The Wobbling Sprocket

Brian and I recognize a good thing when we find one, especially when it involves wine…one of Maribor's major products.  So we rode our bikes up the Drava River towards Dravagrad.  The nice lady at the local bike shop told us it was a nice ride.  Not really.  We thought there was a cycle path.  What there was became unpaved and then became non-existent.  So we went to the road.  Busy and dangerous.  We abandoned the whole idea altogether and headed north towards Gaz and the Austrian border.  It was a terrific road.

We ran across a corner building with a bunch of old cars with dust on them:  an early 50's Oldsmobile hearse, a similar vintage BMW, an old humpback Volvo, something called a Wartburg (Huh?  new to me too).  They all appeared to be awaiting restoration.  It looked like they had been waiting a long time….and would probably be waiting forever.

We headed back to Maribor and spent another couple hours at the week long evening wine tasting event (the people there keep telling us we should come all week).  Lat night it was sausage and wine.  Tonight it is chocolate and wine.  Tomorrow it will cheese and wine.  I think we will miss tomorrow.  We need to get to Celje and eventually find our way back to Ljubljana.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Onward to Celje…….

Brian and I took a train from Ljubljana to Ptuj (pronounced "phoooey"), Slovenia, yesterday and then rode our bikes out to Ormoz and back.  We could have stayed in Ormoz, but there wasn't much happening there and we liked Ptuj.  Today we have moved on to Maribor, another great town right upstream on the Drava River from Ptuj.

We went to a wine tasting in Maribor tonite.  it's been raining all day and we virtually had the place to ourselves.  We learned a lot…not necessarily about wines, but about the noises that we heard all along the bike ride the prior week.

Eric though there was something wrong with his bike…and then I did.  We heard noises that roughly corresponded to our speed.  It wasn't our bikes, It was wind rattles.  They are things that look like small windmills that put out different pitched noises.  Their purpose is to scare birds away from the vineyards.  The birds have grown accustomed to them so they are no longer effective, but the tradition of wind rattles continues.  They date back to the 1500's.  The place where they had the wine tasting has a small museum devoted to them.

 

 

 

From Beli we climbed back up to the ridge of the island before descending back down to Merag where we caught another ferry.   On the way we were fortunate in that we came across 8 or 9 Griffon's vultures soaring on the cliffside.  I don't think the pictures will really do them justice.  The are majestic creatures.

We hopped the ferry over to Valbiska and and then made our way to our lunch stop in Krk on the island of Krk before heading on to Vrbnik.  No Well, we finished up in Ljubjana right on schedule.  The weather the entire trip was just about perfect.,,From Beli we climbed back up to the ridge of the island before descending back down to Merag.  On the way we were fortunate in that we came across 8 or 9 Griffon's vultures soaring on the cliffside.

I don't think the pictures will really do them justice.  The are majestic.

No one seemed to have much trouble finding our hotel (it is the only one in town).  That was the good news.  The bad news was that there was a big padlock on the door.  I called their number.  No answer.  That is not good sign.  No amount of confirmations or pieces of paper can do much good at that point.  I beat it over to the tourist office (Mare) where Helena did a great job of helping me out.  We ended up in very nice private suites by the beach and went swimming in the Adriatic followed by a nice dinner at the Gospora restaurant down the street. 

The following day we biked 14k to Silo and met our Superfast Croatian Speedboat which gave all of us a lift (all at the same time!) back to the mainland.   The remaining part of the ride to Brod Na Kupi on the border with Slovenia is the toughest.  Myself, Ann and Andymann rode the whole enchilada. 

When we arrived in Brod Na Kupi, guess what?  No room at the hotel…AGAIN!  Kind of hard to believe it could happen two days in a row, but somehow Croatia just seems to be of that nature.  6 of us ended up in a house and Ann and I had a couple rooms next door.   It was fine, but still, I and everyone else could do without the uncertainty.   Our hosts were fun….they offered homemade "raki" made from apples.  Regardless of where we stayed, there is no beating the Hotel Mance for food.  It is out of this world.

Our last day took us past the Turjak Castle where we stopped for a tour (a real dungeon! and a 400 year old tree in front!)  We then made our way down to the old Ljubjana road, which is spectacular and carries virtually no traffic.  Everyone foundour hotel…the Pri Mrak U after arriving back in LJU….eventually.

Eric and Andy and Frank are back in the US by now.  Ann left for Frankort,  Geoff and Mary (from Australia) are headed to Venice and then Verona.  Brian and I are headed towards Hungary with our bikes and panniers for some exploring.  We plan to take the train from LJU to Ptuj ("pooay") where we will start to ride to….wherever.

Best,  Bob