In the midst of our visa runaround, we managed to squeeze in three days in Esfahan - one of the most beautiful cities we’ve had the good fortune to visit on our trip. There’s a saying in Persian that Esfahan is half the world and you can see why when you take the time to experience its beautiful mosaic-covered mosques, stroll across its bridges and sit in its gardens. Simply wonderful. Here are a few of our favourite photos from the past few days. Click on the picture to see the slideshow.

A very Happy New Year to all our friends and family! We wish everything wonderful for you as we continue on our journey in 2008. We enjoyed ringing in the New Year in Gaziantep, Turkey, sampling their sugar-saturated baklava, washed down with a beer or two. In a few days we’ll be in Iran and we’re excited about that but we also have so many wonderful memories from the past year. Here are some of our favourite photos from the last twelve months. Click on the photo to start the slideshow. Enjoy!

It’s hard to believe a year has passed since we set out on the road with our bikes and four bags each: 15,774km later — the equivalent of cycling from Yellowknife to Saint John’s and back again — we’ve seen 14 countries, spent two out of every three days on the road and slept 202 nights in our tent.

We cut our cycle touring teeth in Canada, rediscovering parts of our country we thought we knew well, but which actually looked so different from the seat of a bicycle. A few months later we were pedalling through Europe and many people told us we should just go straight to Asia.

“Save some money,” they said. “It’s too expensive here and nothing worth seeing.”

But we wanted to discover our backyard before setting off for far-flung lands and we are so glad we didn’t miss the Tarn gorges in France, sipping sherry in Spain or climbing the mountain passes of the Alps.

We fit in a tour of Morocco, reaching the desert dunes of Merzouga and Zagora, and now we are sitting on Italy’s Adriatic coastline, waiting for a ferry later this month which will take us to northern Greece, Turkey, the Middle East and some unknown combination of countries towards China or India. The visa muddle hasn’t quite been sorted out yet but there are so many interesting routes that no matter whether we choose to go via Iran, the Central Asian states of Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan or north towards Russia we are sure our journey will not be boring.

You can click on the photo for a slideshow of some of the best pictures from our first year.

We went for an afternoon walk today with the dogs to Moresco, a hilltop village just up the road from the house where we are staying. It’s said to be one of the most beautiful villages in Italy and certainly its archways and views over the surrounding countryside are worth the stop. We took a few pictures to share with you. Click on the photo to start the slideshow.

We decided to take a day off after our epic ride yesterday and ended up doing some work on the bikes: taking apart the wheel and cleaning out all the dirt and grit that gets stuck there, regreasing everything and putting it all back together. Like most good jobs, this one took far longer than we thought it would and included a few minor hassles, including trying to figure out how to untangle Andrew’s chain from his spokes. Don’t ask how the chain got wedged between the spokes in the first place.

If you are tempted to do the same to your bike (take the wheel apart, not mangle your chain and spokes), here are some step-by-step pictures we took. Just click on the photo to start the slideshow.

You will need cone spanners that fit your bike’s wheels (we used a 17 and a 13 but ask at your local bike shop), grease, a clean rag and, if you plan to do the back wheel, a tool to help you get the back cassette off.