Yerevan is a pink city. The stone that built it is volcanic tuff, in shades from rose to apricot to grey, and when the evening light hits the apartment blocks and the opera house it glows as if lit from inside. It is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, founded as the fortress of Erebuni in 782 BC, and yet most of what you see was laid out in the Soviet years by the architect Alexander Tamanian, in a ring plan around a great central square. A little over a million people live here, about a third of the country, and the capital feels like the engine room of Armenia.
Ararat is the other presence. On a clear morning the twin cone of the mountain stands on the southern horizon, enormous and snowy, and every Yerevan resident seems to know exactly which window gives the best view. It lies across the border in Turkey now, which gives it a certain ache in Armenian eyes. It is also the reason so many riders wake early here: the haze builds through the day and the mountain disappears by mid morning.
Riding out of the city is a matter of choosing your exit and being patient. Traffic is assertive, lane markings are suggestions, and tram-sized marshrutka vans stop without warning. Once you are through the suburbs, the roads fan out in every direction: north towards the Debed canyon and its medieval monasteries, east over the Selim Pass and down to Lake Sevan, south through the Ararat plain. All of them climb quickly into mountains of volcanic rock, with corners that often arrive without a warning sign and surfaces that change from fresh tarmac to potholes in the space of a kilometre.
Practicalities are straightforward. Petrol stations are all over the city and on the main roads out; many also sell coffee, and some of them still give you a free glass of water, which tells you a lot about the country. Eat well before you go: lavash fresh from the tonir oven, grilled lamb, dolma, apricots from the market. In the cool of the evening, join the crowds at Republic Square for the fountains and the music. Spring and autumn are the best seasons; July and August are hot in the valley, and the passes can hold snow into May.