the Palladian Traveler captures the beauty of St. Petersburg at water level as he cruises down the rivers, canals and tributaries of this city built from scratch by the visionary Tsar Peter the Great.

Yes, of course, the four Central European capitals we visited on our Danube River Cruise with Grand Circle – Prague, Czech Republic, Vienna, Austria, Bratislava, Slovakia and Budapest, Hungary – all wrapped in wonder, overwhelmed with their impressive history, expansive promenades and architectural grandeur. But it was an experience in Linz in Upper Austria that most impacted me.

From the shaded balcony of the elegant Coral Stone Club, the brilliant green of towering palms waving in the offshore breeze and the soothing rush of foamy sea swirling onto the shores of Seven Mile Beach form a dramatic backdrop to a preeminent Grand Cayman dining excursion.

The Palladian Traveler has another jaw dropping moment – actually a few – as he photo shoots his way around Catherine Palace at Tsarskoe Selo.

Ask the general populace to name a famous painter, and they’d probably say Dutch painter, Vincent van Gogh. Today his paintings command staggering purchase prices, with his Portrait of Dr. Gachet, painted the last year of his life in Auvers-sur-Oise, selling for 152 million dollars in today’s currency.

On my recent visit to Castilla y Léon, Spain, my fifth to the region, I knew there were so many new things to see and do, as-well-as so many I’d done before that I wanted to do again, that I couldn’t possibly fit them all into one week.

The Palladian Traveler is joined by the likes of Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Rembrandt and Velasquez as he pays a visit to the world famous Hermitage Museum.

Give or take a few, there are 7.1 sheep for every man, woman and child in New Zealand. Or, to put an actual number on it, approximately 30 million of these mostly white colored animals. Does that mean that sheep overwhelm the country? Certainly not, but it does mean you’ll see a lot of them wherever you go there.