ON MY BIKE & ON THE ROAD TO CELJE

Melissa at the hostel waves me off and I’m finally hitting the road. I’m very happy to have a graceful exit on my loaded bike and it’s an easy day, traffic wise, to get out of town.

I follow the Sava River all day. I run into a detour that takes me away from the river and goes up and up over a mountain. I decide to back track to the river, cross it at a covered bridge, and take my chance on a major road. I realize there is hardly any traffic! And then, there is no traffic... It feels eerie until I get to a place where there is major construction equipment. Detour explained! It looks like rocks have fallen onto the road and the clean up crew is busy. I have a feeling that it would not be a good idea to ask for permission to pass because if they say ‘no’ its a major uphill backtrack. I get off my bike, wait for the loader to stop for a moment and then quickly make my way through the rocks. Once I get through, I smile and wave at the open-mouthed crew and hurry on my way. I spend the night at the MCC Hostel in the charming small town of Celje. My knee is not so happy after 47 miles.

PTUJ

I want to make it a short bicycling day, so I take the train to Ptuj and bicycle from there. Ptuj is the oldest recorded city in Slovenia, and its location on the Drava River made it an important prehistoric trade route between the Baltic Sea and the Adriatic Sea. The tree is pretty old too!

MARIBOR

Maribor also sits on the Drava River in a grape growing region. It boasts the oldest grape vine in the world!

I decide to send all my camping gear back to the hostel in Ljubljana. I thought I would be camping but have realized there are hostels everywhere, and why carry any more weight than I need to. It ends up being a fortuitous decision!