A Bicycle Tour of Slovenia | EPISODE 5: POSTOJNA

Leaving Vrhnika, we encounter a steep climb out of town, and the din of a loud highway, but soon we’re riding through what our tour operator claims is the “real Slovenia”, beautiful countryside, but perhaps fewer tourist attractions. We have one of our best days of cycling as the day is a continuous stream of rollers on lightly travelled roads. The sky continues with its dramatic showing, and by the end of the day we end up in a bit of a deluge, before we decide to head to our hotel early to warm up and dry off. Dinner that night was exquisite.

Music:

Meghmalai – Maree Docia
Epidemic Sound

Bumblebee – Mike Franklyn
Epidemic Sound

Come Daylight – Victor Lundberg
Epidemic Sound

Heaven Was Mine After All – Zorro
Epidemic Sound

Extra Careful – Spectacles Wallet and Watch
Epidemic Sound

Yeah so the rain’s pretty solid and I don’t think we’re going to make it all the way I think we’re probably just going to head into town go get Dry [Applause] Our morning out of vernica began with a light Breeze a changeable sky and a good stiff climb good morning chance to catch my breath here got a couple of seconds here to speak 3 minutes into the ride it’s the lowest gear and probably 8% or so Boy Tough looks like it’s pretty changeable weather today they were saying solid rain again seems like it’s breaking up we’ll see how much we get but we got a good stiff climb for the first I don’t know 5 miles maybe so going up back into the mountains good morning Bailey morning d

How’s your morning going so far good I finally remembered to put my little uh rear view mirror on my glasses excellent I really missed mine we’re in for a climb yeah you don’t think that was it huh this more to come more to come good morning kelse good morning how was your

Night’s sleep it was good excellent it fle well yeah me too actually yeah not enough but I did sleep well we were following a busy highway which it became apparent we’d have to cross doesn’t sound like we can just wait for a break in traffic and dart across hey underpass

Hey check that out go ahead B if there wasn’t an underpass I’d need new [Applause] Underpants meanwhile all those cars up on top are missing all this beautiful climb shame for Them getting my wind kind of brutal but I’m glad I’m not them on the highway which is so much nicer even when it’s just taxing your body and you’re struggling to keep like 4 M an hour going no placee I’d rather be it’s may be tough but at least we’re not riding on

The interstate or Autobon or whatever they call it here our first Hill has been a accomplished we’re now on the downward slope I assume got a nice steady downhill it’s a nice little gravel track that’s kind of running through the forest very green here very thick coniferous real pretty and yeah I think

We did a pretty good job on that hill before too terribly long we left the den of the traffic and the grind of the hills behind and the road led us through Lush Forest get the feeling this might be a long train or a slow one or something do you

Want to just go I’m inclined to just go I heard it just now yeah it’s way down there see yeah okay I live Breakers at some point Kelsey and I discussed how prevalent cycling seems to be in the European culture lots of historic prints of bicycles cuz it was already part of the

Culture it was part of the culture and it was probably invented here right I would think during the Industrial Revolution I don’t know I’d assumed that the bicycle was invented in America but I was wrong in 1817 a German inventor named Carl vandre came up with the idea of a swift

Walker a device without pedals that you had to walk and roll the velocipede appeared in the mid 1800s with pedals but it was a wooden Affair that was painful to ride have you ever seen the movie The Bicycle Thief no it’s considered like one of the top important movies huh it’s

Italian and it’s right after the war and it’s about this guy who gets his bike stolen and his search for the bike oh that’s cool if you ever watched Aziz anari’s master of none second season yeah I think that’s you know maybe because all those bridges got destroyed maybe that was the only

Convenient way to get around you know and things are much closer so it’s viable you know like if you were in the middle of Nebraska in America you couldn’t bike to the nearest not at all so it’s probably just an acceptable part of the culture here

Because it has been for so much longer like since the Advent you know and because everything is closer and because here you can go from town to town to town um it makes the bike touring a lot better the Short History lesson might not do much to elevate our opinion of

Our rental bikes but in the end they performed admirably in fact today’s ride was beautiful for riding through Village after village with lots of ups and downs and sweeping views of gentle Slovenian Countryside and although we were on roads with rarely a shoulder traffic was minimal and drivers respectful such lovely Forest through

Here yeah smells good it’s good to Breathe it’s a delightful day it’s Breezy cool I would like to see and drink some water pull over breey cool just really Nice as the day progressed we kept our eyes on the skies fully expecting rain but never really getting any just lucky I guess coming into L L I think that’s how you pronounce It the weather weather continued to bounce back and forth between threatening storm clouds and gentle sunshine and although the scenery was probably not as spectacular as we’d seen on previous days the writing was nothing short of Exquisite with every Bend in the road bringing some beautiful surprise or Another holler look like water holler for water got It [Applause] A As the day bloomed into a sunny golden afternoon we decided to take a side trip to rack off skan but by the time we were less than halfway there wouldn’t you know it the skies finally opened up all right doing a uh a little side

Trip we kind of ran into into some rain I think these uh uh what do you call these kind of brakes shitty brakes yeah shitty not disc brakes the only kind to have yeah so the rain’s pretty solid and I don’t think we’re going to make it all

The way I think we’re probably just going to head into town go get dry get dry and get a drink get dry and get a drink dry referring to my clothing not what’s going into my li yeah I mean there’s ways we could spend an afternoon that don’t necessarily involve getting soaked in

The forest I can think of uh several all of which involve liquids that I want to put into my belly hot tea and also a hot shower could be nice hot shower I hope our luggage Pizza is there I know right that true yes exactly but uh staying

Warm it’s not cold actually it’s just fine I think they let up that’s my uh it’s letting up right now it’s actually kind of stopping stopping well but it’s like this is to toally right right this is fine the braks are pretty good though yeah I I I you guys we

Should continue on to the hotel cuz we got all Hills to the hotel up and then down yeah and I’m a little sketched out by the fact that I can’t stop stop yeah just take it slow I’m not used to not having disc brakes all right take it slow onto a po

Po po po maybe I’m pronouncing yeah all right here we Go so we High tailed at the poor night while we had a break in the weather lovely damp ride into the poto poina poina snack along the way mhm that’s a tight little fim isn’t It only you can let It maybe we should have done the side trip huh I don’t know man can no no I’m not I’m not going back I feel like depending like if the rain takes back up in an hour this hill would be kind of sketchy if it was really jumping just

Cuz our stopping distance is increased and our visibility is decreased m so I don’t have any regrets no regrets good call based on information that we have in the moment at 100% there is no what if there’s only what is MHM and uh you can’t use hindsight to guide your decision back

Then MH you know life is what life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans for side trop I’ve never understood that saying but yeah I’m going to nod my head m agreement cuz I know what you Needan looks like this is the top of our last Hill probably for the day It’s been a great day actually it’s been a beautiful day really nice riding lots of hills lots of UPS lots of downs just kind of rollers and some good climbs I think uh all three of us feel like we’ve put in a good day yeah we left Kelsey

She’s she couldn’t make it you know you just if you can’t keep up you just no you got to leave him behind that’s our motto is leave him behind with the leics oh wait here she come comes bad Bailey and uh kind of following the highway just the last 5

Miles probably definitely kills a little bit of the buzz but it’s all good as long as you get a safe way through our storm has a little respit and uh I think we’re going to make it without any more rain into town kind of getting in early we’ve just been

Hustling today it’s been a lot of climbing but we’ve just been kind of getting through it so and once we climbed the last Hill it was an easy but wet cruise into town where our hotel was waiting for us but sadly our luggage was not one of the drawbacks of being sagged I

Suppose but it all worked out we got our hot showers while the rain made a return visit it and we headed out for an absolutely amazing meal at a fabulous restaurant the food here in Slovenia has been amazing B PE this is an apple strudel constructed constructed apple

Strudel this is Yuzu MSE in the shape of a Yuzu fruit this is and strawberries oh Elder flour or something like that yeah mint ice cream oh my God oh my gosh what look it’s oh My oh my gosh I feel like Snow White or something wow that night it rained and it rained and it rained