A brilliant day on the bike!
It was very cold when we prepared to leave Ljubljana this morning. We had our winter gear on. Here is Tony getting his bike ready in the laneway outside our hotel.
One final look at the Lubjiljana River as we cross over to the far side.
Some shots as we departed through the city, cutting through various squares to avoid traffic where possible.
A few km out of the city was this ‘bicycle tree’.
In the distance we could see the hills had some snow. I suspect some was dumped last night given how cold it was.
Beautiful Slovenia scenery.
We stopped to grab a coffee at Logatec, and as we left a cyclist joined us on the footpath. We started chatting and his name was Nexa, and he is from Serbia.
He is riding solo from his hometown in Serbia to Lisbon (Portugal). Then he might ride up to The Netherlands. Nexa has 2 1/2 months leave.
Nexa was also riding to Trieste, so two became three.
Continuing through the beautiful Slovenian countryside we later realised we took a wrong turn. However, that turned out to be a blessing in disguise (despite the climbing).
This is looking towards eastern Italy and I suspect part of the Eastern Dolomites. Look at that snow! We will be in the Dolomites in 9 days time.
Climbing! There was a bit today with numerous pinches of 15 percent, and a nasty 19 percenter! Very short, but very nasty.
As we were climbing we noted three guys in sleeping bags on the ground behind this car. It was about 11am!
More picturesque scenes.
More climbing.
Another pretty scene.
Descending with a small dusting of snow on the hill ahead. We ended up at about 860m above sea level, and the lowest snow would have been maybe 950-1000 metres above sea level.
As we started descending there was a collective “wow” as we saw the valley in front of us open up, snow capped alps in the background. The descent was nice!
We refuelled in the town of Adjovscina at the base of the descent. I can highly recommend the route we took between Logatec and Adjovscina for a challenging, wow factor ride.
We hit the road again taking a fairly direct line route to Trieste involving more climbing through lush forest and farmland.
There were numerous vineyards in the area and plenty of pretty towns.
The major afternoon climb was on gravel with only the switchback sealed. It was reasonably compacted and ok for us ( I have 32 mm width tyres, whereas Nexa was on the standard road width if 23mm, so trickier for him).
We crossed the Italian border about 10 km before our destination of Trieste. It is an open border between the two countries.
Finally our first view of Trieste looking towards where we will be riding tomorrow, the Istrian Peninsula. Nexa will be heading towards the Venetian Plains.
It was shortly after this photo that we bid farewell to head to our respective accomodations. Nexa was another highlight for us today. He is living his dream and passion, something we are both doing, so we acknowledge and applaud him for doing the same.
Many do not understand why we do, what we do….it would be the same for Nexa. But, we get it!
As per a quote on Nexa’s Facebook page, “Don’t wait for inspiration, be the inspiration”.
Ride on Nexa! Be safe, and may the winds be at your back!
We had over 350 metres to descend. This is officially my slowest descent ever.
Pictures never show what a slope really looks like. This is 24 percent and crappy cobbles! I know it only looks maybe 6-8 but the Garmin measured it at 24 percent for the great majority. There were two sections, this is the second one.
Downtown Trieste where we used our bikes like scooters predominantly on footpaths as we navigated towards our hotel.
Todays route and climbing profile. A total ride of 101 km.
We wandered around the old town after showering and clothes washing.
We had an average Italian meal at a restaurant with a somewhat incongruous name of C’est le vie…that was belting out Frank Sinatra’s New York, New York! Whatever!
An above average sunset greeted us as we returned to our hotel.
We do not usually do selfies however literally everyone else was so we thought…why not!
The sunset cast a lovely colour on this foreshore building.
What a fantastic day today. One error in navigation took us down a path not heavily trodden. We really enjoyed it, plus getting to know Nexa.
So as the sun sets on day 14 of our adventure. Ooroo.
😊💪🚴
Then at the other end of town was this junk shop where you can buy your own stork or other ‘ornaments’ for your garden. Do they leave this crap, oops….I mean do they leave this ‘stock’ out overnight? I guess they do, seriously, who would steal it?
Finally we reconnected with the Danube river. Here is one of a series of war memorials along this particular stretch.
The border between Slovakia and Hungary is in the middle of the river, so the other side is Hungary.
We were back onto the bike path when it started to rain again! We had cleaned our bikes some 50 km earlier when we stopped at a service station. However, this rain provided a further clean. We deliberately rode through larger clean puddles for a ‘rinse’.
Finally we got to cross the Danube and take some photos. We had been able to see the Basilica for some time in the hazy distance. We were pretty impressed standing on the border of two countries and gazing in wonderment.
Our accomodation is only few hundred metres from the Basilica. Our bikes are stored in the courtyard downstairs somewhat dirty but heaps better than earlier in the day.
After showering and doing our laundry we started walking.
The old castle was closed, and is located adjacent to the Basilica. This photo was taken looking in from one of the gates.
A pretty impressive entrance gate to the basilica, although I note from the Roman numerals, it is not ‘that’ old, with the 1874 date.
Through the arch is this building.
Then up to the very top of the hill is the Esztergom Basilica, otherwise known as the Cathedral of Our Lady Assumption and Saint Adalbert.
The photo below shows the (netted) dome, the Sanctuary and High Alterpiece. The High Alterpiece is the largest in the world painted on a single piece of canvas (13.5 x 6.6 metres). The work is of Michelangelo Grigoletti, based on Titian’s well known work, The Assumption, which can be seen in Venice.
The organ was first played here in 1856 in the presence of the famous Hungarian composer Ferenc Liszt. Renovation works commenced in the 1970s and are continuing.
Tony captured some great shots overlooking the Danube, Esztergom and Slovakia.
Walking back down the hill is this statue near the castle.
yakkablog 