A Bicycle Tour of Slovenia | EPISODE 8: ON TO THE ADRIATIC

Leaving Divača, we encounter abundant scenery, sunshine, and unfortunately, wind. Thankfully the wind is at our backs, and we sail to the edge of the Karst Plateau, where we finally take in the sight of the Adriatic. A very long descent is only marred by the extreme cross wind as we switch directions. We cross into Italy, and reach sea level as we enter the charming town of Muggia, where we check into our hotel. The ferry into Trieste is closed due to high winds, and a crowded bus takes us into the Italian city, where we do a bit of sight seeing, and eventually we surrender to the Bora winds, and make our way back to Muggia for a dinner and a quiet evening, protected by the incessant gales. Tomorrow its back to Clovenia, where we reach our final destination on this tour.

Music:

Meghmalai – Maree Docia
Epidemic Sound

When Sun Meets Moon – Gavin Luke
Epidemic Sound

Sultry Sun – Zealot
Epidemic Sound

Historic Italy – Cercles Nouvelles
Epidemic Sound

We are on the road on a sunny beautiful slightly Breezy morning we’re heading for the coast everything is coming up roses Baby [Applause] Just waiting on the girls to come out we’re all loaded probably earliest start we’ve had Hotel malc I’ll have to check the name of the town duva Dua I think that’s it uh anyway fabulous night of sleep feel really good supposed to be clear skies we’re heading down to the

Coast we’re going to try to get to our next hotel in time to catch a ferry over to triest which I would love to sea going to be a beautiful day another beautiful day in a long string of beautiful days it’s met a German couple they’re from the south of Germany and

They Bike Tour all over the place and just a Real Testament just such really genuinely warm and wonderful people amazes me how many here in Europe who do this kind of bike touring they’re older they don’t say quit they just keep going they can’t get enough of this kind of

Stuff which is how I feel about it too it’s inspiring it’s really inspiring we start the day with the traditional climb out of town wakeup climb all right off the highway onto a slightly less busy road appreciate that beautiful C we’d considered visiting shokan cave this morning but we were tempted by the sunny Adriatic more than any dark Underground round Wonder decided to skip the caves since it’s all guided tours and we don’t want to spend 2 or 3 hours it did feel a bit wrong to visit

Slovenia and to skip all the cave tours perhaps it would have been more appealing if the temps were high in the weather dry but on a morning like this with the light filtering through the trees we were soaking up all the sunshine that we could well we got some breezes but they seem

So far to be blowing in our Direction very nice fact that I appreciate very much the Tailwind pushed us along towards our goal today we would leave Slovenia for a short sent and enter into a small sliver of Italy and the fishing Village of muja just across the triest

Gulf from the city of the same name we were drawn not only by the imagined sunnier climate which we were eager for but also by new Landscapes and so we breezed along at a Brisk clip through Villages and Vineyards basking in the increasingly Mediterranean Vibe it’s a good morning to y’all good

Morning good morning loving this Tailwind yes I mean it is just pushing us straight up the hills we’re just cruising yeah so nice to be riding in the sun huh yeah and it’s nice and chis falling and we were we were riding on a flat stretch with a Tailwind in the

Shade it was like yeah doesn’t get literally everything everything’s coming up roses just love the trees here just love the trees here as anyone who has ridden that long and Winding Road knows a Tailwind doesn’t stay at your back for long and this was a serious one very

Intense and sudden Hill too all out of gear where going dad go down here and then cross the road okay you need Water it looks like we’ve hit the last of our uphills we are at about 1500 ft above sea level and now all we got to do is drop down to the coast with a strong Tailwind well mostly a Tailwind I hope it’s gradual I’d like a nice gradual

Hill I’d like to kind of get the most out of this but it was not to be once we reached the edge of this Plateau we could see that this would be no gentle descent we pointed our bikes downward and off we went through the Construction So we’re going to have to follow this I don’t know kind of a highway I guess it’s not really a highway sketchy all the same very stiff PES some cross breezes that kind of knock you over ready yeah I’m ready Born Ready a better view do you want to St up there

There’s a picnic table up ahead let’s try that eventually the road took us down to a busier Highway which placed Us in the sights of a Fierce crosswind and although the traffic was light the shoulders were spotty and sometimes non-existent and the breaking and the bracing Against the Wind definitely put

An ache in our forearms but the Views [Applause] [Applause] We continued on through an industrial landscape and finally under the highway bridge that lorded over the valley and then suddenly we were back in the woods and Villages and everything seemed quaint once again you think we’re in Italy not yet not yet looks like it’s getting HED

Do and then as if the Orchards and Vineyards weren’t enough to inform us we passed a sign that let us know that we were finally in Italy looking for a tasting of some sort yeah we just saw some olive oil car there oh yeah yeah we’d like to see an olive oil

Press and try olive oil I think we’ll probably have another office Comm yeah I think I think uh we should Continue our descent didn’t stop until we reached the o ocean in the outskirts of moja now we’re at sea level I mean this isn’t like directly on route but it says no bikes allowed on that road so oh okay I think this is good okay go Ahead following a series of bike paths we found ourselves in the town itself a Charming seaside village of some 13,000 Souls muja is the only Italian port on the estrian peninsula it dates back to the 8th Century BC as a prehistoric fortified Village and has survived under the Romans the ostrogoth Lombards

Byzantines venetians and austrians before becoming Italian its architecture owes more to Venice however than any other influence we checked into our hotel and then headed out to the Town Square for a cappuccino And then we went looking for the ferry to take us across the gulf to triesta sadly these winds that beveled our ride to the coast were too brutal for the fairies to run so we found a bus that took us through the chaos and Into the Heart of the City windy day and

Triest triesta lies on a sliver of Italy between the Adriatic and Slovenia and historically belongs more to Austria than Italy for over 500 years it was part of the hapsburg Empire it was the fourth largest city in the austr Hungarian Empire behind Vienna Budapest and Prague here’s some old stuff not

Sure what it is or when it’s from definitely old stuff at some point Bailey took off and did her own exploring discovering a 2,000 y- old Roman Amphitheater yeah that’s fine Kelsey and I discovered an outdoor bar somewhat out of the wind with a talent for April spritzes and we

Spent our afternoon watching the lovely Italian people go by and rediscovering those old Italian water closets really two Petri yeah Italy I only been to Canada United States Mexico Argentina and England and then we wandered this way and that enjoying the Setting Sun on the buildings of the Piaza Unita ditalia the

Main square of the city it’s said to be Europe’s largest Seaside square and enjoys a beautiful view of the Adriatic and lovely architecture reminiscent of Austria as much as Italy while triesta enjoys a very mild climate the Bora is a wind that can wreak havoc on the town and environs no

Doubt this was the wind that had been frustrating us all day long eventually the incessant wind took its toll and we hopped onto our bus back to muja where we enjoyed a locally caught seafood dinner and a lovely view of the Gulf of triesta in the fading Light Very