With the end of summer, the pub quiz season starts again, so hidden europe is boning up on the trivia that will help us cruise through all those questions on European geography. Not that we are actually very good at these things. Last year we were well ensconced in a comfortable English pub and heading towards an improbable and unprecedented victory when we were pipped to the post by a killer question posed by the vengeful quizmaster.

"Which port in the United Kingdom, located in a tiny community with just a handful of souls", he asked, "has over twenty daily car ferry departures to another country?" It took us milliseconds to discount Dover, Newcastle, Harwich and Aberdeen.