Day 12 – The beginning of the alpine ride – Bled to Kranjska Gora

Yikes.  Note the Christ on the cross nearby. Mmmmmm

  

It was a glorious sunny day to start our ride to the alpine village of Kranjska Gora which apparently has a world renowned ski resort. 

 

It took us a little while to get going as we were not supplied with the water bottles that we thought we were getting.  Fortunately, there was a bike shop nearby and I was able to buy three water bottles.  We figured we would need them for the work we were going to be doing. 

 

We rode around half Lake Bled dodging other riders, children, adults and the odd dog.  Finally, we turned off the cycle path for our first climb.  All was going well until we missed a turn.  The problem was that the Ride with GPS map on our phones was always oriented north and it sometimes made it difficult to figure out which way we were to go especially when several roads were close together.  I missed the turn and had us heading towards Austria until I figured out we were going the wrong way.  We eventually  found the turn after backtracking about five hundred metres, had a brief very steep climb and then descended into another valley before starting a long climb.  The views were spectacular.   Bev and Graham were in the meantime learning how to manage gears and power. 

 

Our bikes were electric assist.  That meant you had to pedal to get any assistance.  They have four settings no colour (meant no assist), green, blue, purple and max assist was red.  The bikes themselves were quite heavy at around 27kgs. We soon began talking about our power levels in terms of colour.

 

By the end of the day my seat was very uncomfortable as the seat was not at the right angle.  Otherwise, they were reasonably nice bikes to ride. 

 

After the climb which took us through several small alpine villages we descended into the rather pretty Radovna valley.  The route was popular with locals with quite a few cyclists on the road.  We were about the only ones on an e-bike. 

View of a village we passed through

Alpine architecture

 

It was very green and lush in the valley. The hills surrounding the valley were forested by largely deciduous trees.  We came across the remnants of a stone building which had a memorial to a resistance family.  The Nazis had burned an extended family of about eighteen alive in the building during the second world war as vengeance for resistance activities in the area.  It was now a memorial to those people.  Their names are engraved on a large hand depicted in the photo.

Riding through the Radovna valley

Wood drying rack and animal shelter

 

The memorial

We continued along the valley floor all the while climbing.  As we went through a wooded area by the river we had been following, we came across what was an old sawmill and mill.  It operated until the late 70s but only when there was sufficient water in the river from the snow melt.  It milled various types of grain that grew in the area as well as logs from the local forests.  I suspect with climate change the amount of water became a significant issue.

The sawmill and grain mill

 

Further up the valley we came around a bend and saw a large building which as we got closer turned out to be a restaurant.  It was time for a snack, so we called in.  We also wanted a little break from riding.  We were given a menu and with the menu was a placard that said in capital letters something like: WE ARE BUSY.  IT MAY TAKE TIME TO SERVE YOU. PEOPLE MAY COME IN AFTER YOU AND GET SERVICE FIRST. DO NOT BE OFFENDED.  IF YOU DO NOT LIKE THAT LEAVE NOW.

 

The restaurant in the middle of the valley

We had already ordered when we noticed that information and ended up having people come in after us and be served.  It took a long time to get our small order that should have taken no time at all.  Despite that information the place was busy with other cyclists and trampers/hikers all having stopped for a refreshment. 

 

After a bit of nourishment, we continued along the road and had only gone a kilometre or so before we came upon a sign which indicated a  gradient ahead of 18 degrees.  We all groaned in unison turned around to drop our gears a little and increase power.  I am not sure how long the climb was, perhaps a kilometre or two but I suspect the average gradient was quite a bit lower than the 18%.  It was nice having power to help us climb.  There is no way I could have done it on a regular bike. 

 

We then had a long steep drop to the village Mojstrana.  There we joined a cycle path that is on an old railway line.  It was paved and although it climbed gently up to Kranjska Gora there was still effort required.  It was busy with lots of walkers and cyclists of all ages.  The GPS took us directly to Hotel Bergi where we were staying the night. 

 

The old railway bridge repurposed for cyclists and walkers

We needed somewhere secure to recharge our bikes’ batteries.  That presented an interesting challenge as we had to take the bikes down a set of steps into a basement area with a couple planks on which to roll the bikes down.  I took my bike down first and nearly damaged myself as the bike took off due to poor braking on my part.  Fortunately, all I managed to do to myself was a small bruise.  Having learnt from that experience we managed to get the other two bikes down relatively easily.  Then we found that one of the chargers did not have a power cord.  I had not used much power, so I charged my battery up first and later swapped the charger over to one of the other bikes.  Such are the joys of renting a bike. 

 

A quick call to the hire service and they said a power cord would be supplied the next day.  It was!  In the meantime I fixed up my bike seat to stop me slipping forward. 

 

It was wonderful day of riding in perfect weather amongst spectacular and different scenery.