Days 140-143: friends in Ljubljana

As we mentioned, we were fortunate that our kiwi friends Meg and Hunter (living in London) made the effort to come and see us in Ljubljana for a long weekend. It was lovely to see some friends from home (thanks for the treat M and H) , and we also enjoyed seeing L and surrounding countryside in the autumn glory.

The first photo is on our first night in town.

If you´ve seen our previous photos of Bled back in June (see the archives) you will be able to recognise most of the next lot of photos, although these ones are full of lovely autumn hues and we had to wear warmer clothes . .

No prizes for guessing who was at the last place!!! We had a couple of wet days so went out to a big shopping mall and had an hour or so where guys and gals split up for some window shopping. This is the window the guys found!!!!

Days 137-139: Ciao Croatia, Dober Dan Slovenia

Leaving Cres we took a ferry back to the mainland, where we were greeted with a nice uphill stretch! (First picture)

We headed for Opatija, and en route passed the delightful looking village of Brseč perched on the hillside.

At our destination drank plenty of Coffee, in the 3rd picture Carl is sharing his coffee with Mono at Monoliki Cafe, and Sandy is enjoying the sun and coffee at the hilltop village of Kastav. The 5th picture is looking toward Opatija (The Adriatic Riveria) from Kastav.

The weather has cooled off now, so we have finished with camping and in Opatija we stayed at the grand old Hotel Imperial, the rooms were so large we could fit our tandem and trailer in the foyer of our room! (See next two photo).

As we headed back into Slovenia we were met by autumn colours (8th picture of Planina). On our approach to Ljubljana we enjoyed the city's well laid out bike paths and the police escort they provided us (check out the gun).

Day 136: No stress in Cres

The island of Cres is pronounced Strez and after a lot of climbing we had a nice downhill into the township of Cres - these photos were taken early evening as we enjoyed the lovely harbour.

Day 136 is 26 September and from Cres town we cycled the rest of the island of Cres to catch our final ferry back to the mainland.
We are heading now to Ljubljana for the weekend to catch up with our friends Meg and Hunter who are kiwis living at the moment in the UK.

Day 135: Getting a Kick out of Krk

After a pleasant time in Pag, we headed off to the Island of Rab, to do this we had to take a ferry back to mainland Croatia. The road took us to a rather barren (moonscape) edge of the Island as seen in the picture below. After a 15km ride alond the mainland we got yet another ferry to Rab.

We had intended to stay a night in Rab township, (the distant town in the second photo) but it turned out that the last ferry between Rab and the Island of Krk, until May 2006, was leaving at 3.00pm that day. So we took a quick ride through Rab (past some beautiful bays - 3rd photo) to get the ferry (4th picture). The 5th picture is of our approach to Krk.

Our third ferry ride for the day took us to Baska which is on the Eastern most corner of Krk (last picture).

Days: 131-134 Island hopping in Croatia

We arrived into Split at night and the next day headed north up the coast - we stopped at this neat village called Trogir.
Next day we passed lots of lovely harbour villages like this one called Primosten.
We decided to go island hopping from the mainland, so from Zadar we rode across a bridge to get to the island of Pag. The third photo is of the town of Pag as we climbed up and out.

This next photo was taken early evening at our camp site at Strasko (Novalja) and the view of the sunset is from our tent. The weather is changing now - the nights are shorter and also a little cooler. It gets dark around 7.30 now, whereas this used to be about 9.30.

We wanted to show you a typical market photo and we finally got this one!! This lady was at her stall in the morning when we went to town and still there in the evening when we went out for dinner.

Days 127-130 : Dubrovnik to Korčula

As we left Dubrovnik we rode over a cool bridge and had a great view of the cruise ships that had arrived in the main harbour.
We rode the whole 120km to Korčula in one day, and en route went through a wee village called Ston. The second photo is from one side of Ston and the third is from the other side - the wall does go around the hill.
The remaining photos are of the lovely seaside harbour town of Korčula. We stayed two nights here and had two great morning thunder storms (and rain - first rain for a month!!). It is a lovely town and is quite a hub for ferries and plenty of tourists!!!!
The last photo is our ferry that we caught to Split, back on the mainland.

Days 125-126: Cool Croatia, Delightful Dubrovnik

Our introduction to Croatia has been very fine indeed. We arrived early into Dubrovnik and took this photo as the sun was about to rise over the city.
On the ferry from Bari we were excited to meet another lovely tandem couple - a father and daughter from Slovenia. It was great to hear about their trips - they have been away every year for the last 5 years for about 3 or 4 weeks each time. The second photo is getting off the ferry at Dubrovnik.
Here is a better photo of Mitja and Veronika with their tandem. Unfortunately we couldn't do any riding together as we were staying a night in town and they were heading off.

The next photo is the morning market in Dubrovnik's Old town.

We were able to circumnavigate the walls of the old town on foot - you'll see the fine display of red roofs, most of which are new since the war.

There seem to be many cruise ships coming into D and you'll see one in the next photos - moored and then leaving . . .

The water is lovely around the city - see the people swimming off the rocks in the crystal clear water.

The next view is of the highest part of the Old Town walls. And the last is the white marble main street of the Old Town - no cars are allowed so it is fun to roam around , provided you're not there at the same time as a cruise ship has just arrived!!!!