The BBC's Michael Palin, of Monty Python fame, has made several travel series over the past years. This autumn, BBC 1 airs Michael Palin's 'New Europe' programme, detailing his travels through Eastern Europe, geographically and culturally so close to our comfy Western European homes, yet feels so far and exotic. The programmes are broadcast at 21:00 GMT on BBC1.

There's much to see and experience in Central and Eastern Europe, and many first-time armchair explorers to the region will be surprised to learn how easy and safe it is to travel in the countries visited in this series. Tourist ministers across the region are now secretly hoping for the so-called Palin-effect; a boost in interest and tourism to places he visits.

The In Your Pocket city guides website helps you find out more about the fascinating destinations from the series, from Croatia's glittering coast via the Albanian highlands to the forests of Estonia. As the series is aired, we'll tell you more about where Palin went. The links below go to the In Your Pocket pages of the respective destination.

In the first episode, Palin started off in Split, Croatia's second city, from where he set sail to beautiful Hvar island. He also visited Dubrovnik futher down the coast. In Bosnia-Hercegovina, Palin visited Mostar, a city that will get a dedicated In Your Pocket guide in early 2008. Venturing to Albania , Palin stopped off in the capital city Tirana where he talked to the mayor about the brightly coloured buildings that the city is known for, before heading north to Kruja a popular daytrip excursion.

Unwisely choosing not to spend any quality time at all in Macedonia,where In Your Pocket has a guide to the capital Skopje, Michael Palin visited Bulgaria's delightful capital Sofia, and spent some time with the Roma community of Plovdiv (we can just about envision Bulgarian tourist authority officials fuming with outrage in front of their sets, with their Romanian counterparts trembling at the possible ways he'll tarnish the image of their country next week). After travelling back in time to the Soviet 1970s bubble that is Transdniestria, Michael Palin spent some quality time in the remainder of the charming republic of Moldova. Cutting across the Carpathians into Romania, he visited the delightful Maramures region, Sighisoara, and Bran Castle near the fair medieval city of Brasov. Finally he dropped by the capital city, Bucharest and marvelled at Ceausescu's gargantuan Palace of the People. In Hungary's elegant capital Budapest, Palin visits the House of Terror museum which is dedicated to the trauma of totalitarian rule. Palin then headed east to Ukraine, where he watched the rain in beautiful Lviv, talked to political activists in Kiev, and travelled by trolleybus to the historical Black Sea resort of Yalta. In this episode, Palin visits the heartland of the In Your Pocket guides, as our city guide series came to life here in Vilnius in the heady days immediately after the collapse of Soviet rule. After starting off Estonia's pretty capital Tallinn he lost the plot and went to visit various new-age nutters in rural Estonia, before ending up in Latvia's capital Riga. Near Ventspils he visited a Soviet-built radio telescope before heading across the border into Lithuania to the Hill of Crosses . After visiting the imposing KBG museum in the quirky capital Vilnius, Palin then made his way via Nida across the border into that quirky chunk of Russia that's been left sandwiched between two EU members, the exclave of Kaliningrad. Palin's pleasant episode about Poland started off in beautiful Gdansk where he was one of many to make the obligatory chitchat with grumpy former electrician/revolutionary Lech Walesa.Using the pretty city of Poznan as a base, he then rode on the last scheduled passenger steam train in Europe on the Poznan-Wolsztyn line. In Warsaw he visited the Palace of Culture and Sciences and the old town before travelling south to beautiful Krakow, the industrial town of Nowa Huta, Auschwitz and the amazing salt mines at Wieliczka. From Slovakia, Palin travels to the Czech Republic where he visits Prague, now well-known to many Western European travellers. Ending up in Germany, of which a sizeable chunk was until recently considered Eastern Europe, he travels from vibrant Berlin to Germany's Baltic Sea coast.

For more information about the New Europe series, visit:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/palin
http://www.palinstravels.co.uk
http://michael-palins-new-europe-fan-blog.blogspot.com

*Photos: BBC/Prominent Films *