And that’s a wrap!

To take the words from a previous ride: drat, somehow I must have missed a flag, because I found myself at the airport heading back to reality!

So after 80 days the epic tour is over and I am back in Wellington. All I can say about the flight home: long distance travel is ugly! I was sustained though by the knowledge that at the end of last flight I would be seeing my children and new grandson.

I was a bit worried on the flight from Auckland to Wellington as I could not stay awake. However once I got off the plane and saw most of my children and grandson waiting for me I had a new lease of life. Kelly, Daniel (my son in law), Shellbe, Lizzy and Xavier, and Dan (holding a huge bunch of flowers) were there to meet me. Tracey couldn’t get to the airport but she was at home waiting when we got there. Kelly had bought her work car, a 7 seater Odyssey, so we could all drive home together (with the exception of Daniel who kindly drove a separate car to carry all my stuff, such as a large bike box).

Proud Gran!

We got takeaways on the way and Dan had organized wine for the celebration. We had an enjoyable evening catching up.  I got to hold my grandson at the airport and then again at home. I finally got to see him with his eyes open.

Benji the Excellent Dog was very excited to see me, and not at all impressed when he was put quickly back outside when we had tea. The cat Boss had the usual cat reaction – you haven’t bothered to come home for three months so don’t expect any interest from me just because you’re here now.

I managed to stay up until 10pm, then it was nice to be getting into my own bed, no fly to have to zip up and down to get in and out, and to keep bugs out!  And an inside toilet, with paper and soap – luxury.

Writing this now it is 5am Saturday morning, I have been awake for awhile, it will take me a few days to get back into sync with the time zone. I am going to get up in a minute and go out to the kitchen and make a pot of TEA 🙂 and toast, and come back to bed. Two of the things I really missed when I was away were toast and being able to make a cup of tea whenever I wanted. Then if I don’t go back to sleep I will take Benji The Excellent Dog for a walk along the beach. Then it’s off to the hairdresser for me.

Benji the Excellent Dog

Then, would you believe, I will have to go out and look for a laundromat! How ironic! Our trusty washing machine chose this week to die. The repair man came yesterday and it is not fixable, but it did last 15 years in this busy household. Plus of course I will be buying a new machine today.

I am thinking of maybe going for a short ride today and a longer one tomorrow. Today I also need to get everything for the usual Sunday feast, unpack, and open three months of mail. At my request, my children have also saved me the magazines from the Saturday newspapers, so I will enjoy working through those. I will also of course be reading the Saturday Dominion Post – but only this week’s. Then Monday or Tuesday I will have a go at the Windmill Hill ride in Makara, and the Hungerford Road Hill.

Then I am back to work on Wednesday, and back to fitting in riding and training for the Lake Taupo Cycle Challenge around my life, rather than the past three months of riding being my life. However it is helped by the arrival of day light savings time this weekend!

Thanks to you all for reading the blog, I have always enjoyed reading the comments posted. A huge thank you to the editor of this blog, my daughter Kelly, who has done an amazing job, adding  links to the places I have visited, and interpreting and correcting my creative spelling to ensure that my posts are actually readable. I am a challenged (I prefer the term creative) speller at the best of times, but with often poor lighting and the iPad adding its own interpretation of what I’m saying (which I did not always manage to notice and correct) – all I can say is “Kelly you have done an amazing job, thank you”.

This is the final bog for this epic adventure! However blogging will resume with the Bamboo Road ride, late 2013! This epic journey goes from Shanghai to Singapore over three months. I will have to be a sectional rider for this as won’t be able to take three months off again.

Thanks for reading! Some more photos will be posted on Facebook over the coming weeks. You can see them here: 100kayesadayfacebookpage.

(And if you are looking for another cycling adventure to read about, you could follow this one, the blog of a midwife who is cycling around Australia: www.gogirlaustralia.net.au)

The best, the worst, and the scariest

On the flights home I had time to think about the trip, and what the highlights have been – apart from the incredible privilege of being able to have three months of holiday. I also had a chance to think about the less favourable parts of the trip . . .

In no order of importance here are the highlights (and it goes without saying that becoming a Gran is obviously the biggest highlight)

• I really enjoyed the storks – they were everywhere in the first few countries, and towards the border of Spain and in Portugal there were lots of empty nests, so they obviously live there in large numbers for part of the year
• I really liked the Peacock Clock in St Petersburg at the Hermitage that was given to Catherine the Great by one of her 12 lovers
• The Pandas in Madrid were fantastic, especially watching the brothers playing
• Venice was my favourite city. I really enjoyed visiting all the cities, but would particularly like to go back to Venice, Ljubljana, Madrid and Lisbon
• Sitting in Cannes in deck chairs by the sea having a cold drink was total relaxation
• My favourite restaurant was the seafood restaurant in Venice, where we were not allowed red wine with our meal
• My favourite ride was coming over the hills past Jeruzalem and seeing the vineyards and the view
• My favourite building was the Spilt Blood Church in St Petersburg
• Overall for scenery my favourite country was Slovenia
• Seeing the condors/eagles in Spain, 12 -15 of them soaring and gliding on the thermals above the cliffs in Spain, and the 25 we saw above the field in Spain, it was breathtaking
• There is a saying “Life is not measured by the number of breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away” – on this trip I had many of these moments
• My proudest achievement (apart from having completed the ride) was getting up the gravel rock road in Spain without having to get off my bike
• Of course it goes without saying that a highlight of the trip was the friendship, support and sense of comradery that developed between us all, and the many moments of laughter.

The things I disliked most:

• The squat toilets
• The lack of toilet paper
• Bugs!!!!!!!! And wasps and bees that appear to have some weird attraction to me
• Hard Russian bread
• Biking and trying to sleep in the heat (especially the day riding along the levy, the first day out of Venice).

The 5 scariest things that happened on the trip:

• Getting lost on the metro in Russia (x2)
• Dog bite camp (where Miles was attacked by a dog). I would have to look back on the blog to find the name of the camp but has been referred to as “Dog bite camp” ever since by the riders
• Getting totally lost in Hungary (but it was ok because I was saved by Berta who gave a lift in her red sports car, and got lost doing it)
• When I was near the border in Poland there were some idiots doing wheelies up and down the road, which was quite scary as I was riding by myself, but I just got off the road and waited for Dan and Michel who were behind me to catch up, and then I stuck with them the rest of the day
• Just before Cannes I turned onto a highway right in front of a car. I had looked but just did not see it, thankfully the driver managed to avoid me (and gave me a well deserved mouthful). After this I looked each time, not once, not twice but at least three times. When I get home I will have back to the habit of walking my bike across a busy road rather than riding it across.

My last day as a tourist

I woke up really early today, with a mixture of being excited to be going home to see the family, and sadness about saying goodbye to Europe, the tour, the tour crew and the other riders.

I had to leave at 2pm to make sure I was at the airport on time so I tried to make the most of the time I had. I went the Fado Museum; it is really worth a visit.

The Fado Museum

They had instruments on display plus a tour with head phones in English giving the history of Fado. There is also a couch area you can sit in and go through 30 of the most famous Fado artists with photos, information on them and audio recordings. It made me wish I had pushed myself a bit harder and gone to one of the many Fado bars last night.

A sign at the Fado Museum

Fado instruments, they have double stringing

At the museum on the wall there was a saying that I really liked:
“Fado is sung as if tomorrow would not happen, as if this was the last song one would ever sing”.

A picture at Fado museum – looks very relaxed

I looked around the wharf and saw the Atlantic Ocean, the river Rio Tejo, and the Ponte 25 de April Bridge, plus saw more buildings with amazing ceramic fronts.

View from the wharf area of Lisbon

The Rio Tejo (River Tagus) just as it meets the Atlantic Ocean, with the Ponte 25 de April Bridge in the background

Last night we had hugs good bye with the tour crew and Danya and Jan, and then I bumped into them all again today, so the farewell hugs were repeated. Then before I knew it, it was time to go to the airport for the long flight(s) home.

Interesting buildings in Lisbon

As many of you already knew, and others have discovered, I am a specialist at getting lost so I really appreciated the email Christiano sent to us all today:

“Getting lost will help you find yourself”