Day 32 & 33 - Ljubljana to Preddvor and Preddvor Again - Oh The Places You'll Go - 2025

May 12, 2025 to May 13, 2025

Day 32 & 33 - Ljubljana to Preddvor and Preddvor Again

Local Knowledge- and good fun

Another short but sweet cycling day and then another day off (what???) visiting with our friend Borut and his family in Preddvor.

We met Borut many years ago through our involvement in organizing World Cup Biathlon races in Canmore. He kept telling us that if we were ever in Slovenia we had to come and visit him and his family.

Always be careful of what you ask for! These two sweaty folks showed up on their doorstep on Monday.

But first, the ride. Since it was a short day, we were in no hurry to leave Ljubljana. We checked out at ten and then set off for our first destination about 200 m away. The first place we ate in Ljubljana, Shushimama, was beside a very good gelato and chocolate shop. We went there yesterday for gelato ( and got the ‘prison guys’ Serranading us on the street) and checked out their selection of chocolates. They looked great and our plan was hatched to get there just after they opened at 10 and pick up a nice ‘house gift’ for Borut and Janna (something that you can transport by bike and still have it look like the thing you bought).

As we were getting close to the shop we spotted a large group of kindergarten kids being shepherded along the street by their teachers, off on an outing somewhere in Ljubljana. Very sweet to see.

We pulled up to the shop and K went inside as I stayed with the bikes. About 10 seconds later, this cute queue of kids came around the corner and started lining up outside the gelato/chocolate shop. Well, about half of them were lining up, the rest were milling about like those single cell organisms you see in a Petrie dish when you look at them through a microscope. It was ‘ice cream day’ for the Kinder kids!. If we were 30 seconds later, we would have been hooped.

K managed to stay in front of the queue and a few minutes later we were on our way. The next stop was for another coffee in Tivoli park. This is a very large park on the west side of Ljubljana and it was a great place to relax and shake off the stress of the gelato shop (shows how fragile and sensitive we now are) before setting off for Preddvor.

I think it was getting close to noon before we really got out of Ljubljana and we were now a little pressed for time as heavy rain was predicted for the Kraljic / Preddvor area around 2 pm.

Leaving Ljubljana wasn’t quite as bucolic as our entry. We still had separate bike lanes and paths to work with, but the area was busier and had quite a bit of light industry. Soon enough though we were back into the country side in fairly flat farmland, a first for us in Slovenia.

And that rain? Well we almost outran it. Our last 4 km’s to Borut’s was through a light rain, not enough to get us wet in the short time we were in it.

Heart

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So long Ljubljana, we had a wonderful time here.

Timing is everything! K walked into this store about 10 minutes before this mob of kindergarten kids showed up.

First one’s out, and looking happy. Where’s K?

Next stop, Tivoli gardens for some caffeine

Pretty farmland with relatively quiet roads to ride

Pretty villages surround Kranj, and the ever present hills (and now mountains)

Get a move on, we can see the rain. Keep the camera stowed from here. I had to grab this pic to show the very new bike lane beside the equally new and quite quiet secondary highway. I was thinking the only thing we’d see would be a tractor, maybe two.

About 30 seconds later I just had to stop and break out the camera again!

Interesting stuff (to me) in all these small villages. We were still rain free so I thought I could get another picture in. I did and the rain started about a minute later.

We weren’t too wet by the time we got to Borut’s place, and we were warmly welcomed by him and within a few minutes, Janna and their grown kids Tina and Matevž, who all arrived back home within about five minutes after we arrived.

We had a great dinner and evening chatting and hearing about life in Slovenia, and we made plans for Borut to give us his guided tour of this beautiful area of Slovenia that both he and Janna grew up in and still live.

Janna’s a school phys ed teacher and was off to work early in the morning, so we lazed around having breakfast and coffee with Borut (who also helped us with some paperwork - actual paper - that we had to get done.) All that out of the way we set off for the ‘Borut’ tour…. And it was great. A few things general tourists will never see, like the house he grew up in and the schools he went too, and a few of the things that ALL the tourists flock to, like Bled Castle. We got to see these through his eyes and life experience though and this was so much more enriching. In addition to the sites, and probably even more interesting, were the stories from when this was all Yugoslavia, the ‘breaking up’ period’ and the emergence of Slovenia as an independent nation and their accession into the EU. So much better to get this from a personal perspective than a dry Wikipedia page (and we’d never hear the hilarious story behind the line ‘Welcome to Montenegro! Your car is already here.” in a Wiki page)

Tour over, we had another great evening with Janna and Borut and a few of their friends who popped by at various times.

It was so great to be able to have a few days with friends in their homes when on tour like this. It’s relaxing and so enriching.

Thank you Janna, Borut, Tina and Matevž.