The Baltic Sea doesn’t work its magic straightaway and, at the first glance, it may lack the glamour of other seas – there are no great mountain ranges rising above its shore, no volcanoes, and the waters are not the world’s warmest. But its beauty and temperament are subtler.

Just off north of Gotland lies a little island of Fårö famous from its limestone sea-stacks. Our slow loop round the island in an atmosphere of magnificent peacefulness had grown to be one of the most spectacularly scenic trips within our big adventure. We were like in a trance, hypnotized and feeling blessed by what we witnessed. And we had to stop a lot to photograph the majestic views, with a quintessential shot having been taken in the Helgumannens Fishing Village, an old fishing village, a picturesque and soothingly quite settlement of just eleven houses.

You don’t need to go to the ends of the Earth to find a travel icon! And I swear that one day I would return there.