Shooting up

This blog is getting its highest ever visitor numbers thanks to the BBC website, which has published some photos from my bicycle ride along the Iron Curtain. As I write, the very front page of the site's UK version is displaying a gallery of pics from my new book (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/8429885.stm). I am not a little chuffed, and very gratified by the unexpected levels of interest in the project. I have received lots of interesting feedback at paulkbxl@gmail.com. Thanks to everyone!

To see more photos from the journey, with lots of accompanying text describing the route and the interesting people and places along it, you can view an on-screen preview of the book that I've produced: http://bit.ly/5JvJ2x (more details in the post below this one). It is also available for purchase here (and nowhere else, until I find a publisher) by following the relevant links.

To read my day-to-day record of the journey itself, scroll down the page a little for the last of the blog entries made on the road. For those with a serious interest, you could experience the whole journey from its shaky beginnings by scrolling to the bottom of this page and reading upwards: http://curtainrider.typepad.com/curtainrider/page/9/

Comments

[Roshan Reddaway]

Dear Paul,

I was SO thrilled to hear about your ride along the Iron Curtain. My daughter and I have been wanting to do this ever since we saw a programme on BBC tv about this incredible corridor. I will follow your progress with enormous interest. We actually wanted to do it on horseback; do you think this would be possible? Where can one get information on the route? I'd be most grateful for any comments.

Best of luck and a very Happy New Year to you,

Roshan Reddaway
Ankara

[Stephen]

Paul

Thanks for a fascinating blog - I have blogged about it on http://holy-disorder.blogspot.com and have used your book cover there (hope this is OK). Our blog is a mixture of reflections from 20 years ago and original diary entries from 1989 (when these things had to be written by pen and paper rather than on typepad or blogger).

[Paul Kaye]

PS Good luck in your 50th anniversary idea of walking around the Berlin Wall route. Unfortunately I was short of time and energy by the time I reached that part of my itinerary, so the quality of journalism had started to break down (you might note that the book contains no testimony from Berliners...). It would be a great project to walk or cycle the route and talk to those on the way about their feelings all this time later.

I have a similar idea for the 20th anniversary of the 1992 Velvet divorce of Czechoslovakia: to walk along the border between them to get reflections on the developments. Id also like to write a biography of Alexander Dubcek for the same anniversary, but that is an altogether bigger undertaking!

Paul

[ali mclaren]

Paul its amazing ..me and my wife would like to do the same with our vespas..can you let me have the planned route please. thanks

[Paul Kaye]

Hello Ali, thanks for the kind comment. The best way to find out about the route is to get the books detailed at this site: http://www.ironcurtaintrail.eu/en/publikationen/buchreihe_zum_radweg/index.html . This differs from my route in the southern portion, where I travelled around the border between Slovenia and Austria/Italy. But with your Vespas you could go all the way to the Black Sea!