City Visions

I travelled all over Europe in my late teens and early twenties from Glasgow, Dublin and Amsterdam across to Stockholm, Helsinki and Moscow, down to Belgrade, Athens and Istanbul and West to Florence, Madrid and Lisbon. My play 'Another day, another place' takes in many of the countries I visited. Below are descriptions of five of my favourite European cities excluding London.

When I last visited Berlin I had to go through Checkpoint Charley to get from the West to the East of the city. I remember the shiny new buildings in the west, surrounding the bombed out cathedral, the subway station, the Recistag, Potsdamer Platz and the Berlin Wall and the grand old buildings in East Berlin. It must have changed so much since I visited in 1988, it would be fascinating to return and see how it is as a unified city once more.

One memorable highlight of my visit to Copenhagen was Christiania, the liberal hippie camp, which had many crafty market stalls, I remember buying a very rude t-shirt I had previously seen being worn by the dancer Michael Clark. I also enjoyed the Danish beer on offer and a walk by the sea to view the small statue of Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid. Wonderful, wonderful Copenhagen, indeed, it must be the Hygge.

Moscow was very different from any place I had been before, possibly more so in the late 1980s when I got to visit it. The subway was the most beautiful I've seen, shining underground halls and plush trains, I don't know if this is any different now. I also walked around red square which boasts the Kremlin and the multicoloured onion domes of St Basil's church. When I was there there was a queue to visit Lenin's tomb. The shops were also sophisticated and quite Westernised.

I have very fond memories of Prague which I visited in the mid-1990s with my husband. I remember sitting in a grand square full of tall pastel coloured buildings watching the ornate astronomical clock chime. It was a bit like being in a Miyasaki film. We enjoyed walking across the King Charles bridge to the castle. We also watched a small production of Faust, bought wooden toys for a future child and enjoyed a dish of Czech goulash.

I first visited Paris when I was twenty and have now visited it five times. The Eurostar has made the connection between London and Paris quick and easy. I have visited many touristy sites in Paris; Montmatre, Sacre Coer, Notre Dame, The Louvre, Champs Elysie, Arc de Triomphe, Eifel Tower; as well as the more unusual Museem D'Orsay, a transformed railway station, and Pere Lachaise Cemetery, where Jim Morrison is buried. On my last visit, in 2015, I enjoyed a walk along the Sane and a first hand view of the Euro Disney fireworks. On a future visit to the city I might venture into the catacombs.