Ancient history

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Well, it seems like a long time ago!

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1991

Went abroad again, this time just me and Carol. Roughly 2500 miles in 2 weeks again.
Got as far as Pisa.
We visited Rocroi, briefly dipped into Belgium.
Here's a photo of me in my Lush T shirt and leather jeans, somewhere in Belgium overlooking a sweeping river valley.

Through France, through Switzerland over the Simplon Pass into Italia, across Lago Maggiore, to Lago di Como, Menaggio.
Carol's bike and Mark's bike at Menaggio on the shores of Lago di Como.

Then Pisa, Montoggio, out through the Val d'Aosta.
Here's a photo of Mark's bike and Carol's bike in the Val d'Aosta heading for France 1991. Grape vines growing on terraces at right.

Then Grand St Bernard pass, Martigny, Chamonix. My bike broke down coming up through France near Bourg en Bresse- an overnight stay in a hotel and a new set of plugs fixed it. Thanks AA 5 star. Then on to Langres and the entertaining costumed tour round the battlements (and history). A quick stop at Reims.

1992

Carol and I decided to go the Glastonbury festival.
You really need to book well in advance as we found out.
Anyway, the advice line mentioned a late release of tickets that would be at a shop in Cambridge.
I got a couple of hours sleep, then got up about midnight, got on the bike, and headed for Cambridge through the night.
Not much traffic, as you might expect. I soon found the music shop in the early hours and settled down for the long wait to opening time.
A few alternative looking types joined me to leave me at the head of a reasonable queue when the doors opened.
The tickets really were there - sorted.
I headed back home, and went back to work in the afternoon.

We headed down in the trusty fiesta on the Friday night.
Once off the motorway, I remember passing a rather old VW van struggling up the hills.
We got the ridge tent up in a very crowded field, in time to see the levellers and carter usm at the pyramid stage.

Saturday became extremely hot and sunny, with extra bottled water being very popular.
We had a proper walk round most of the site.
Early in the afternoon we saw john otway and attila the stockbroker in the cabaret marquee.
Late afternoon we went over to the nme stage to see lush.
A serious traffic problem, moving between fields.
A bewildering array of food on offer, and so little time to try it all.
I think we only heard lou reed from the tent, while getting some rest from walking about all day, but got up for the saturday night headlining shakespears sister.
We were surprised to see that there was still lots to do, even after midnight, and saw the film thelma and louise at an outdoor cinema.
We didn't get much sleep that night, thanks to someone at the edge of the field, generously broadcasting techno for the rest of us.
Sunday, very tired, we packed the tent away and went home.
Back to work on Monday.

Went abroad again. 6 of us this time - me, Carol, Jes, Christine, Richard and Steve.
Probably a bit less than 2500 miles in 2 weeks this time due to delays,and the problems of keeping together.
Got as far as the Italian lakes.

We got off to a bad start with Christine's bike leaking oil before setting out.
We decided to leave Jes and Christine to sort this and set off for Dover.
We lost Steve straight away because he knew a better route out of north London than us.
We also managed to get on the M25 in the wrong direction.
Anyway, a mad dash to the boat where we expected to meet Richard and Steve. No sign of either.
We waited at Calais and Richard arrived on the next boat. Steve had had mechanical troubles as well and turned back to London.
The 3 of us waited a day at Rocroi, where we all met up again.
Actually, it was quite nice to have a day to explore a place we had always used as a quick stopover.
We followed pretty much the standard route through Belgium, back into France visiting Gerardmer, Turckheim into Germany, Austria.
Carol and bike somewhere in Austria. Some beautiful scenery in Austria. There is a discontinuity in this photo because it is overlapped with another in the album.

Over Timmelsjoch/Passo del Rombo into Italia, Merano, over Passo Stelvio, then Lago Maggiore, Laveno, back over Simplon Pass into Switzerland.
At this point, Steve's hydraulic clutch sprung a leak and we had to spend a night in Brig.
Next day we found out that parts were going to take a while to arrive.
Short of time to get back, Carol and I set off on our own.
Through Chamonix, St Quentin.

1993

Started studying Modules from Computing for Commerce and Industry with the Open University (sponsored by employer). The table shows TMAs (tutor marked assignments), OCAS (overall continuous assessment score), OES (overall exam score). Post Graduate Diploma in Computing for Commerce and Industry awarded 2007.

Note: DMZX871 got interrupted by me working in Genova jan 1999 - hence the low later and final scores.

We toured europe on the bikes again. Carol and I decided to go a bit further E this time.
Heard about the romantische strasse and headed for that.
Down through belgium stopping for a look at dinant.
Through a bit of luxembourg stopping at campsite just into deutschland over the river our. We walked back over the bridge to eat in luxembourg.
Stopped for a look at bernkastel kues.
Camped overnight near bad mergentheim.
We got onto the romantische strasse proper a little S of wurzburg.
Stopped for a look at rothenburg.
Continued S to nordlingen where I climbed the vertiginous wooden staircase in the tower to see the view of the crater. It didn't look very craterish to me.
On to have a look at neuschwanstein. We could see it in the distance, but by the time we got to the visitor car park, we decided against stopping to have a proper look.

Pushing on into Österreich over the beautiful fern pass into italia.
Through the beautiful dolomiti.
I remember the temperature rising as we descended to venezia.
Campsite near the aeroporto.
Next day we got the autobus into the centre.
A very expensive drink in piazza san marco.
Over the ponte di rialto.
Returned to campsite for another night.
Difficult to sleep in the heat and humidity, with sunburn and insect bites, even with only the inner tent..
Still too hot and humid next day we decided to get out of italia, getting some relief at air conditioned motorway services.
I think we must have been through or around torino, but didn't stop.
Back into france stopping at a lovely mountain campsite with a crystal clear lake.
Decided to try and push a bit further W into a bit we hadn't done before.
Up into low cloud over the massif central and back down again to le puy.
N through ambert.
Northern france not all that interesting, but we did stop for a break at cafe aux trois pigeons with its friendly cat, centre of fruges.

1994

We toured europe on the bikes again. Carol and I decided to go further W this time.
Took the ferry from Portsmouth to Cherbourg. Stopped at a camp site on the coast, now with a nice modern eurohike flexi hoop type tent.
Went E a bit to have a look at the Normandy d day landing beaches at Arromanches. Then the Bayeux tapisserie.
Aiming for a bit more luxury (and less camping) stopped at an Ibis.
Along the coast to le Mont St Michel.

Inland a little to Dinan, where I had been a couple of times for work. Camped at Bain de Bretagne.
That's enough of the N now - time to head S.
Not shown in the photographic record is the rain that came - proper european thunder and lightning torrential rain - the stuff that blocks roads with fallen trees.
When it started quite suddenly we ended up sheltering near a power sub station, which didn't feel very safe.
Watched a group of french car drivers impatiently shift a fallen tree.
Very wet, we looked for somewhere indoors, but didn't find anything cheap enough.
It brightened up a bit by the time we camped though.
Unfortunately, even in a plastic bag, the camera got damp enough to stop working for a few days.

We crossed the Loire somewhere - probably Nantes - I remember it was quite pretty anyway.
The camera finally dried out enough at Uzerche.
We were quite close to the famous Lascaux with its cave paintings, but we didn't feel we had time - I think they don't let you see the real thing anyway.

A quick look at Brive la Gaillarde and into the Dordogne.
Intended to stay at the very pretty La Roque Gageac - a poster of which I had been looking at for years - but it was well full.
Found a room a bit further down the river at Beynac.
Pushed on S and camped at Condom.

Drove through the rain, determined to get over the pyrenees into Espana.
Lots of markings on the road on the way up - probably some recent cycling event.
Once over the top the weather changed dramatically, with clear blue sky.
Arrived at Jaca.
With my teeny bit of Espanol we manged to get directed to a busy camp site in the pines.
The facilities ran out of water until a tanker arrived to top up - dry place, spain.
Thought the weather would be good now, but no - more rain in the evening.

Pushed on into spain through the rain, past the dramatic, but very wet reservoirs.
Despite the wet, it was too hot for full waterproofs and we got very damp.
Couldn't remember how to ask for something to eat, driving past lots of potential eating places.
Eventually managed to get something at a roadside cafe, by pointing at the pictures.
Completely fed up, we turned N again around Lerida and headed for France.
Looked for a camp site, but the area looked really deserted, and ended up in a road side hotel, glad to take the best room in the place as that was all that was available.
Didn't appreciate it much - very tired.

Up through Andorra, stopping for a look at the shop that seems to be the main reason it exists?
Not actually raining today.
Whizzed past a massive queue of cars at the border.
Nice to be back in France. Camped at Ax les Thermes in a very busy site.
Lots of fireworks down in the town, but I was feeling quite ill, probably from the damp.

Anyway, felt better next day.
Headed back up around Toulouse, stopping at a hotel (with a bath) in Aurillac.

Blasted back up through some lovely scenery, although I didn't appreciate it at the time.
Not sure when it started, but I had a slow (fairly fast actually) puncture in the rear tyre, which didn't do anything for the handling.
Pumped it back up at every opportunity.
Stopped at some motorway services in the Auvergne, where the volvic vulcanicity comes from.
Eventually got back onto familiar roads home.
It wasn't all bad and raining, but just france and spain didn't seem as good as the normal route through so many countries, especially over the alps to Italia.

1995

Bought my 1st ever new car - Peugeot 106 XSi. Excellent car, despite a few minor problems. Retired in 2011 at 173000+ miles.

1997

Took the 106 to France on the Hovercraft in Mai.
We couldn't get very far in 5 days, and it rained a lot, but it was still a nice holiday.

1998

My mum died on the 13th May 1998 aged 61.

Carol and I went back to Italia in Giugno for the 1st time in years.
We had an appartment in a converted barn on an olive oil estate near Pontedera, not far from Pisa.
It was excellent to have a car, bed, fridge, cooker etc. A bit different from camping holidays on the bikes.
We visited Volterra, Vinci and Cortona.

A strange thing happened at work.
We lost the german Siemens connection and gained an Italian one.
I then started to work for marconi.
Suits me OK - Italia mi piace molto!

1999

Quite a busy year.
Turned 40.
Spent about 10 weeks living/working in Italia.
Bought a mobile.
Went to Greece (Crete) for the 1st time - see old news 19.05.1999.
Moved out of Coventry.
Started keeping an online diary in old news.

I had started to learn greek over the winter, ready for crete, but the opportunity to work in italy put a stop to that about halfway through.
As it happens, not much need for it around most of the holiday areas.
We went in may to avoid the extreme heat of the summer - still hot though.
Flew a standard holiday flight to heraklion, which was at the wrong end of the island, then drove our hire car to the small pure crete house at stilos, near xania, oranges being sold by the side of the road.
A nice view of the lefka ori white mountains, with the snow line visibly receding over the week.

Walking round the village we saw lots of fallen oranges, and more dumped by the side of the road to xania.
Impressed by the holes in the road sign.

early 2ndschool university work198x work199x work200x