The journey to Baku in Azerbaijan (our 74th country) took most of a day with us leaving Derby railway station at just after 07.00 and arriving into Baku at just before one o'clock in the morning (local time, which is UK+3) having flown from Birmingham, via Istanbul including a four hour connection, with Turkish Airlines.

This was our first trip with Turkish Airlines and they were pretty good and with a large network of flights (they fly to more countries than any other airline . . . . so they say) taking a flight from Birmingham via Istanbul is definitely worth considering in the future.

Our accommodation, the Two Seasons Boutique Hotel, was located right in the heart of old city area of the Azerbaijan capital. The hotel provided a free transfer from the airport which was welcomed after a long day of travel. The hotel had only six rooms, and gave us a large room, with good air conditioning and an expansive breakfast too.

Our first day in Baku started a little later than normal, although given our arrival in the early hours of the morning it seemed sensible. Our initial walk around the old city area gave us a good feel about Baku - it was very clean, well organised, and there appeared to be plenty of refreshment opportunities. The historic sights such as the Maiden Tower and Palace of the Shirvanshahs has massive queues on the Sunday when we passed by, so we left them for the Monday and it made a huge difference - we just waltzed in to both locations.

After an initial wander around the old city we escaped the walls and walked around part of the Baku City Circuit, used by Formula One, that skirts the old town area. The elevation changes, and tightness of some parts of the track are not always evident on TV, but at least next year we will have a better appreciation of the circuit layout.

The main shopping area of Baku, centred around Nizami Street did almost seem polished within an inch of its life. We saw people cleaning the tops of lamposts, workers scrubbing clean the areas around dustbins, and plenty of gardeners tending the green spaces that dot the city. I think Baku could give Singapore a run for its money in terms of cleanliness!

Leaving this area we walked to the main railway station in order to collect our tickets for travel on the Monday evening to Tbilisi on the overnight train. We had read reports that this was difficult and not always successful, but we simply handed over our internet reservation details and the tickets were printed for us. It couldn't be easier! The area around the station was not as polished as the main central area of the city - but it certainly wasn't a dump and there did seem to be a lot of work ongoing.

We then walked to the Baku Boulevard, which skirts the Caspian Sea and we walked about 1.5 miles between the passenger boat terminal and the funicular railway. The gardens that separate the boulevard, from the city, were very well maintained (as we had become to expect) and provided some shaded walking area if you didn't want to walk along the seafront. Before getting to the funicular railway we called in at the Azerbaijan Carpet Museum - they are apparently famous for carpet making - and it was quite an interesting diversion as well as somewhere to cool off courtesy of the air conditioning.

The funicular railway took us up to one of the more modern areas of the city and provided wonderful views across the Caspian Sea and the lower part of Baku. There was also an interesting cemetery - again immaculately maintained - called Martyrs Alley, where people killed in the Russian attack on Azerbaijan in the 1990s and other significant dignitaries lay. This area also houses the Flame Towers, a symbol of Baku that can been seen across most of the city. At night these are spectacular and provide a light show which goes from fire, to water, to the Azerbaijan flag.

Looking back on what we did on the first day is actually quite tiring. Our evening meal was had back in the old city area and ate at The Museum Inn which had great views over the Maiden Tower and out to the Caspian Sea. The food was very good and the location was certainly memorable too.

On the Monday we visited both the Maiden Tower and Palace of the Shirvanshahs without any queuing whatsoever. Both places were interesting with the palace being the home to the former ruling family of Azerbaijan and the Maiden Tower being part of the old city walls although its exact purpose seems rather unclear, it may have been a defensive tower, it may have been for water storage, or it may have been constructed as some form of observatory - they really do not know.

The rest of the afternoon gave us a chance to wander a little more of the Formula One circuit and some of the back street areas that we had not gotten to on our first day. Our one and a half days in the city gave us a good taste of what the city has to offer.

Before catching the train to Georgia we had an early(ish) evening meal at the Hard Rock Cafe before collecting our bags from the hotel and taking a taxi to the railway station. Our train was due to leave Baku at 21.50 and get us to Tbilisi at 10.30 the following morning. We knew there were no catering facilities on board so had stocked up of some food and drink for the journey ahead of us including some rather nice Azerbaijan wine - another first.

Next stop is Tbilisi the capital city of Georgia and our 75th country!