How would you plan a tour to include Pressburg, Poszony and Bratislava, and in what order?

And can you think of similar itineraries elsewhere in Europe?

Luik/Lüttich/Liège, anyone?

Presumably your rule is that there have to be real, naturally occurring, monolingual roadsigns - which there certainly are for Genf/Ginevra/Geneve.

And I'm sure I've seen Basilea/Basel/Basle as well as Bale with the circumflex on the 'a' I can't do on this keyboard. So you can get up to four.

But isn't it a more interesting game if you ban places in Belgium and Switzerland? And can anyone get up to (or even past) five?

Gosh, I hadn't got as far as rules. It was a dull morning, that's all.

If actually existing road-signs were to be the criterion then I suspect my first example wouldn't have worked anyway. I expect you could possibly find four or five the further east you go in Europe, but again probably not if you look for names that will occur officially, if not necessarily naturally, at the same time (what about Durres or places around the Polish/Ukrainian borders?)

...though of course with slightly different rules, the winner could well be:

Wrotizla, Vretslav, Presslaw, Breslau, Wroclaw and Bhreslay (which is the closest to what the Russians called it during their occupation)

With apologies to Norman Davies' marvellous <i> Microcosm </i>

But you do get real road signs for Pressburg etc. Signs at Vienna airport do say Pressburg: signs on the M1 (Hungary's, not the real one) do say Poszony.

The Hollyhead ferry has signs to Dunleary, Dun Loughaire and whatever it is in welsh.

Aslo estate agents have a talent for this: Battersea/South Chelsea/Clapham Borders.

David, you're forgetting my favourite: 'Twixt the Commons' (alias Nappy Valley).