Sixty years ago today, if Swede Hans Jeppson wanted to toast the appearance of his name in the first Guinness Book of Records using the most expensive bottle of wine commercially available, he would have had to spend a staggering £8 on a 1949 Feinste Trockenbeeren Auslese, a white wine from the Rhine Valley.

Liz O’ Brien ticked off her continental bucket list with a Contiki ‘European Highlights’ tour in London, Paris, Nice, Monaco, the French Riviera, Florence, Pisa, Rome, Rhine Valley, St Goar, Munich, Edam and Amsterdam