What do I mean by steep? Sections that are 15% and up would qualify. These don’t have to be too long to be challenging.

Here is Divaca to Motovun. Towards the end we turn off the main road and there is an optional “high road” (where the arrow is below). It’s pretty steep. Janice said a few sections were at least 18%. If you don’t have some gears, it can be tough to get up.

In the case Motovun to Rabac, there is an immediate descent from town but that is followed by a climb. There are several points where you think you are at the top only to go around a bend and find yet more climbing. This happens more than once and that can be tough on the head.

This is the last big climbing day to Brod na Kupi. All the other big climbs can be avoided by cycling another route. For this one, the only way to avoid it is with a van ride (which is perfectly fine!). The chart is a little deceptive as the scale is much different. This is the hardest climb.

Perhaps some of the participants will comment. In a way, I’m a lousy judge since I like challenging rides.

….cooling my jets in the LJU airport. There is free wireless internet here!!! Leave it to the Slovenians to do a step better than almost ALL other airports in the world! Smart!

I think I’m looking forward to the next tour in Croatia already. It would also be a good place for a longer “tour of the Adriatic”. I might work on that.

There was yet another Rick Steves tour group starting out in LJU when we got back. Everyone is from the US…..about 15 people. I don’t think there were too many cycling prospects among them. They do a 14 day tour.

When we got to Novo Mesto yesterday there was a festival going on…a week long affair to celebrate their wines. Lots of accordian playing and food and wine and beer. Anyway a local cyclist, Igor, introduced himself and bought a bottle of wine for us to sample. He lived about 20k from Novo Mesto.

We told Igor what we were doing and I gave him my card. He looks at it and says, “oh yeah, I know Far and Away Cycling”. Huh? You have to be kidding!!! Turns out he has been interested in touring Laos solo and found the website and knew about Far and Away Cycling that way. I was a little dumbfounded by the whole thing.

Gotta go…my flight is boarding…looks like it is empty!

Bob

Tomorrow I catch a flight back to the US . Janice, Bob, Barb and Allen are cycling to Lake Bled.

It was fun

This is it, the last 87k.

It is Bob Bloomfield’s birthday, so we are going to have to do something special tonite.

Right now, I am sitting on the steps of a Church about 28k from LJU starting to wonder what has happened to Barb, Bob and Janice. Allan and Carl are long gone. They could be in LJU by now. Most likely they stopped for lunch. I will wait here a while longer to see if they show and then head on in to LJU.

The start of the ride was great. Very little traffic. The last 25 miles into LJU has a lot more. Still, there are a lot of cyclists out on this road, so we are by no means alone.

Everyone has an extra day tomorrow. I think most people will go for a ride. Barb intends to attempt to locate a 70 year old relative who speaks no english. She has an address and that is about it.

We got kind of a late start so it was well that we only had 14k to go to Silo to meet the Superfast Croatian Speedboat. It actually is a true hydroplane. It has a couple wings in front that lift the boat out of the water. Here it is:

It’s actually Superfast as well. And since it is clearly Croatian, it lives up to it’s advertising. The boat showed up at 10am right on time and it only took one trip to get everyone and their bikes to Crikvenica.

Crikvenica was pretty confusing with a lot of one way roads, but everyone eventually got their bearings and made it on to the right road. There is a super hard climb on this leg of the tour and not a heck of a lot open along the way. We eventually made it to Fuzine, which is a lovely little town and found a deli that made some gigantic sandwiches for all of 10 kuna (about $2.50USD. The ride to Brod na Kupi is relatively easy from Fuzine. At the end there is a pretty big descent. Hotel Mance, where we had reservations, is rright opposite the border crossing.

There was some excitement for me though. I told Mr. Mance that I had reservations and he looked at me funny. That is always a bad sign. In the case of Brod na Kupi, which looks to have a permanent population of maybe 30 or 40 people, it is a very bad sign. Mr, Mance could not find us in his little reservation book. I showed him the emails I brought with indicating a confirmation from his son who wasn’t there.

It eventually worked out fine. Mr Mance took to the phone and got us a 4 bedroom, 4 bath chalet affair that was 1.5k away in a very nice setting. We still ate at the hotel where the food was excellent. Here is the place we stayed:

Here is the lady that owned it. She had no car. Mrs. Mance and I drove to her house to get her and then I gave her a lift back hoome. She showed up early the next morning on her bike….which I can tell you was a tank…she assured me it was “dobro, dobro!”- “goo, good!”.

Very seldom do we ever have a problem with reservations. Mistakes can happen though and it is important to bring evidence that you have a reservation which, at a minimum, secures the help of the hotel in finding an acceptable resolution/alternative.

Today was a free morning to do pretty much as you pleased. Carl and I rode our bikes South on Cres. Carl headed back about 10 to catch the 1230 ferry. I continued on to Martinsicu on the coast to check out a hotel I was interested in. Martinscicu was sleeply to say the least maybe a little too sleepy. It would not be easy to get to either. I made it back to get the van and arrive at the 1230 ferry. However the ferry was full of cars so I watched everyone but Allan sail away. Allen had caught the 1000 am ferry so he could explore more of the island of Krk.

They ran an extra ferry at 1pm so it was no big deal to miss the 12:30. Everyone straggled in to the Hotel Argentum in the late afternoon. Most had stopped in the town of Krk for lunch. The Argentum is nice and the people here are great. Mira runs the place. It’s a picturesque town with tiny tiny paths meandering through. In some you can stretch out your arms and touch the walls on either side.

From Vrbnik the mainland beckons. You can see the big mountains across the water very clearly. Here is the view from my balcony at the Argentum in Vrbnik:

Croatia is anything but flat. We will ride the 14k to the town of Silo on the coast and then catch a “Superfast Croatian Speedboat” that will take people and bikes to the mainland. The van will be driven farther up the coast where there is a bridge. The boat takes us to Crikvenicia where I noticed there is some kind of “Gran Fondo” bike festival going on. Hopefully we can check that out.

It’s now about 7am. A funny thing about Vrbnik is that there seem to be wi-fi signals all over town and they appear to be unlocked…my computer picks them up fine, but I can’t actually get into the internet. It seems odd. Mira has no idea about it.

Anyway, I’m looking forward to seeing the Superfast Croatian Speedboat again. I hope it is still Superfast as it may have to make a couple trips to get everyone and the bikes to Crikvenica. I talked to the owner/driver on the phone last nite. It made it sound like it would be no big deal.

I am on the second floor.  The hotel is four of five stories with an elevator.  I would guess their are several hundred rooms in the complex.

Hotel Kimen is by far the biggest place we stay. In Cres it is the only hotel. The section we are in has just been renovated. There are still a few kinks to work out. The A/C doesn’t work as well as it should and the rooms are a little tight but the grounds of the hotel are very nice and everything is new. It’s an easy walk to the water and town a little further down.

The food has been very good all the way around. We have the half board arrangement at several hotels. I was a little leery of doing this initially, but the food has been really good.

Then it was on to the ferry, which had plenty of room for everyone interested in a lift to the island. It’s about a 1/2 hour trip. The water was calm and blue.

After the boat landed we had a bite to eat and then climbed up to the ridge of the island and on to the town of Cres (same name as the island). It feels very Italian. It is very Italian. Most people are speaking Italian.

Here are Barb and Janice enjoying a relaxing moment in Cres.

Tomorrow is a free morning to pretty much do whatever, sleep in, go for a bike ride down the island or head to the beach. There isn’t much traffic on the island and there are roads that cut down from the main one along the spine of the island like fishbones to the shore. There is plenty to explore. There are also a couple sanctuaries for Griffon’s vultures which are endangered. They are large birds that can weight up to 30 lbs and have a wingspan of up to 3 meters. They also are fast, being able to dive at 70 miles per hour.

From Motovun we took the back road towards Pazin. I left the van in Motovun and rode with everyone for the first 2o some k of the ride. I must have forgotten how hard this section is. The year before we did this with panniers. I don’t know how we did it. There was a little bit of whining, but not a lot.

Here is a pic of Bob and Barb. That is Motovun in the background. This is before any serious climbing began. Bob and Barb were just featured in the Health section of the Washington Post that deals with the benefits of climbing on a bike.

Here is the Post Article 

Once in Pazin we toured the Castle which is interesting for its torture devices. Pazin is also known for its spectacular gorge which is said to have inspired Jules Verne.

We then made for the coast and Labin which overlooks the coast. We took a break to climb the somewhat scary bell tower before heading down to Rabac.

It wasn’t really a long day, but the climb out of Motovun is a really good one which takes a little time.

Here is the Bell Tower in Labin.

Motovun lived up to all memories. Spectacular view. Mountain top village. Cobblestone plaza. There is really nothing not to like about the birth place of Mario Andretti.

Plus, it's not often where we walk into a place and the proprietor insists that we ALL have a glass of wine or a beer on the house. the owner of Panzione Antico, Tomislava, did just that. Plus more free drinks after dinner.

Everyone took the high road to get there. It's anything but easy. Some of the grades are are at 18%. That just made the welcome all the more welcome. It's only 6ok from Divaca, but it's a 60k that most people feel pretty good about having accomplished. For anyone reading this, there is also a low road that is just as scenic and there is nothing wrong with that option.

In the morning we had a chance to walk around the walled village. As per usual the valleys below were filled with fog while the sun shone on us.

The more time I spend in Croatia, the more I like it.

LJU

If you ever want a different kind of stay in LJU, you can opt for the Celica Hostal. It’s an old prison that has been converted into a hostal. I’ve not stayed there yet, but it looks pretty cool:

Celica

Everyone is here. Carl showed up. He took a cab from Zagreb…90k away. He thought he could take a train, but it was Sunday and they all weren’t running.

It’s 6:30am so not much happening yet. We take a 9:30am train to Divaca and then hit the road on our bikes for Motovun in Croatia. The most immediate goal is to beat the Rick Steves tour group down to breakfast. Something tells me that won’t be too hard.