Well tomorrow is a week since Marian went home, and I haven’t yet started on the rivers routes due to the heavy rains and flooding. Once I got back to Ljubljana from Munich, going through a blizzard type snow storm in the mountains south of Salzburg, got the bike put together but had a problem with the steering cap not fitting right. Went to a shop in Salzburg the guy hammered it on with a metal hammer and screwdriver, lol then said that’s the best i can do there’s a gap… so, once in Ljubljana I looked up a shop looked a little more professional and took it in for a basic check over and the steering tube cap. They said it’s fine just a rubber dust seal missing which they didn’t have but no danger maybe just some dust will get in there.
So finally Saturday I test rode around Ljubljana a bit with one loaded pannier on and the trunk rack and handlebar bag, seemed to be OK so i bought a ticket for the train to Maribor Sunday, it was about a hundred miles but had a couple big climbs in it i wasn’t confident of riding that far fully loaded so it was a nice train ride I’m glad I took it cuz it rained most of the way. Got to Maribor looked up a place to stay on booking.com one right outside of town 6 km looked good, fair price, well, lol the map didn’t show the near vertical climb of about 150 meters to get up there… now mind this is my first day riding fully loaded too with that extra 50-60 lbs thought I might have the big one lol so I stopped to cool down 3 times but finally made it up there, after 5 though the office was closed and I had no food…
I knocked on the kitchen door and the guy opened it and of course I speak only English he speaks German, some English calls his son over who speaks pretty good English he checked me in I asked for something to eat, anything…. He said maybe there was some soup, I said soup and bread would be great! He showed me where to put my bike in a storeroom, and I carried the 4 bags up the steep stairs to a very nice, very tiny room with a great view of the valley below. A few minutes later here he comes to my door with a big plate of food and bread, veggies and meats left over from the soup, they had a birthday party so his dad cooked a bunch up this was left over and it was delicious! Yup even the chicken very well done, and the sausages also well done… ok so a good shower slept great and next day would head up to Mureck where the Amazon of Europe trail starts on the Mura (or Mur) river.
More to follow catching up tomorrow, it’s bedtime and I need an early start tomorrow a long way to go on the gravel trail alongside the Mur, oh, I’m in Graz since yesterday, it’s about 40 miles north of Mureck so i hope to make it at least there tho 120 miles the last 4 days legs are a bit tired I’m not yet rounded into shape.
Next couple days I’ll work on getting some photos posted, they’re all on ICloud and this blog is on Google…
No comments:
Post a Comment