(Day 34: Skofja Loka to Novo Mesto, Slovenia)
Riding southeast of Ljubljana, that is the autoroute crossing the valley ahead
Riding with Primoz in Slovenia was somewhat like riding with Heiner in Germany: We used small roads and bike paths that aren't on my mapping software and I am unable to accurately describe our route. I also took only a few pictures, but that was mostly because we ran into bad weather in the afternoon.
Our route was simple: go south from Skofja Loka to Ljubljana, then southeast towards Croatia. We rode to Ljubljana using the back roads that Primoz knows well. In Ljubljana we used a main bike path and then skirted the center of town on small roads and a bike path through a forest. We had to leave Ljubljana on Highway 1, but it has good, if bumpy, shoulders and most of the traffic is now on a parallel autoroute, so it was OK riding. We stopped in Smarje-Sap for a our first snack break and then, a few km south east, we were able to get off of 1 and climb a ridge over into the next valley.
A small town on the way over to the next valley
That section of the ride included a stretch of gravel road where my messenger bag, which I mount on top of my rear panniers, fell off without my noticing it was gone. A while later, my empty coke bottle, which was held on by the messenger bag, fell off. I hear that one, and, when I stopped to pick it up, I discovered that the messenger bag was gone. Primoz found it, quite a ways back, sitting in the middle of the road. Fortunately, there wasn't much traffic on that road!
The road in the next valley, after the gravel section
The second valley was very pretty and very good riding, but, after we stopped for lunch, the weather was on and off light rain with thunderstorms moving through. We only had to put our rain gear on once for a short spell of heavier rain, but I wasn't able to get pictures of the valley.
One of the towns in the valley
The river, which the road followed, is below the trees
We arrived Novo Mesto about 4:45, followed the sign through town to a good place to stay, and then Primoz and I visited until it was time for him to get to the train station to catch a train back to Ljubljana. I had a good nights sleep and a good breakfast here, and now it is time for me to ride to Croatia.