Bicycle touring Slovenia: Ljubljana to Bohinj via Hotavlje

When people asked about our bicycle route heading west from Ljubljana, they often corrected me when I said we were going to Bohinj and then Bled. No, no, they said, you go to Bled, then Bohinj. That’s the main route, of course, and probably a fair bit less climbing than our route. We were quite satisfied with the small roads we chose through here and really started to enjoy the touring in Slovenia. Sure, it got hillier, and at the same time the scenery got more interesting.

IMG_20220527_174736 by bryandkeith on flickr

We had only spent one night camping when we decided to spend a couple nights in an apartment in Hotavlje. It was a good call as it was raining when we left camp and ended up raining most of the day and even more the next day. Marta and Peter welcomed us at their place with coffee, apple brandy, bread, and three kinds of prosciutto, one from pig and two from cow.

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Jože Plečnik’s Ljubljana

I suppose you could visit Ljubljana without knowing the name Jože Plečnik, but come on, you’re not paying attention. Plečnik is a Slovene architect “who had a major impact on the modern architecture of Vienna, Prague and of Ljubljana” (wikipedia). However, I visited Prague and Vienna and never heard his name so maybe I wasn’t paying attention. Ljubljana’s UNESCO site is titled “The works of Jože Plečnik in Ljubljana – Human Centred Urban Design”.

Ferda and my Plečnik tour started before we even got to Ljubljana. We made a small detour to Črna vas to visit the church Plečnik designed and built there, Church of St. Michael. The inside is supposed to be quite interesting, but it was locked up.

IMG_20220523_162427 by bryandkeith on flickr

From there before we made it into the center of the city and our funky but comfortable capsule-like hotel, the Fuzzy Log, we passed one of Plečnik’s bridges, Plečnikov most.

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Bicycle touring Slovenia: Ptuj to the Krka

I wish I had written this post just after our first week in Slovenia. It’d be a bit more of “first impressions” post. As it is (spoiler), my opinion of Slovenia gets better every week (we’re into our 4th week here now).

I read over my notes so I’ll try to describe things as I felt then, as we rode from Ormož, on the Croatia border, west, south, and west through eastern Slovenia; without too much exaggeration, I hope.

The scenery was fairly flat, rolling farmland, “pretty but not incredible”.

IMG_20220518_123552 by bryandkeith on flickr
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Bicycle touring Croatia: Zagreb to Varaždin

alternatively titled: from the Sava to the Drava?

From my hotel with Jeff in Dubrovnik to a campsite near Zagreb took 14 hours — 11 hours of that were on the bus. Croatia isn’t such a small country. I went from the Balkans to Central Europe. The biggest change, however, was leaving Jeff behind in Dubrovnik. I met Ferda the next evening at the Zagreb airport. Here she is at Biciklopopravljaona in Zagreb.

Biciklopopravljaona (like Boulder's Community Cycles) by bryandkeith on flickr

Zagreb is on the large Hungarian plain which includes most (all?) of Hungary, Serbia’s Vojvodina, Romania’s Transylvania (“another country“, I said, leaving the Carpathians into Transylvania), northern Croatia, and extends into Slovenia as well. Culturally these areas are influenced by the Austro-Hungarians rather than the Ottomans. It’s obvious in the architecture.

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The end of the Balkan Odyssey — Dubrovnik!

Jeff and I spent five weeks in seven countries for our Balkans adventure. In one word: fantastic. Like I said after my first Balkans trip, I want to come back. We split up in Dubrovnik, but first we quickly crossed southern Bosnia and Hercegovina (Republika Srpska), spending one night in Trebinje.

IMG_20220506_134146 by bryandkeith on flickr

There’s a small kind of cute old town,

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