Training Log Archive: Charlie

Travel day today. At the airport in Ljublana waiting for our flight. Walking around town was pleasant, alternately sunny, overcast, spitting. Shortly after we got back to our room it was pouring again, and did so all night. Quite a rainy summer in Europe.

Around the old town of Ljublana including a visit to the large castle on the hill, lots of pretty buildings.

Through the center of the old town and west to Tivoli Park, very nice. Uphill into the forest west of the park, where we saw a lot of forestry going on. Clean up from the massive ice storms in February. Huge damage, whole reentrants filled with broken trees. For quite a while we followed a path that had tree identification markers in Slovenian and Latin. Learned a few things, like redič hrasti is red oak. A very cool park, and interesting to see the forestry going on.

C • I bought a pair of running ... 9

Last cycling day of the trip. We had about a one hour van transfer, and the started out in cold weather, with a light mist off and on. After about an hour or so we stopped in the small town of Kostanjevika Na Krki on an island in the very swollen Sava, had some coffee. While we were there the rain picked up quite a bit. Leaving town we crossed the wooden bridge, apparently a bit slipperier, as a couple of people fell in front of me, and when I tried to avoid them, I fell hard on my right side. Damn! Apparently some extra interest value for the onlookers, because I came to rest under the bridge rail, not far from plunging in backwards. I suppose I might have been suspended from my pedals, but not really at risk of falling in. I was pretty banged up, though, bruised shoulder and hip where I hit, but not so bad I couldn't get back on the bike. Another 10 k to lunch, by which time it was pouring. Slovenian waitresses are so friendly and accommodating! A good lunch, not really able to dry out, but more comfortable, and then back in the pouring rain for the last 8 or 10 k to the hotel for the night, in the old castle of Otocec. Very elegant! Kind of sore. Will pack up the bikes tonight, maybe before dinner if we are on the ball.

C • Oof 4

Woke up in Ptuj to a steady rain. Time to test the rain gear. Turns out my Patagonia rain jacket is not that great. Front pack is pretty lame, too, despite looking pretty water resistant. Rain pants, on the other hand, worked fine, although they are too big and hard to keep up when I am not sitting on the bicycle seat. Mostly a flattish ride today. Brakes a little iffy in the rain, so I was not pushing the pace on the downhills, and we were also trying to keep the group more or less together. 20 km to the first stop at a coffee shop, where the waitress was quite overwhelmed trying to supply us with cappuccino and hot chocolate. A longish stop, because folks were pretty soaked and not eager to get back out there. Then another 20 km over one fairly good sized hill to get to the spa town of Rogaska Slatina, where we were very kindly welcomed at the Kaiser restaurant. The waiter brought us coat racks, extra table cloths and napkins to dry ourselves and our stuff, and then we had a leisurely lunch, for me mushroom soup and mushroom pasta, as I am in a big mushroom phase, but plenty of other stuff. Most of us seem to be drinking Radler at lunch, a mixture of beer and grapefruit juice. Odd, but kind of nice. Again a long stop as we were pretty soaked and it was kind of cold outside and warm inside, but got it together for the last 20 k of the day, along the Croatian border, stopping to look at a pretty abandoned looking border station, but not attempting to cross. Slovenia is in the EU and the Schengen agreement, and so crossing to other EU countries is easy, but Croatia is not, so there is a border control. Eventually to our hotel at the Amon golf resort. It would have been easy to get a tee time, but I can't imagine the balls would travel very far. Things are pretty wet.

C • Pretty close to Zagreb 4

C • Pioggia 4

From our hotel Dvorec at Jeruzalem in the wine country, on a few rolling hills down to Ormoz, near the border with Croatia, stopped for coffee, then worked our way through cornfields and residential areas, some main roads, but not many hills. Finally arrived in the old town of Ptuj, on the Drava. Very nice. Easy day in a way, but the pace of it was hard on my bruised seat area. There were several turns and the protocol is that the person nearest the front stops and is the flag for the others. This was a good setup for some interval work, flagging the turns, then zipping on ahead to catch up to be in a position to flag again.

Worst sleeping night of the trip. We were sleeping hard at 10:30, got a phone call from a friend who didn't know we were away, and that was it. I was up until 3. Being awakened when I am sleeping deeply really throws me off. My fault for leaving the phone on. I'll try to do better than that tonight.

Walking around the old town of Ptuj. Had a nice salad with grilled sliced chicken breast for lunch. Very good, and things like this are pretty cheap in Slovenia. Tab for two orders plus two glasses of Slovenian wine: 14 €. Then we did a little desultory shopping at a fairly well appointed bike store, then hiked up the hill to see the castle. Nice views of town and of the Drava and the landscape beyond.

We met for a leisurely stroll through the old town with Sasho, our guide, explaining history ancient and recent. Ptuj is the oldest Slovenian town. We saw the round tower by the river where the Turks were repelled, perhaps around 1500. Stone cannonballs still embedded in the wall. More recently, in 1991 when Slovenia broke away from Yugoslavia there was a battle at the bridge in Ormoz near where we had coffee this morning.

Eventually arrived at the excellent Gostilna Ribič next to the pedestrian bridge across the Drava. This had been promised as the best restaurant of the trip and it did not disappoint. No ordering from a menu - we were just served. Six courses, four different Slovenian wines from the local area, everything wonderful. Small portions, elegantly prepared and presented. Appetizer was two kinds of rolled up ham, one around a horseradish sauce, one around vegetables, a small dollop of liver pate, some pickled mushroom pieces, a tiny lettuce leaf. Then mushroom soup, the meatiest and most flavorful of the trip. Third was pasta, penne in a mushroom cream sauce, more mushroom than cream. Delicious. The first of two meat courses, a chicken leg poised on end in a small bed of polenta, with a few tiny pieces of prune. Then small pieces of beef, stuffed with vegetables. Finally dessert, a small scoop of passion fruit sorbet in a small mound of some powdered substance, not sure what, along with a small cup of panna cotta with a bit of kiwi sauce on top. Whew! Very fine.

Morning haze and cool at the park, a late breakfast and then a van transfer to the Jeruzalem Valley. On the may we stopped at the most amazing highway rest stop. More like a whole foods than the typical US fare. Lots of fresh vegetables, mushrooms, sliced meats, cooked fish and meats, breads, desserts, really high quality stuff. I had a cappuccino. Eventually we got to our stop at a winery above Ljutomer, where we had a country lunch on the veranda, watched them crushing grapes they had just picked. Homemade walnut, blueberry or apple schnapps to start, then sliced meats of previously unknown varieties, tomatoes, several kinds of peppers, onions, cheeses, delicious mushroom soup with local buckwheat krapi, wine, etc. Cheese and apple strudels, just out of the oven. Ate way too much to be riding, but anyway, off we went on a short day, plenty of ups and downs. Stopped also in the town of Ljutomer for coffee, etc, but I had had too much by then. Final climb up to our hotel Dvorec Jeruzalem, most elegant so far, and that is saying something. One moment of panic as Rhonda didn't see us pulling into it and went zooming by. Nobody saw her, and it was a tense 10 or 15 minutes until she showed up again.

C • Delicious entries 2

Showered up and out on the grounds for a glass of beer and sitting to enjoy the view, pretty much 360 degrees. Croatia only 5k away, Hungary a bit further, maybe 25k. Then there was a bunch of wine drinking, sampling the wares of the vineyard, including an excellent champagne that they cannot call champagne. Slovenian wines are quite good, or so say those in the party with more of an affinity for wine than I have.

Then quite an elegant dinner: an amuse bouche with some rolled up sliced meat around horseradish, pumpkin seeds, various pureed vegetables, and then a heary salad with the usual lettuce and tomato, but also green beans, corn, vegetables. Main course was both roast pork filet with prunes and pureed carrots and a fried chicken breast in sesame seeds with sauteed vegetables.

During the dinner a little conflagration, as a paper napkin came into contact with a candle. A little excitement, but no harm done. Then two kinds of streudel for dessert. Excellent.

Best sleeping night so far. Now I am sitting at Hotel Kanu on the bank of the Sava on a gloomy morning, waiting for a cup of java, contemplating whether I should have brought a balaclava.

C • java 7

The fog lifted by the time we left at 8. It turned out to be sunny and warm, at least for a few hours. About 15 or so km of easy riding into the small city of Kamnik, where we stopped for cappuccino. Then a few turns to get out of town and started the long climb, gentler grade than the last two days, lots of long switchbacks, following up a valley. After 10 or so km of that, a sharp left turn and a much steeper grade for a km to a church and then three or four km of gently rolling mostly up to the spot for lunch, where Sasho, the guide had provided a picnic, with tasty olive rolls, ham, chicken, cheese, peppers, slaw, tomatoes. Got a beer in the tavern. Cold up there on top, and colder still on the sharp 14% descent on the far side. Regrouped at the bottom, then gently down along a valley, along a stream to a crossover, where we picked up the Savinja and another valley, this time heading up. Spectacularly rocky high cliffs along the stream and the road, at least for a while, until we arrived at a small town. Then 5 km or so gradually up until we arrived at the beautiful park of Logarska Dolina, near the Austrian border. Wow! How beautiful, and then down a bit to our very wonderful hotel, Hotel Plesnik, right in the park. This was probably the best riding day, but very tiring for me and I took a nap immediately. Got up 5-ish and went for a slow one hour walk with Rhonda to see a waterfall, on roads and trails in the park.