Farewell Bled. Portoroz here we come.


16/7/12

The good news is that I've finally worked out how to get rid of the white background behind the type in this programme. (I think) Yay. The bad news is I can't type today because my brain and fingers aren't communicating. Why? Read on dear friend, read on...

We woke up to an picture perfect day in Bled. Sunshine, no thunder, no lightning, in fact, not a cloud in the sky apart from a few fluffy white ones. We hadn't visited Bled castle yet so the was our first stop after breakfast and checking out of the hotel.

Bled Castle is a pretty cool place. It's only small but perches on a cliff face and contains a museum which was both educational and entertaining.

Bled castle courtyard.

Just enjoying the sun at the castle.

It was time to push on. Our target today was Portoroz on the coast. We fired up the Sat Nav. It was an hour and a half on the motorway, or around four hours via the back roads. Once again we punched in "Avoid motorways". What a ride. The road planners must be motorcyclists because again the ride consisted of it was really tight winding roads up the side of mountains.A lot of it was steep with sheer drops on the sides. Did I mention there were no guard rails on a lot of the road. At one particularly interesting part Suzanne started yelling at me "Don't look down Simon. Don't look down." So of course I looked down. Now I'm sticking to the left side of the road (there's a sheer drop on the right where I'm supposed to be riding) and staying there. If a car comes the other way I'm not changing sides, it can go around me. It was scary but enjoyable at the same time.

After a couple of hours we stopped for lunch and asked waitress to show us where we were on the map we had. We were nowhere near where we thought we'd be, and VERY close to where we started. I checked the Sat Nav and we'd been mobile for nearly two hours and covered just over 80 kilometres. The average speed was 41KPH! Any slower and the bike would fall over.

Speaking of the bike, it has this electrically adjustable suspension. Bloody brilliant. I adjusted it to full hard on all settings and it was handling like a dream, even fully loaded. The only problem was it's now so high we have trouble getting on and off, and I can't pull the bike up off he side stand, Suzanne has to give me a push. We solved that problem by resetting the suspension to soft  when we stop, then back to hard once we're both on board. It works a treat.

(NOTE: I've since been told that this is not a good idea. We didn't have a problem but it places too much load on the servos and can cause them to fail. Only adjust the suspension when you are off the bike.)

After lunch we were over the mountains and hit lots of fast, smooth sweeping bends. It was heaven. I was grinning like a Cheshire cat, laughing out loud and shaking my head. Suzanne described the ride as a really enjoyable roller coaster ride. All good. After three and a bit hours my head was aching from concentrating so much, so we hit the Motorway to Portoroz. This is a nice little sea side town next to Piran.

The harbour at Piran.

We have decided to give a hostel a go tonight because hotels are just way to expensive when you just need a bed for the night, and camping isn't cheap either. You have to pay for the tent site (or pitch as they call it), then for each person, and then for the bike. Camping in Ljubljana was about twenty Euros per night. The hostel we are booked into is forty five Euros per night for a private double room and a shared bathroom. Of course it incldes breakfast and free Wi Fi. Deal! We weren't sure what to expect. We hoped the "young people" wouldn't mind us oldies crashing their turf. We had a little trouble finding the place but once we did we were pleasantly surprised. Simona. runs the whole place single handed. She does everything, seven days a week. It's spotlessly clean and very comfortable, and check out the view from our balcony...

Ladies and gentlemen, Portoroz beach.

Portoroz is only 7.5 kilometres from the Croatian border and 23 kilometres from the Italian border. The hills in the above photo are actually in Croatia. It's also about 300 kilometres from the Bosnia and Herzegovina border. That's by road, not in a straight line. We could have breakfast in Italy, morning tea in Slovenia, lunch in Croatia, and dinner in Bosnia and Herzegovina. All without breaking a sweat. Four countries in about four hours. It's doing my head in.

A nice way to finish the day.

So that was our day, or so we thought. We were sitting on the balcony enjoying a quiet gin and tonic when we heard a loud crash. Some Slovenian guys were playing football (soccer) and one of them kicked the ball into a little BBQ, and demolished it. They were cracking up trying to put it back together. They apologized to us for making a noise and then said if they are too noisy during the night to let them know and they'll quieten down. We must look so old. When they heard we were from Australia they invited us down for a drink. Then we met three girls from England.

Say hi to Jesse, with an e.

Hi Jess, without an e.

Hello Sara.

Suzanne sat down with them and that was it. There was much fun and frivolity and the gin was gone way to quickly. The boys had some home made Slovakian red wine. "It's better if you mix it with Coke" I was told. That should have been a warning. 

We might be the oldest people here but we can party with the best of them. We ended up calling it quits at about four am. I'm a wee bit "tired" today.

Serious contemplation during a game of celebrity head.

The result.

At some point during the night it was decided that the four girls were the Sex and the City girls. Can you guess who is who?

The line of the night was "It would be so cool if my parents rode a bike around Europe when they are old". Girls one - Ego nil.

Where's Rex's Buff?

Rexy's Buff made a few appearances above, but here's another one. Jess again. One of our partners in crime last night.

Do you think I'm riding in that thunderstorm? You've got to be joking.

15/7/12

No, that was me, not Suzanne. There is no way I was going out on the roads this morning with the weather the way it was. Suzanne was a bit second hand as well, so we booked another night in the hotel. I can justify it to myself because the total hotel bill for three nights will be about the same cost as the Moto GP tickets for Mugello would have been if we'd gone. It was a boring race anyway, so I'm glad we didn't go.

The plan tomorrow is to try and bolt early in the morning and try and run away from these persistent thunder storms, and the drenching rain they bring with them. Up until today the pattern has been nice weather in the morning, with a storm late in the afternoon, or at night. We were going to leave this morning, but the pattern changed and it was bucketing down rain. I just couldn't imagine riding those winding roads in the rain, so we'll try again tomorrow. Hopefully the coast will deliver better weather.

Now's a good time to post some photos that didn't fit in with anything, but are fun, or photos that I just forgot to load. Here we go.

This is half of breakfast at Hotel Miralago. There were four of these trays, the other two held mixed sliced meat and cheeses. We missed out the first two days because we slept in and headed straight to the festival. We didn't miss out again after we found out this was breakfast.

This was a cool helicopter type flying camera that was in action at the Body Painting Festival. I want one so Suzanne can fly it from the back of the bike and get some ultra cool shots.

This is Renault's electric, two seater car. Road legal over here of course. (You can register ATVs here and it's nothing to see someone tearing down the road on a 450cc quad bike). They would have to be cheap as with no windows, stereo, etc you might as well ride a scooter.

You don't have to worry about hitting kangaroos when you're out riding in Europe, but apparently their frogs are a bit of a problem.

Where's Rex's Buff?

Miranda (Think Sex and the City) Read tomorrow's blog for more...

Full day of sight seeing around Bled, Slovenia... and some new friends.

14/7/12

Oh boy my right hand is sore. Sore from being on the throttle and on the brakes nearly all day.

We left this morning and removed the top box and panniers to reduce weight, boy what a difference. After ten minutes Suzanne wanted the top box back on to support her back. Being the dutiful husband I left Suzanne at a bus stop and had a blast riding back to the hotel to refit the top box. It’s amazing the difference just a top box can make. I picked up Suzanne and we were on the road again, heading for Koca pri Savici. I really wish the BM had a little more bottom end for taking off and accelerating out of corners at low speed when it's loaded up. I guess I'm just being greedy and wanting everything. 

It appears the idea in Slovenia is if you’re building a road and you can lay down a bend, why would you build a straight one? I’m not complaining, it makes for brilliant riding.

Another road side sign. Does this mean ride race bikes on the street with only one hand?

We were happily riding down the road when we saw some cows on the side of the road. No big deal you say, but it was. They really were on the side of the road. At this point we realised that cattle fences don't exist here. Hello cows.

This one wasn't quite on the side of the road, and was in no hurry to mooooove. (Moooove, get it? Sorry.) Glad it wasn't half way round a bend.

At one point of the ride Suzanne said let’s go up there and see what’s there. So we did. More winding roads and we rode through a little village called Koprivnik  Bohinju. As we rode through there was a little bar and the locals waved to us. Thirty seconds later we stopped at an intersection and immediately decided that we needed to stop and say hello to the locals. 

This is where we met Zdenka who works the bar, and Miran who is a lumberjack and a regular customer.

Our new drinking friends.

(Rex, Gary, does Zdenka remind you of anyone?)

After chatting with Zdenka and Miran, and a few drinks (relax people, I only drink orange juice when I’m riding with a pillion) it was time to go. Oops, I didn’t have my wallet and Suzanne didn’t have any money either. No, they don't take credit cards at the bar. How embarrassing. Luckily Suzanne had her credit card. I had to ride to the next town about 15 minutes away to access a teller machine. Here was my chance to have some real fun. Off came the top box and away I went. The road was another awesome ride, winding back and forth with a 12% gradient, but this time mainly dry and free of debris.

Sat Nav screen of a small part of the route.Yahoo!

Everyone was surprised when I came back so quickly. Let’s just say I enjoyed myself.

While I was away Zdenka told Suzanne about some handicraft that her Mum makes, and so began quite a long afternoon. Zdenka called her brother to get him to send some photos via the phone. Next thing Zdenka’s mum, Marta, rolled up with some examples of her work. The language barrier prevented us working out how the work was done so, Zdenka’s cousin, Milena, arrived at the bar with a work in progress to show us how it’s done. It’s called Idrija’s Lace and is a common to the area and Zdenka's mum tied this lace in a blur of hand movement. It was truly a sight to see. We had to buy one of these as they are so intricate and beautifully made. Marta does these for love and a hobby so when we asked how much, she had no idea. After a bit of continued questioning by Suzanne we were finally offered a ridiculous price. It was a pittance so we settled on three times the asking price and everyone was happy. The haggling game is easy.

Family photo. Suzanne, Marta, Zdenka, her boss, Milena, and little ol' me.

This is how it's done.

Marta's beautiful work. There are many hours of work in even the smallest piece.

Our acquisitions. Suzanne can shop anywhere.

What started out as a quick break took up nearly all afternoon. We met some truly interesting people and had a fantastic time. When this happens we just want to stay, but there is still a lot of ground to cover in Europe and if we don't keep moving we won't get anywhere.

A couple of quotes from the day:

Zdenka when discussing the weather there: “We have winter, then we have August”.

Zdenka’s cousin “When you get married, you are seeing your funeral live".

We’d spent about four hours here and still wanted to go to Koca pri Savici, so we said our goodbyes and took off. Now Suzanne could experience the roads I ridden on to get to the cash machine. Check out the photos and the photo of the Sat Nav screen. The screen goes crazy on places like this and spins around at every turn. Poor little buggar has trouble keeping up.

Street signs.

More wiggly red lines.

Just your typical little house on the side of the road.

Oh no, not another winding road.

This is the main road through this little village. Cosy eh?

Another main street. Don't cut the corners.

Breathe in.

Lake Bohinj.

We arrived at Koca pri Savici where there is a large waterfall, but the battery on the camera went flat. Probably because Suzanne took over 300 photos from the back of the bike today. As it was late and starting to cloud over we decided to give the hike to the waterfall a miss. We also decided to take the quick way back to Bled.

There was a big running race and festival called the 10 at 10 on around the lake tonight.

Part of the large crowd.

Crazy people.

It got a little wet before the race.

At 10 pm a bunch of athletic people run the 10 kilometres around the lake. Suzanne and I were going to enter and compete, but then though that showing up the locals would be a bad idea, so we sat down instead. The what is becoming the usual happened. A bloody big thunderstorm rolled in and dumped gallons of water on the race area. Luckily for the competitors it stopped about fifteen minutes before the race. We watched the start the scampered back to the hotel and watched the lightening storm from our balcony.

It was a very full day, but a hell of a lot of fun. We met some great new people, saw some inspiring sights, rode some perfect roads, and stayed dry. Perfect.

Tomorrow we point our front wheel toward Piran.

Where’s Rex’s Buff?

Sorry guys, it's me, and my Savador Dali impersonation.

Bled - Pearl of Slovenia.

13/7/12

After a relatively dry night we set about trying to squeeze our belongings onto an overloaded bike. This ended up with us having another selection of clothes to post back to the UK for storage, and to eventually take back home with us. We are slowly reducing to load, mind you we also added two new shirts.

Speaking of clothes, I think I have moths in my panniers. I have found a hole in my pants, one T shirt, my merino gloves, my merino top. Might need to get some moth balls. Which reminds me...What have you got if you have a moth ball in your left hand, and a moth ball in your right hand? A bloody big moth.

We eventually left the camp site just after twelve. I do stress out when it's time to pack everything up. We still don't have a plan where to store everything. It's getting better, but it's still not right. I dread it when Suzanne says "Where's the...?" We spent a few hours finding a post office, having lunch (breakfast) and then visiting Marijan at A-Cosmos BMW to pick up the correct tank bag for our bike. We all now know that he R1200GS tank bag will not fit an R1200GS Adventure. So with our new tank bag fitted we were off to Bled. We didn’t know Bled was so close to the Austrian border so we back tracked a fair way. It wasn’t a problem though because we chose “Avoid Motorways” on the Sat Nav again and had a brilliant two hour ride to Bled.

When we arrived at Bled we rode down the main street to the lake and went wow when we saw the little Church of Assumption on the island in the middle of Lake Bled, then wow when we saw another building on the side of the lake (we still have to find out what that one is), and then a big wow when we saw Bled Castle. Apparently the lake is a constant 25 degrees, warmed by underground springs. Last winter it had an 18 cm thick layer of ice on it so everyone was skating. The best of both worlds.

The Church of Assumption on an island in the center of Bled Lake, as seen from the balcony of our hotel.

A quick ride around the lake and we found the camp site. To be honest I was totally shagged and was having trouble handling the bike at slow speeds with all the weight on board. I really needed comfy bed and a good night's sleep tonight. When I planned this trip I thought camping would be great fun, but you know what? I’m not twenty years old anymore, and it’s bloody hard on my poor old worn out body. So we decided a night in a hotel was in order. Yes, I’m a pussy.

The hotels around here are pretty impressive and we thought they would be well out of our price range. I stopped the bike outside Hotel Triglav and Suzanne went in to try and strike a deal. The desk clerk, Jure, was another shining example of the hospitality industry over here. Bloody fantastic. He gave us a lake view room at the price of a cheap room because all the cheap rooms were booked. He then managed to upsell us into staying for two nights. Oh yes, this of course included free Wi Fi and breakfast.

Our accommodation for the night.

This hotel had stood empty for twenty years. From what I can gather it was due to a legal dispute. Once all that was sorted the new owner renovated the whole place and it reopened three years ago. The indoor pool and saunas were a hit with Suzanne. I went downstairs later and Juri informed me that he had checked and there was enough room in the garage to park my bike, secure and out of the weather. This may not sound like a lot but it means we can leave everything on the bike and just take one bag with our clothes and toiletries inside. Ripper. We love you Juri. Juri then proceeded to fill us in on all the local sights, how to get there, the good bike roads to get there, and gave us a map with instructions. If Juri doesn't own his own hotel in the future I will be amazed.

We had dinner in the restaurant and went with the five course chef’s special. Another beautiful meal with Slovakian wine that was exceptional. The sommelier’s recommendations were spot on. When he heard we were from Australia he started telling us how good Margaret River wines were. To be honest, I think Slovakian wine is pretty damn good too.

Tomorrow we explore the area.

   Where’s Rex’s Buff?

The lovely Holly showing Rexy's Buff some leg.

More rain, more mountains, more winding roads.

12/7/12

Last night we endured what was probably the biggest thunderstorm I’ve ever encountered. Rain and hail pelted down for hours and hours. The lightning was just one flash after another with the gaps between flashes being less than a second. It was almost like a strobe light. The thunder was incredibly loud and rolling across from our left to right and each clap lasted ages. The second a thunder clap ended another started straight away. I thought our poor little tent was going to give in under the onslaught of the hail, but it stood up to it all. We got a very small amount of water in the tent but all in all it did a great job of looking after us. It’s an MSR Mutha Hubba and the only thing I’ve found fault with is that he bright yellow fly makes it very bright inside early in the morning. Otherwise, brilliant. Suzanne was so impressed that she wants to write MSR a letter and tell them how good the tent is. We have now added our first advertising sticker to the bike - an MSR one that was in the bag with the pegs. We're happy to display it.

OK, it's really the second ad sticker. We have had a Concept Music sticker on the bike since day one but it's not really an ad as much as a thank you to Graham at Concept, and spreading the word about a great shop in Perth. No, he's not sponsoring us, he's just a genuinely good bloke and will look after you if you ever need a musical instrument. 

I’ve just taken a walk around the camp site. There is water lying everywhere and people are drying out gear all over the place. The front office was flooded overnight, and a lot of people slept in their cars. I think we came out of it very well.

Breakfast was taken care of and we hit the road at our normal middayish time.

We punched Postojna Cave into the Sat Nav and pushed the “Avoid Motorways” tab. This tab is probably the best bit of equipment we have with us. The plotted course was an hour and a half, as opposed to forty minutes on the motorway, but it was worth every extra minute. We rode along roads that wound through farms and little villages and the whole thing was just what we imagined Slovenia to be like. Once you’re out of the city it is stunning. We even saw our first stork perched on a chimney.

Our first stork, no baby though Maybe he just dropped it off.

On one particular stretch of road I had to stop and get Suzanne to take a couple of photos as I rode past. Just look at these roads. We left the panniers and a lot of gear back at camp and I reckon that combined with Suzanne being off the bike it dropped about 150 Kg. Boy was it noticeable. The bike pulled a hell of a lot harder out of corners, and on roads like this that means fun, fun, fun. I have to get out for a few rides by myself I think.

One out of ten for style, but ten out of ten for fun.

Back into the forests.

I haven’t worked out exactly what these signs mean...

...but I think it means don't ride like a dic*****

We arrived at the Postonja Caves and bought our tickets for the train ride through the cave system. Yes, train ride. Off we go for about a kilometre into the cave, then it's off for about a one and a half kilometre walk through this extraordinary cave system. No photos are allowed (but as usual that didn't stop the dic****** taking photos, flash and all. I did my best to get in their photos and ruin them. Terrorist photo bombing.

You can read about the cave at:

 http://www.slovenia.info/?naravne_znamenitosti_jame=450

How good is it travelling? While we were queuing for the train we met a couple from the Czech Republic. Ota and Lida. When they heard what we were doing they asked if we were going to visit the Czech republic. When we said yes Ota immediately invited us to stay with them for a few days while we are there. We were separated during the tour and we got the train after them on the way out, but Ota was waiting for us with a piece of paper with all their contact details. Great people, and we'll take them up on their offer.

After the cave experience it was onto the cave animal display which features some “Human Fish” which are much like Salamanders. This was followed by a butterfly collection containing 7,000 butterflies. I think Suzanne took a photo of every single one. Watch out kids, every face painting from here on will be a butterfly. Here are a couple of her favourites.

And so on, and on, and on...

It was a day with a difference today, and very enjoyable, but tiring. We decided that the quick way home down the motorway was our best option. Yes, we woosed out and took the easy way home. Hope there’s not another storm tonight.

Where’s Rex’s Buff?

She was a cheeky girl, with a Buff.