The Wobbling Sprocket

Sept 8 Motovun to Rabac

The weather was perfect. Steve and Ray opted for the main road out of Rabac. Everyone else road out the back. You tend to forget how steep the back way really is. Most steep roads have short sections that are not quite as steep and you can recover. There really is no place to recover on this climb. It also weaves around just enough that you keep thinking that it is ending. It doesn’t though. It just keeps going. Eventually you are looking down on Motovun…that is tough to do since Motovun is perched right on top of a pretty tall mountain to begin with. Anyway, after a few false turns everyone made it.

We stopped in Pazin for lunch. The Castle museum next to the garge that inspired Jules verne was closed. That was too bad, as it known for the display of medieval torture instruments. No one seemed too disappointed. I was told that the back road climb out of Motovun was torture instrument enough.

We never caught up with Steve and Ray until Rabac. Lots of people in Rabac. I was told that it was everyone trying to take advantage of the superb weather.

Graeme discovered a cruise boat that was going to sail to  Cres. It included lunch and a stop on the beach for a couple hours. He and Steve are planning to take a day off and take the cruise boat instead of the 50k bike ride coupled with the regular ferry.

Here are Duane and Graeme checking it out with the cruise boat guy.

Croatia cycling

Croatia cycling

Sept 7

Duane’s biike never showed so he and I headed to the airport to get his bike while everyone else caught the 9:30 am train to Divaca. Thankfully, the bike showed on the flight from Frankfort and we caught up with everyone in Kozina….about 10k from Divaca. Duane’s bike was fine except for a tube that the valve stem had broken on. The Home Security people had inspected it and failed to strap it back down, but the bike generally seemed no worse for the journey. He was quickly on the road.

The border crossing was no problem. No one was questioned except for Graeme who got a lesson on the correct pronunciation of Motovun, It should be pronounced mootoovun. How would anyone know?

We had dinner on the covered Terrace overlooking the valley. The restaurant specializes in tartuffi…truffles. Graeme said he thought it was the best place we have been on all the tours. He should know since he has been on all of them….some several times. Both the food and the setting are spectacular. The wood seats are rock hard. I suppose for people who are traveling by bike, the last doesn’t matter.

We had a conversation with a bunch of partying Germans later that night…..if you can call it that. Our German and their English had us resorting to hand signals. They said they were in Motovun for a week. I love the place but can’t imagine being there for more than a day or two.

The only thing I seriously don’t like about Motovun is trying to get a van up the 15% cobble road that is about 7 feet wide. If you meet a car going the other direction, I think your life, as you know it, is over.

Here is the view in the morning. It makes all the cobble worth it.

Croatia