Central Europe

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Prague to Czesky Krumlov (05/17/2018-05/28/1996)

Journal: From Prague to Paris, Part 1: Prague to Znojmo

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Ljubljana to Gorizia (09/05/1998 - 09/17/1998)

Journal: Ljubljana to Venice, 1998

Thumbnail sketch: This short tour is a reminder of what an exceptional experience is possible in a short period of time. The whole tour was barely three weeks long with two weeks in Slovenia followed by one in Venice. the two weeks in Slovenia really stands out, with many vivid memories that are still fresh in my mind. Like the previous two tours, it's a reminder of how you don't really need a lengthy tour to bring home a lifetime of exceptional memories.

The tour began At the Ljubljana airport, where we stayed at a nearby hotel rather than biking the 20 miles to town in an intense downpour. From Ljubljana we planned a more or less oval-shaped counterclockwise loop of the country, biking east up the Kirk River to The Croatian borer before doubling back through Ptuj and Bled and then crossing Vrsic Pass in the Dinaric alps, the high point of the country. We almost held to that plan, although we caught a train from Celje to Ljubljana to avoid another downpour and a second train through the Alps because of snow in the passes.

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Performance art, Lubljana. Look at those characters on stilts, one of whose stilts are on fire! This and another act in Celje are probabl6 the two most exceptional street art performances I remember seeing anywhere.

Olimje. We stayed here at a country hotel for two nights, and on the layover took morning hike, returned for lunch, and then took a second hike the southeast. On both hikes we were befriended by a small three legged dog who followed us the entire way, leaving only when we went inside the restaurant at the end. The second dog, still a puppy,, ran down the street and leaped at me to lick me in the face. She mean still,see his little tail spinning like a pinwheel behind him as he ran.

Ptuj. We stayed here with Rosalija at her B&B. She told us that our room had been a stable for the family cow.

From Ptuj to Celje. The street artists are using a long sheet of blue plastic as a prop emulating a river, with crew members yanking it down the street and changing the props.

The train from Bohinj to the ooooiste side of the alps; Kendal Manor, a manor we stayed at in Spordnja Idrija when our hotel in Idrija was fully booked - by a fpgroup of cycle tourists we had chatted with near Ptuj two days earlier. Staying as the only guests at Kendal Manor stands out as the most exceptional stay in our travels.

Idrija to Gorizia. The farmhouse in the upper right was also an extraordinary experience. We were biking through a soggy downpour on an unpaved road when a car stopped, and its driver urged us to follow him a half mile to his home. It's worth reading about the experience, as well as Kirsten and Lyle's experience riding past the same house 27 years later: https://www.cycleblaze.com/journals/adda2025/day-28-staro-selo-to-idrija/#59669_8czitjb8dcf0vzm0s5jjjcrsbgv.

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Krakow to Salzburg (08/17/1999-08/28/1999)

Journal: Krakow to Salzburg 1999, Part 1: Krakow to Znojmo

Thumbnail sketch: This was another short but extraordinary tour filled with some of our favorite stories. It was also one of our blown itineraries, with the initial plan to bike south through the Carpathian Mountains across Slovakia to Northeast Hungary, then through Budapest on the way to our final destination in Salzburg.

We scrapped this plan near the Slovakian border when we concluded the roads were too dangerous. Instead we caught the train back to Krakow and with the help of a man who picked us up the station ticketed ourselves to Vienna for a redesigned route.

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