CYCLING IN THE PYRENEES, ITALY, HEBRIDES AND A RIDE TO ISTANBUL

CHRISTMAS IN THE PYRENEES: Travel again played an important part in our enjoyment of the year. Xmas and New Year were spent in a Gite in the French Pyrenees. We travelled by car (no bicycles!), using the Portsmouth - St Malo ferry and taking 3 days to drive down the Atlantic coast of France to Arette. We stayed a week in the Gite, "tackling" several passes over into Spain, although quite a few were also closed by snow. Among other places, we visited Pamplona, Lourdes and San Sebastian. We drove back in 3 days through the Dordogne, Garonne and High Vienne country, joining the Loire just above Chinon. We came back on the Caen - Portsmouth ferry after spending some time visiting the beaches of Normandy.

EASTER IN ITALY: The first major cycle ride of the year was two weeks and a strenuous 320 miles in Italy at Easter. We flew into Naples and cycled south down the coast of Italy to the end of the "toe" at Reggio de Calabria and across on the ferry to Messina in Sicily. We made our way to Palermo and took the night ferry back to Naples. We spent a very good half-day looking at Pompeii (amazing) and three days at Paestum, the site of one of the three best-preserved Greek temples anywhere. The three-day break was an enforced rest, made necessary by Barry becoming detached from his bicycle on the road behind the temple and falling on his right shoulder. This somehow caused the right arm to lose its willingness to move when commanded to do so, but it slowly recovered its sense of duty. The back wheel was more easily straightened at a small cycle shop a few miles away. However, the most difficult part of this journey remains getting a bicycle in and out of Gatwick Airport!

SPRING BANK IN THE HEBRIDES: At Spring Bank, we were both able to get away for 9 days to ride 360 miles through the Western Isles of Scotland. We started from Oban, taking the ferry to Barra and then Lochboisdale in South Uist. We rode up through South Uist and Benbecula to Newton Ferry in North Uist. A small passenger (-cum-bicycle) ferry took us across a stormy sound to Leverburgh in South Harris via Berneray Island. We then rode up to Callanish in Lewis where we stayed two nights in a crofter's cottage next to the stone circle, visiting Stornoway. Riding back to Tarbert, we took the ferry to Uig in north-west Skye and rode down through Portree to Armadale where we took a ferry to Mallaig on the mainland. Another 80 miles, through beautiful highland and sea loch valleys, and two more ferries got us back to Oban via Mull. Our memories of the islands are mainly of the crofters, still following their old ways, in a remarkably bleak, wet, beautiful, storm-swept landscape. So bleak that we often had difficulty finding somewhere to prop the bikes when we stopped!

SUMMER RIDING TO ISTANBUL: Our main ride however was in the summer (July/August) and it took us to Istanbul via Sweden and Eastern Europe. We spent seven weeks camping and cycling the 2,500-mile route. We started from Harwich, taking the DFDS Ferry to Hamburg and from there we went briefly across the northern tip of West Germany to Travemund, where we took a ferry up to Gedser in Denmark. We rode north for two days in Denmark until we reached Copenhagen. (It felt strange riding north through Denmark when we were supposed to be going south and east to Istanbul, but we had to go that way to Poland since we couldn't get a visa to cycle in East Germany). A ferry from Copenhagen to Malmo in Sweden and a day's ride got us to Ystad at the southernmost tip of Sweden. From there a Polferries ferry runs to Swinoujscie in the extreme north-eastern tip of Poland - right up against the East German border where the River Oder enters the Baltic.

We rode for 12 days through Poland, initially heading south along the Oder and the East German border and then turning south-east through Wroclaw and Auschwitz to Krakow and Nowy Sacz, crossing the Tatra mountains into Czechoslovakia. We spent four days in Czechoslovakia, following last year's route briefly through Presov and Michalovce, near the Russian border. We again crossed into Hungary at Satoraljaujhely and rode through one of our favourite cycling areas - the eastern part of the Great Hungarian Plain, down through Debrecen and into Romania at Gyula. We only stayed in Romania for two days (and we cycled quickly at that!) having been warned that the country was in a desperate state and that it could be dangerous for foreigners on bicycles. It was in a desperate state - by far the worst we have ever seen - with literally nothing in the shops, people in rags and begging on a large and open scale. The main threat came from the hotel in Timisoara, which wanted payment in US dollars and quite a few at that.

From Romania we entered Yugoslavia and there followed one of the most enjoyable cycling episodes of the year - following the Danube for several days along the Yugoslav/Romanian border (through the "Iron Gates" - the Danube gorges) and then into Bulgaria near Vidin and Calafat. The few other cyclists we met on the ride were mainly from East Germany - we met almost no other westerners - but in Bulgaria, near the top of the 4,200 ft Shipka Pass, we met a large group of Russian cyclists from Gorki. It was a good meeting with an exchange of souvenirs and mutual admiration of bicycles (they admired our sophisticated western technology, we admired their optimism in setting out on their bicycles at all!). From Bulgaria we crossed briefly into Turkey (the ancient capital of Edirne) before heading south into Greece to spend a night at Alexandroupoli on the Aegean coast.

The borders between Bulgaria/Turkey and between Greece/Turkey were very tense - the Turkish soldiers were the scariest we have seen outside Northern Ireland. Streams of refugees (half a mile of carts piled high with household possessions) were queuing to enter Turkey, having been thrown out of Bulgaria, while streams of Turks (a ten-mile queue, three-cars-wide, of Mercedes and BMWs) were queuing to enter Bulgaria, returning to work in Western Germany.

From Greece, we re-entered Turkey, riding through Gallipoli to cross the Dardenelles by ferry into Asia at Canakkale. We found time to visit Troy (in fact, the site of nine Troys, one on top of the other!) and ride along the south shore of the Sea of Marmara to Bursa and Mount Olympus before taking a ferry from Bandirma to Istanbul. In Istanbul we fulfilled our ambition of riding over the one bridge that connects Europe with Asia - the bridge over the Bosphorus near the Golden Horn. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a motorway bridge; fortunately, the Turkish police were very kind and forgiving. We didn't even have to pay the toll! After the compulsory visits to the Blue Mosque and the Grand Bazaar, we returned home in 4 hours by courtesy of a BA flight to Heathrow, the day before term started.