East to the Slavs…

From Venice we trained/ferried across to Muggia and rode over to hit Slovenia’s 41 km coastline ‘Path of Friendship and Wellness’, a lovely, well set out bicycle path which takes you through abandoned rail tunnels, the backs of little gardens, along the waterfront and through various construction sites.

The Friendship and Wellness Path...

My favourite part of traveling through this area was the well meaning, but misguided tourist information brochures. Everything is in superlatives, corny and with bad English to boot. According to these brochures, Istrian Pennisula (the Pennisula which is home to Slovenia’s coastline and part of Croatia’s) cuisine, sights, beaches, cities and so on, are all amongst the very best in the world. “The tourist would be amazed at all that the stunning Istrian Pennisula has to give and offer the tourist for the very best holiday where they will eat, laugh, love, be excited and see the best beauty in the world.” As for the cuisine, I have one thing to say – enough with the salt already! I was amazed at how they consistently over salted everything I ate. I couldn’t quite figure if it was just all a bad coincidence?

Me, hot and dying.... so, so hot...

Unfortunately Slovenia took the award for worst campsite on the entire trip. For a pricey 22 Euros, we were perched on the edge of a road, with all of about a foot to fit in our guy ropes. Not to mention surrounded by loud east Europeans in close proximity. The quiet scenic swiss campgrounds were soon a distant memory. Otherwise Slovenia was lovely – well the 41 kms we saw of it.


Having little knowledge of the Balkan states, the apparent differences between Slovenia and Croatia were interesting. I picked up a book ‘After Yugoslavia’, while I was there, written by a woman who traveled through these counties when they were unified as Yugoslavia, and then again in about 2004. She had some interesting insights into the area.

Slovenia, the more prosperous of the two (as evidenced by our construction site riding) is a member of the EU. Croatia wishes they were, but given their history of harbouring war criminals, doesn’t look to change any time soon. Zoe Bran, the author, interviewed various people, from varying ethnicities, nationalities, and religions, and looked at what happened with Bosnia, and the factions involved. It’s worth the read if you’re over that way.

Croatians also seemed moodier. Smiles are rare and politeness definitely not endemic. A friend who lived there for a year described it as a type of arrogance. And it’s just hard to get past this and the fact that the place is ridiculously expensive – in the league of the more expensive western European countries. One can’t help but conclude that Croatians have a vastly over inflated idea of their country’s travel value.
I've never seen a country with so much political graffiti.... not that this is a great example

Admittedly we were in peak season on the coast, and perhaps I was a little out of sorts given the roaring heat and humidity which don’t make for great cycling, or perhaps it was the mini discos every self respecting campsite has, which go until about 4am ( I kid you not, and yes, they are loud), or the total lack of concept of quiet after 11pm. I don’t think I actually had one good sleep in Eastern Europe. And Croatia isn’t really set up for cycle touring, despite the tourist brochures boasting of the “fantastic network of cycle ways perfect for every cyclist which will delight”, which really constituted of sporadic signage taking one through rutted dirt roads, and leaving us more than once stranded at the intersection of multiple back roads, with no indication whatsoever of which way to go. Our cycle map wasn’t much help as one couldn’t really tell the difference between major roads which appeared on the map and tiny little dirt roads which didn’t.

Croatian cycle path signage...

Me on one such dirt road.... this one significantly shadier than most (as in tree cover) ... and probably lost.

The scenery wasn’t bad though – the water lovely and sparkling blue, with striking rocky beaches, although hard to see under the hoardes of naked sunbathers. It might sound appealing to some, but trust me, it’s not – I’ve seen enough naked old people to last me the rest of my lifetime. There are few attractive naturalists.


We also had some fabulously relaxing days lying on our newly acquired lilo and using our snorkel set – admittedly not great streamlined additions for our panniers, but we weren’t clocking up great distances in that heat anyway. It was so hot we rode in our togs (bathing suits for all you north Americans) all the time, so we could fall into the ocean at periods to revive. And there were some lovely little spots along the way, we particularly loved Rovinj. And I can’t stress how never before have I lusted after 1.5 litre bottles of ice cold coke like I did then. Oh nothing has ever been that good.

Rovinj... for a 180 degree view check out lancepilbrow.com

Details, details – ok so we rode from Muggia in Italy, along Slovenia’s coastline, and then around the Istrian Pennisula down to Pula, where, after recuperating for four days and puttering around, we took the ferry to Zadar (with much bitterness over the ferry company charging us the same amount to take our bikes as for us) and across to Italy.

Pula has this incredible amphitheater - up there with the top six in the world, including the Colosseum in Rome. One thing it has over the Roman one though - you can pretty much see the whole thing from the outside for free, thanks to that it is built into a hill.

The overnight ferry was quite the experience, jammed to the gills with noisy east Europeans we opted to sleep out on the deck, an option which proved trickier and trickier as the night went on with rain (ok, just find an overhanging ledge) and gale force winds (seriously – I could hardly walk and was in mortal fear of losing my sleeping bag and mat), and then finally ongoing lightening storms. Half way through the night I gave in and found a doorway inside to sleep in. Can anyone tell me what your chances are of getting hit by lightening on the deck of a boat? Bruce?

I think this was Piran... which had quite the stately town square.

Me looking rather happy - clearly not thinking about Croatian prices...

Taken one of the scariest nights of my life - tent, open area, lightening storm right above. It lasted about an hour too! Seriously it was so bad campers all around were getting in their cars. Would a thermarest insulate you from lightening?

Oh I must say that I did love one campground cover band, not that they were that great, but they were fantastically cheesy, called themselves “Masterband”, and knew “Masterband wishes you and your loved one a very special and romantic night” in seven different languages. Priceless and so very eastern european.

Switzerland, Oh Switzerland. (and a taste of Venice)

We hit Angers (pronounced - 'Anjher' - with that french twist to it) in France, which was near enough to the Atlantic for us and decided as lovely as the Loire Valley was, it was time to mix it up a little. So we headed to the rail station to find out what they had on offer that day. There was an overnight train to Geneva, so a few hours later we were on our way.


Geneva is this gracious, well heeled city situated on the edge of Lac Leman (the big lake by Geneva) that simply oozes money from every plush building and its multitudes of banks. With Porsches, Mercedes and BMW's on every corner, we felt like we fitted right in with our lycra and bicycles. In its centre is a somewhat odd water cannon which shoots water up some 100 metres. We explored for the day on their network of neat cycleways, found a camping shop to buy some gas for our cooker, got our vaccination shots for our upcoming excursion to Vietnam, and headed just out of the city to a campsite on the Lake. That night we had a bit of a lightning storm, which I assure you is more entertaining when watched from inside your tent - wondering if your Thermarest will insulate in case of a direct hit.


Admittedly I (jul) never really considered Switzerland as an ideal cycling location, for the obvious reason of it being covered by something like 90% mountainous region. As it turns out, it became our favourite cycling destination. They have a fabulous, well marked with swiss precision, series of cycling routes around the country. We took the number one from Geneva, around the Lake, coming off at the eastern shore to follow the Rhone river up to Brigg. So it was relatively flat, with a smooth altitude gain of around 100m a day.

European 'art'

The vistas each day were simply gorgeous. Once we were past Lausanne, you ride with an almost unfettered view of the lake, shadowed by mountains, towering either side of you. The cycle way takes you through vineyards and orchards and along roads with neat swiss cycle lanes. And the villages are all picture perfect, with sweet little steepled churches, tidy chalets with matching, tastefully painted shutters, manicured foliage, and everything impeccably maintained of course. The people are polite and welcoming, with a good command of English, and not a french attitude in sight.

Chateux de Chillon....quite the imposing fortress.

We had some incredible campsites in Switzerland, admittedly all at Swiss prices, but worth every little swiss franc. One was right on the edge of the Lake (we actually had to check it really was a campsite), with a 270 degree view of the lake, and mountains all around. It’s really quite hard to escape breathtaking views.

Our campsite - riiight on the edge, perfect.

And now, the view...

Once we left the lake we followed the Rhone up the valley. Here believe it or not we had a tail wind for most of the way - CRAZY. We were sitting on 30km/h quite comfortably, which for us on our fully loaded bikes is the closest thing to Warp speed.

Who knew Switzerland had so many vineyards?

One of the highlights of Switzerland was a little mountain village called Crans Montana.
After taking a ‘funicular’ (mountain railway) straight up the side of the mountain we reached Crans Montana, and ended up camping there for three days.

Beats riding up...

Here we managed to do some mountain-biking and hiking which was a nice change to being on the touring bikes. The view from the top of the mountain was brilliant and we managed to get a few good shots of Jul with the mountains in the background. Jul was flying on the bike all day, until she let her nerves get the better of her on one tricky gravel corner and grabbed a bit too much brake – losing all her momentum and having a bit of an off. A bit sad as if she had gone a bit faster she probably would have been fine.

Jul shredding...

We hiked on this incredible trail that followed a swiss 'bis' (a traditional swiss method of rerouting glacial water to irrigate crops etc - basically a really long gutter) which at times was built into the sides of cliffs, with massive drops.

Halfway up the 'bis'

This is definitely an area where I (Lance) want to come back and do some more riding as there is a huge variety of bike parks to explore (Verbier, Morzine to name a few) all relatively close to each other. Better start saving now, as this part of Europe is agonizingly expensive.

Jul can be such a poser...

From Crans Montana we got back on our touring bikes, and it was a nice winding downhill through the vineyards to the Rhone again. After a solid 30 minutes of descending my disc brakes were cooking. I also discovered a new pleasure of cycling, that is passing cars on the way down - got to love that. ( ok so maybe they were going slow to enjoy the vistas...) The wisdom of taking the train up was beginning to show. This would not have been a pleasant ride up the 1500m vertical to Crans.

Jul rode a bit more sedately than me

Swiss riding really has it all – flat, beautiful, clean – and things like these glacial lakes on the side of the trail can really make your day. There really is nothing like coming round a corner, seeing this beautiful lake and then ditching your bike and jumping straight in, lycra and all. Truth be told – it’s a great way to give your riding gear a well needed clean. Hopefully it didn’t pollute the lake too much.

Julia doing an impression of a jelly fish...

In case you are planning a cycle tour here, a campsite for 2 people will cost you 20-25 euro. Ouch. Kind of blew our budget up from the 8 euro /day of France... and the 10USD of the States.

One area that didn’t hugely impress me was the swiss food, or perhaps I should better say, swiss food that we could afford…. Switzerland really isn’t a cheap country, no matter where you are. We had some home-made fondue in our campsite on our last night in Switzerland... which I don't think really did their national dish justice, but didn't think we could leave Switzerland without at least trying it (not quite sure this is what you had in mind marc).

"mmm... soooo cheeesey"

Venice

Getting across the border into Italy proved to be an introduction to random workings of the Italian mind. Riding across wasn’t an appealing option as it involved trekking over a number of large mountains. And it turns out you can’t take the train over the border into Italy with bikes. No idea why. (As I have come to think, cycle tourists are basically at the mercy of whichever ticket sales man and rail conductor you happen to get on the day you choose to travel – such are the anomalies of traveling with bikes on trains.) But the Swiss train rep who informed us seemed quite competent although equally clueless as to why this was so, so we took his word, and his advice to take an the auto transporter just over the border, and then ride to the next train station in Domodossola, from which you can then take bicycles.

Venetian mask things....

The Auto transporter takes cars etc through a rail tunnel, so they too can avoid those rather large mountain passes. It was all quite odd. But we did, and then had a rather nice 30 kilometer ride down through the mountains into Domodossola, interrupted only by a bee finding its way inside my (jul) shirt and stinging me while there. Resulting in a slightly embarrassing, very quick strip on the side of the road.


Domodossola also proved another education into the Italian mentality. They won’t let you take bikes on anything but the slowest regional trains, which, together with waits, meant that what could have taken us four hours to Venice, instead took the whole day, arriving in Venice at 10pm. Not only that, but the only designated carriage for bicycles is up higher than all other carriages, through a very narrow doorway. They really don’t make it easy for bikes..

Arriving in Venice at 10pm also provided to be a bit of a mare, as the instructions the campsite had provided were really for cars only, on a vehicle only autostrada, so without a map (a little hard to acquire at that time of night), we got rather, annoyingly lost on our way, including unwittingly riding the wrong way onto the autostrada at one point. Not a great night.


Venice itself, as a friend who visited it recently put it, is ‘a tired old lady’. I couldn’t agree more. In some ways its theatrics and grace are still there, in other ways it really is quite hard to see them amongst the graffiti, peeling paint, litter and swarms of tourists. Like much of the ‘touristy’ Europe we experienced, it felt like it needed a serious injection of capital to give it a good scrub up.

We arrived at about 7.30am on Sunday morning, which was nice to have the city to ourselves and the rubbish men for awhile. I did enjoy my first italian coffee though. I think photos
probably do Venice best...




Anyway, Slovenia, Croatia and more of Italy (Tuscany, Rome, Amalfi) to come shortly.
Bye for now
Lance & Jul