Day 28 - Staro Selo to Idrija - Oh The Places You'll Go - 2025

May 8, 2025

Day 28 - Staro Selo to Idrija

Classic Touring - This day had it all

What a day. Slovenia continues to deliver amazing cycling. Even though we started out with a light drizzle, the biking and scenery were stunning. Although the day was relatively short and I resisted the urge to stop for pic’s a number of times, there are still a lot of pics.

It helps when the day starts with breakfast at one of the best restaurants in the world, and then a few minutes after a nice slight downhill ride into Kobarid, you leave the town, take a sharp left turn down a tree covered road and come across the Soca river surging through a narrow limestone gorge with a centuries old stone bridge to cross.

Simply stunning.

The day was a combination of road riding on minor roads with essentially no traffic, or dedicated bike paths beside larger roads that did have traffic, and every inch (or cm - but that just doesn’t sound right) was absolutely beautiful . Right now in mid spring, this country is incredibly green, and given that the majority of trees appear to be deciduous, I’m sure it would be a riot of colour in the fall.

There were hills (there are very few flat spots around here) but the roads are well constructed with good grades. Our big climb of the day (550 m accent) averaged out at just over 7%. Enough to keep you working, but all rideable. I’ll note that on this climb I encountered two vehicles, one going each way, and both were on the last 400 m of the climb. K encountered no vehicles while riding. As usual she was sitting on a nicely supplied bench by the Col sign waiting for me when these two vehicles passed.

The only hiccup of the day, and it was minor and turned out to have a silver lining, was with the town itself. I picked Idrija as it looked like a good route to make it through to Postojna, our next stop, and it was an excellent route. A quick Wiki review of the town showed it had a UNESCO sightseeing (former mercury mine) and was ‘Alpine Town of the Year’ a few years ago. Also the Michelin app had a recommended restaurant at Spodnja Idrija, and this usually means that there will be a number of good places to get a bite to eat.

That little detail of ‘Spodnja’ slipped through my mind, and the ‘Alpine Town of the Year’ somehow got twisted in my brain that this was a quaint little ski resort.

Well, the reality is that this is a nice town, but a former mining town, and Spodnja Idrija is about 6 km’s away from where we are staying. We rode through to get ‘Our Idrija’ and it was nice with several good looking restaurants and hotels.

Our Idrija however was a flashback to our ‘Old Croatia’ days - absolutely no restaurants open in the town.

The silver lining. We’re staying at a quite nice and well equipped apartment (bathtub, clothes washer, dishwasher) and there was a large and very well stocked SPAR grocery store less than 100 m away. It was pretty easy to throw together a very nice dinner for ourselves and we had a ‘stay home’ night for the first time in over a month. That was really nice!

Nice rolling country with one big climb and one big decent

Heart

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Glenna Jefferiestwisted in my Brian?
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1 month ago

Kirsten KaarsooTo Glenna JefferiesThanks fixed!!😊
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1 month ago

Leaving Hisa Franko. Thanks, it was a very memorable night!

Our breakfast table waiting for us. Several quiches, cheese and meat boards soon arrived along with our coffee and tea.

Wow! The Soca river. We saw the big muddy Soca a couple of days ago just before it was going to empty into the Adriatic in Italy. Now it’s a beautiful blue alpine river carving out a narrow limestone gorge.

Looking upstream on the Soca just outside Kobarid

For the first hour we had a light drizzle but it made the countryside look so intriguing. The camera can never really capture that (or it’s probably the lack of skill with the photographer) but it really is magical.

Quaint villages and farms all along the way

And we can now see where Slavonian Oak comes from

Just amazing country. Spot the castle / fort on the hill top

A closer look with K providing the colour contrast

From Tolmin to Most na Soċi we had this dedicated bike path beside the busy main road. Fantastic!

Yes, this is a bike path, not a road for motor vehicles.

We eventually have to head into the hills on the left. Note the amazing bike path though.

Back on minor roads, essentially rural residential with NO cars that we saw.

A few km’s of gravel but is was in great shape

Beautiful. This is cycle touring at its best.

And now we climb. 8 km’s and 550 m elevation gain. No cars (no other people, just one cat) consistent grades and stunning scenery.

A single bike shot … K’s way ahead by now

Looking back on our climb (K’s shot). This is about where the two cars passed me within a few seconds of each other.

Now we start the down. Fantastic moderate grades, no need to be constantly on the brakes. We did stop after the first 100 m and put on our tights, jackets and full gloves. It was pretty cool!

Not many pics on the decent. K caught this one of me.

The tradition continues. Saw this poster outside a community centre in Idrija. Wikipedia lists Marko Hatlak (born 1980), accordionist, as one of the Notable People from Idrija. Weird Al would love this place

Our very nice and well equipped apartment.

SPAR to the rescue. We pulled together a pretty satisfying dinner. It was pretty relaxing to just hang at the apartment, with a clothes washer (second one), dishwasher (water bottles) and just not having to go anywhere!

SOTD

Yellow Brick Road by Angus & Julia Stone …. So how does a slow trippy Aussie duo song about chilling in California relate to today? Well for me, Yellow Brick Road makes me think of a path to the wonder world of Oz, and that’s what Slovenia seems like to me so far, … and just substitute Slovenia for California when Angus sings ‘Fell in love in California…’

Today's ride: 63 km (39 miles)
Total: 1,358 km (843 miles)

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Scott AndersonThat bike path looks new since we came through here back in 1998,,when we were planning to stay in Idria also until we found our hotel fully booked to a bike tour group we crossed paths with a few days earlier.

Instead, we stayed in Kendal Manor in Spodnja Istria, which I assume is the Michelin-rated place you mentioned. It's probably in the top two or three places we've ever stayed: https://www.cycleblaze.com/journals/slovenia1998/bohinj-to-spodnja-idrja/
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1 month ago

Lyle McLeodTo Scott AndersonSounds like Idrija hasn’t changed much. We did get a nice apartment through Booking but once in the town it looked like the only accommodation was Barbara’s guest house. Looked like it catered to bikers (I’m assuming the pedal kind like us). This is probably the place you were trying to stay. According to our apt host, it was also the only place available to get something to eat. Google said it was open …. But guess what, Google was wrong! Good thing the SPAR was open.
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1 month ago

Carolyn van HoeveLooks amazing. I think I'm going to copy your trip again!
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3 weeks ago

Carolyn van Hoeve... and restaurant stops!
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3 weeks ago

Lyle McLeodTo Carolyn van HoeveThanks Carolyn,
We’ve had some great meals and some ‘not so great’ ones on this trip. A little more uneven than our 2023 tour. That’s cycle touring I guess. Hisa Franko was certainly a standout though, but not something we'd do every day!
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3 weeks ago

Carolyn van HoeveWe read about Hisa Franko in Susan's journal some years back and it's definitely been on my radar to build into a trip. Your journal's are really great to read and glad you're back on the road again, especially now that TA have aborted and taking a big health break. Looking forward to following the rest of your journey!
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3 weeks ago