Wednesday 13 June 2012

Day 6 - Bohinj

After reviewing the information provided by Jani and my own pre-travel notes, I embarked on a tour of Bled. The lake and mountains around Bohinj is stunning.

Pausing for photo's, I then rode to the Vogel cable car station which rises to 1800m. I had a little walk at the top but the paths were not kind to my weak foot so by the time I returned to the cable car, I was limping.

The return ride to Bled was fantastic, I chose the quieter roads which led through lovely villages and pine filled forests. It was so good, that when I reached Bled, I u-turned to do it again, stopping half-way for a late lunch of pork steak and a beer.

Day 5 - Postojnska Jama

In the early 80s I had visited the Postojnska caves whilst on a coach trip to Italy. Back then, Slovenia was Yugoslavia and I was interested to see if anything had changed. So I packed the bike, bought a motorway vignette from a gas station and headed west. After being directed to a secure spot next to the car park booth, I purchased a ticket which included entry to a castle a few kms away. Almost 30 years later, the entrance to the caves, the shopping and eatery areas, were exactly as I remembered them. The caves are huge; all tourists are guided, at first by a small train deep into the cave, followed by a 1km walk, returning by train. If you can ignore the coach passengers and wanna-be photographers, the caves are quite spectacular.
I moved onto the castle, said to be one of the oldest in Slovenia. But sadly, it had been fully restored in the 90s and had lost character. But its location was great and had it been cooler, there was more to see in the area. Knowing I had a fair distance to ride to get to Bled, where I had pre-booked a recommended hostel bed, I programmed the SatNav to take me there via the non-motorway route. A few kms later, it pointed towards a thick gravel road and wasn't happy to take it. So I turned down the only piece of tarmac, only to find myself in someone's garden with the family sat outside. I removed my helmet to prove I was a dumb blonde who meant no harm - the man strolled over, looked at my written directions and said "No, you must return to the motorway". Feeling deflated, I returned to the motorway and headed north to Bled. On my arrival, the owner, Jani, greeted me enthusiastically. He had cleared a space in his garage for my bike, briefly introduced me to his biker friends at the nearby bar and provided me with a comfy bed with no one else in the room. That evening, I went for a stroll to the lakeside and munched on a pizza for dinner.

Day 4

Today was spent meandering around the town, visiting the castle and reading in the park.


It was good to have a non-riding day, the pain in my shoulder hadn't eased. I contemplated looking for somewhere to have a massage but decided that it may be incorrectly interpretated....