As I entered Hotel d'Angleterre on the regal Kongens Nytorv Square in Copenhagen, I remember thinking, "Did I just time-travel into Floral Narnia?"

After lunching on caviar, The Palladian Traveler hops aboard a hydrofoil and files his fourth dispatch from Peterhof, the sprawling and ornate Russian version of Versailles, just a few nautical miles outside St. Petersburg.

The Palladian Traveler arrives at the very spot where Peter the Great grabbed a shovel, broke ground and gave birth to St. Petersburg as he files his third dispatch from his Easy Pace Russia journey.

Enjoying a cruise today is noticeably different than those my wife and I did some 25 years ago. That reality was dramatically in evidence when we took a Princess cruise earlier this year, and the memories we experienced “back then,” still color my thoughts today. In the 1970s research shows that about 500,000 people took a cruise every year. In the cruise industry today (2019) the cruise business has grown considerably.

Every summer, throngs of tourists from Germany and Great Britain descend to splay their pallid bodies on the glorious beaches that ring this island off the coast of Spain. They soak up the sun, swim and sail in the Mediterranean, swarm Mallorca's shops and restaurants, drink her wine, consume her olive oil, and snore in her hotels.

A balmy breeze wafted across our faces. The mountain air was as refreshing as only a mountain atmosphere can brighten one’s day. The crisp and unique aromas of summer drifted over all those at this mountainside location. It was exquisite. Given what we were about to see was in complete contrast to the marvelous climate, and far more about why so many from around the world are still mesmerized by a man and a unique building that he occasionally visited: The Eagles Nest & Adolf Hitler.

Just like Porfiry Petrovich, Dostoevsky’s lead detective in Crime and Punishment, the Palladian Traveler strolls down Nevsky Prospect and conducts his own investigation of St. Petersburg.

Ancient cobbled walkways wandering off from Placa Saint Jaume in Barcelona’s Gothic Quarter just wide enough for horse and carriage and strangely mysterious and mystifying on this late May evening, pulled us in among the darkness of Barcelona’s medieval times past shards of Roman walls with tales to share.

The Palladian Traveler barely touches down in the “Land of the Tsars” and he immediately satisfies his craving for caviar in his first dispatch from St. Petersburg.

OK, hear me out on this because what I’m going to share with you is not only surprising, but also – in my humble view – almost unknown. Which is why I call my features “Travel With A Difference.”