29/6/19 Kranjska Gora to Bovec

50km  Total 1616km

We're in the Julian Alps in Triglav National Park, and today we headed over the Vricic Pass at 1611m.  It was like the road up Mt Buffalo on steroids.  A total of 45 switchbacks on the up and down.  Bikes, e-bikes, motorbikes, cars, caravans, even a bus on a steep, narrow, winding road.  And with the load we're carrying, at times we were only going at 3 or 4kph.  It's really difficult at that speed to stay riding in a straight and when you've got all those vehicles passing you all the time it's max concentration and minimal gazing at the views.  But every now and then we'd stop, and the views were spectacular.

And I forgot to mention that most the corners on the way up were cobblestones!

Very popular climbing area - see the hole

Note the walking track - quite a few little dots of people way up above us

And the views over the other side were just as spectacular

No cobblestones on the descent, but my disc brakes were burning!
Then a beautiful ride down the Soca River.  Stopped beside it for lunch and put my legs in, but the water was soooo cold.  It hurt too much to stay in more than a minute.  The water is so crystal clear and inviting.

Now in the adrenaline town of Bovec where you can go kayaking, canyoning, paragliding, rafting, ziplining, parachuting, rock climbing, hiking, mountain biking etc.  We're staying in a camp ground full of play kayaks.  Tomorrow we'll try the rafting, but the river's a bit low at the moment so I expect it will be very tame.

28/6/19 Bled to Kranjska Gora

38km  Total 1564km

Wow, what a day!
A solid climb out of Bled but then a beautiful gentle climb up a river valley (in the shade!!) up to Mojstrana then a rail trail the rest of the way to Kranjska Gora.

We met a lovely French guy from the island of Martinique who gave us his cycling map as he's about to go into Austria.  I've been searching for this map ever since we arrived in Slovenia, but I gather it's out of print.

We're staying in a 'back to nature' campsite for the night.

27/6/19 Rest day in Bled

Bled is a huge tourist destination.  Not surprising as it's so beautiful.

We spent the day doing tourist things - Bled castle (you can probably hear Dermot's groan - not another castle!!).  But it was worth it for the view.

And there were some things to see there.

Paper making

Re-enactment, but we missed it

Next stop was Vintgar Gorge.  10Euro per person to enter, but very spectacular.

Finally a swim in the evening.  The water was pleasantly warm.

26/6/19 Skofja Loka to Bled

54km  Total 1526km

30deg by 9.30am.  It was going to be a hot day.  We spent the morning exploring the beautifully preserved medieval city of Skofja Loka.

After searching for a gas bottle for the stove (unsuccessfully) we got going about 1pm - the heat of the day.  My garmin showed 38deg at one stage.
Lots of drinking required.  These radlers are excellent.  2% alcohol!

The beginning of the ride was beautiful.

We're in an area where there's lots of cherries, strawberries, apricots etc.  YUM.

After about 20km, the adventure began again.  Consistent 10% uphill for about 500m height gain.  We were following a Slovenia bikepacking route.  At the top of the climb it turned off into a downhill mtb single track.  Had to walk the bikes!

Then it was another 25-30km of hilly riding - one sign was for a 15% climb - tough work with a fully loaded bike.

Finally arrived about 6.30pm it the very touristy Slovenian alpine town of Bled.

25/6/19 Ljubljana to Skofja Loka

32km  plus another 10 touring the city.  Total 1472km

It's a public holiday today.  We went looking for a supermarket to get some breakfast, but almost nothing is open.  Fortunately found a bakery.

We'd planned to go for a guided bike tour of the city, but it sounds like the guide celebrated a bit too much last night, and didn't turn up, so we headed off and did our own thing.

View from the castle at the top of the hill overlooking Ljubljana

Then we headed back to our campsite, packed up and headed NWto Skofja Loka at about 2pm.  Another hot, very humid day.  

Skofja Loka is a really well preserved walled city.  I forgot to take my phone with me when we went walking, so no photos.  Tomorrow before we leave.

24/6/19 Polzela to Ljubljana

58km  Total 1430km

Finally a reasonably uneventful day.  Our AirBnB host recommended the donuts in Trojane, so we thought we'd better try them.

It was just a bit tricky getting into Ljubljana - the gpx track took us on roads which had signs saying 'no cyclists'.  We survived.
We're staying at a campsite on the outskirts of the city, so caught a bus into the centre and caught up with our German mates Magnus and Anita for dinner.
It's a beautiful city with loads of people out on a beautiful warm, balmy evening.  The population of Slovenia is only 2 million.

Tomorrow is National Day celebrating the formation of Slovenia when it broke away from Yugoslavia in 1991 so there was lots on tonight in the city centre, with the Slovenian President attending.  Music as well.

23/6/19 Vitenje to Polzela

36km  Total 1372km

Woke up to rain, but couldn't stand the thought of staying in our accom another night so headed off.
Mainly downhill, in pouring rain so no photos from today.  Stopped at a cafe for a break and it was still raining after a couple of hours, so pulled the pin and booked into an airbnb.  As soon as we did that, the sun came out.  Hopefully we're in for some good weather for the next couple of days though.  Only a 50km ride to Ljubljana tomorrow.

22/6/19 Lukanja to Vitenje

25km  Total 1336

A record start for us - away by 8am as we needed to shift our tents early to let the owners get their car out.  We then had a beautiful 10km descent into Zrece.  Dermot and I decided to head into town for some breakfast and to try and find out how to get back onto the course we had downloaded so said farewell to the others.

After another 8km came out on a road with bike racers on it and another great descent.  Got caught up in the moment, so missed our turn off, but at the bottom of the hill came across our gpx track again in the little town of Vitenje.  Only problem was we started riding the wrong way - on the bit of course we'd missed, back to the start.  After an hour of climbing we realised the mistake so back down to Vitenje. At least there was a nice view.

Headed for a cafe to get outselves sorted and the skies opened up with an almighty thunderstorm and torrential rain.  Water was even flowing through the door into the cafe.

The barmaid at the cafe fed us on coffees and toasted sandwiches and looked for some accomodation for us.  She woudn't take any money from us - reckoned her Dad who was there paid the bill for us.  Then she took us to the accom.  Beggars can't be choosers - below 1*, but at least we were dry.

Then the sun came out so we headed off for a walk - up a hill to an old castle, just in case we hadn't had enough exercise lately.

Speccy view from the top.

More views of Vitenje:

21/6/19 Maribor to Lukanja

34km  Total 1311km

We spent a rest day in Maribor cleaning the bikes, going to the local bakery, eating icecream, visiting the bike shop etc.  Maribor is a ski area in winter and big mtb area in summer.  There was a world cup downhill earlier this year.

The campground in Maribor is excellent.  Great wifi, extremely clean, nice grass to camp on.  A few other cyclists camping there including Magnus and Anita from Germany.  While Dermot stayed in bed getting his beauty sleep the 3 of us caught the gondola up at 4am to join in midsummer celebrations and watch the sunrise.  Blown away at the number of people either walking up or catching the gondola.

We were planning to stay an extra day in Maribor, but once we found out we could take the gondola up with our bikes we did a quick packup and headed to the top again - Magnus and Anita decided to join us.

What we're finding with the Eurovelo track is that there doesn't seem to be an official gpx file to download - when we google to download it, people seem to have just labelled their track as Eurovelo, but with no indication of whether they've ridden it or not.

So the 4 of us headed off, following the gpx track and in no time it was a narrow walking track.  Magnus and Anita turned back to find an easier route, but Dermot and I pressed on!!  Many circles later and after a thunderstorm, we finally caught up with the Germans again at a cafe we'd arranged to meet at - they got there about an hour before us.  Our track was often up under ski-lifts so lots of pushing!

Lost again and sheltering from the thunderstorm

From the cafe we travelled with Magnus and Anita, with them navigating, so it took us totally away from our gpx course.  Beautiful country to ride through.

Eventually had to find somewhere to stay for the night and ended up camping on the front lawn of some locals who were kind enough to say yes when we asked.  They even brought out home made cherry wine for us.

And the view from their place was spectacular.  Lots of fun using google translate with them.

19/6/19 Gruisla to Maribor, Slovenia

76km  Total 1277km

After a wonderful comfortable night's sleep and a big breakfast and we're off.

There was a short downhill then about 50km of flat riding - how nice - south, then west along the Austrian/Slovenian border.
We've had 6 glorious days riding through Austria.  Hot, humid, at times very hilly, but all on quiet roads or bike paths, beautiful and green and not a piece of rubbish to be found.  Some of the gardens are just so colourful and well kept.

And now we're in Slovenia.