Note: main photo of my Michael Palin travel DVD shows collection!

Now I don’t have many true heroes but ever since I watched Michael Palin’s ‘Around the World in 80 Days with Michael Palin’ (which I watched when it first aired on TV in 1989!) he planted a seed in me to travel and that seed fully blossomed in 1996 when I went on my first big travel adventure around Europe by train with two skateboarding friends, ever since then I’ve been a avid fan of Micheal Palin (and of course his classic Monty Python sketches) – in fact I would go as far to say he IS THE BEST TRAVEL PROGRAMME PRESENTER OF ALL TIME! in my humble opinion! (with Alan Whicker, Michael Wood and Simon Reeve coming in a close second!)

One day near the end of 2019 by chance I happened to noticed a article come up on the web about tickets going on sale to see ‘Michael Palin on North Korea’ tour 2020 with a date in London at the National Theatre, South Bank, and I quickly got a ticket before they sold out – come March of 2020 and here in the UK, the exact date that the Prime Minster announced the first lock-down for the Covid crisis, Tuesday 17th March, was the date I was going to see Michael, I remember the night before and the government announcing it and receiving the email saying the tour had been cancelled. Well this time around I made it! Michael announced a new tour for 2022 which combined his North Korea & Iraq travel musings in one show with a London date Cadogan Hall, Chelsea, and again as soon as the tickets went on sale I managed to get one (and the date was only a few days after I was back from my cycle trip in France).

Needless to say it was great to see him in person, listen to his stories and felt very intimate with the crowd as he did not have another presenter there asking him questions, he was on his own, unfortunately he wasn’t doing live book signings but as one of the event ushers told me he is now 79 years old so to still be doing live shows at this age is enough! it really made my day to see him and although you were not allowed to take photos or video inside the hall I did snap a picture of him leaving the building after but watching people hassle him for autographs I thought I wouldn’t as he looked to be in a hurry!