In these cash-strapped times, I think I should focus more on the delights of bus travel. I suspect everyone will be doing more of this.

Personally, I give Riga the Billet D’Or for the best bus station ever. And in general terms, don’t you travellers think you’ve had it with airports?

Always taking my shoes off at Stanstead is bad enough, but the trouser belt as well? How can anyone carry a couple of bags and hold their trousers up at the same time. You don’t have enough pairs of hands. You can hardly put enough things down and pick them up again to get a hands-free coffee in today’s terror-hyped airports.

I had my shaving gel confiscated when I came back to the UK the other day. ‘Oh, it’s 150ml’ they said. Apparently, with a bombproofed 100ml I’d have been ok. Talk about Weasels Ripped My Stubble.

So, that’s what I like about Riga Bus Station. 24 hour left luggage, sandwich dispensers, late night ticket office, change and cash machines - there isn’t a better place for the ‘I want it all now’ backpacker or international tramp.

Bus stations are always central too. Unilke airports, bus stations are not a ripoff taxi ride from somewhere in outer no man’s land. Riga Bus Station is next door to Riga’s mainline station, handy for the city and next door to one of Europe’s biggest and most drooling fruit and veg markets.

There was an old country song, ‘Daddy said, never eat anything bigger than yo’ head’. You buy melons here at your own risk. The same might apply to a potato restaurant in the market called Zeppelins.

Riga has a special quality, besides a place to change buses of course. For travellers, there’s lots of free wi-fi, whether you choose the local doss house or the Reval Elizabeth hotel. (I recommend the Atrium, plus tagliatelle and wi-fi.) Art Deco and Stalin Gothic is also a short walk from the station - across a beautiful park.

Bus connections are rarely convenient, but Riga is one of those places where you really don’t mind hanging around at all.