Thursday, June 16, 2005

Days 33-34: Loving Slovenija, made it to Ljubljana Today

The trek through Slovenija continues! It is a lovely green country and quite hilly. Yesterday we set off from Ptuj to Läsko, which is the source of Läsko beer. We climbed a number of reasonable hills to get there - the toughest a 14% incline, and we got to descend a 16%. We eventually arrived at Celje and found a lovely quiet road following the river valley to Läsko, but unfortunately the track ran out after a few km, while we gazed around looking for our next move a guy appeared on a mountain bike going our way, he didn't speak a word of English, but we communicated to the point that he indicated that we should follow him - well we all pushed our bikes up this really really steep hill, that wound itś way up the side of the valley, so after much puffing we made it to Läsko just before a thunder storm arrived. Today was a similarly beautiful ride now following the Sava river to Ljubljana, although we started our day with a respectable climb to get us warmed up. We arrived at our camp and got set up again just before a massive thunder storm with awesome lightning - sounds great in a tent!

The first photo is a view of L from the castle up on the highest hill;
Second is of the Triple Bridge in the town square along with the tourist train that does a loop of the streets and up to the castle (yes we did ride this because Sandy was very keen!!!)
Third is the equivalent of our $2 shop in NZ.