odysseyone

There's no chance of forgetting what Spain is famous for. On every major highway in this country, starring down at you is a larger-than-life metal bull silhouette, which is a good thing as the real life wild bulls are a whole lot harder to spot- we've seen just one during our mad dash across the country. But I think Spain has overlooked what it is truly memorable for, whether you actually want the memories or not- budgie smugglers and boobs.

I read on a blog once that the worst piece of sporting equipment to own is the one that isn't being used for its intended purpose. I can't tell you how many times this little piece of advice ran through my head as we dragged our fully loaded bikes on and off trains and up and down lifts, escalators and sometimes even stairs in the two days it took us to travel in reverse back home (which is how we now refer to England).

The Netherlands is a cyclists’ paradise. It’s a country where two wheels are treated equally to the four-wheeled version and have their own paths, road lanes and traffic lights. No more having to share a footpath with pedestrians or the road with cars; cyclists have their own dedicated lane next to footpaths and if that doesn’t exist, a special lane on the road. We even have our own traffic lights and lane next to walk signals for pedestrians. We felt like we were in some type of Lego land where bikes rule.

We have survived the religious melting pot that is Israel, negotiating our way through the perils of heavy security, machine guns, missiles, Hamas, public transport and the locals. Security is like nothing I have ever seen before. Don’t even think about popping into a shopping centre to use the toilet or a quick visit to the post office to buy a stamp without having security invade your personal space with a metal detector and sometimes even putting your bag through x-ray. We got so tired of the checks we would sometimes go hungry or walk instead of catching a bus to avoid security.

Should women be given a ‘free pass’ into politics or continue to compete against men for seats on merit, even if it is an unbalanced playing field? This is the question running through my head since India resurrected its debate on its women’s reservation bill last week.