Video: Slovenia

A very quick sprint through Slovenia which took only 45 minutes, during which time we learned almost nothing about the country.

Day 228: Sannazzaro de' Burgondi to Chivasso

Hot, hot, hot

Everyone’s getting a bit of extreme hot weather at the moment, and northern Italy isn’t the worst, but cycling through 34˚C with a reasonably high humidity seemed pretty hot to us. It actually feels just as hot as the 40˚C we had in Australia and India. We just have to take a few more breaks, and when we do, we sit inside and try to cool down.

Otherwise, everything’s pretty ideal — riding through the Po valley means it’s all nice and flat and the roads aren’t too bad. There’s not often any shoulder to ride on, but the traffic is pretty considerate and we rarely have anyone pass close.

We’re heading to Turino now, where we’re getting a new rim fitted to the back wheel of the Blue Strawberry. It’s developed some cracks, so we need to sort this out. We’ve had to get the rim shipped from the UK as it’s pretty specialist, and it looks like it may not turn up until Monday, so we could be handing around in Turino a little while.

Then we’re climbing up into the Alps, taking a pass called the Col de Mont Cenis, which looks eminently achievable by a tandem loaded with luggage. We’ll see how that goes when we get there, but it’s the highest we’ll have been on our bikes in the whole trip.

Leaving the quaint little converted rice farmhouse near Sannazzaro in the morning

It’s paddy fields of rice all around here

Tiger’s experimental camera strap formed from a dog lead seems to be working ok

The old town of Chivasso

Video: Croatia

Riding the west coast of Croatia, from Dubrovnik where we met up with Sue, Ed and Amy, island hopping north to Split and then riding the coast and islands north to the border with Slovenia.

Day 227: Cremona to Sannazzaro de' Burgondi

A hot day moving further across Italy along the Po valley.

CAffé Cremas and Fantasy Tour De France selections

Lunch in the shade of a tree by a small lane

Day 226: Mantova to Cremona

Tiger’s birthday

Tiger was nineteen today! To celebrate we went for a bicycle ride.

We’ve all had our birthdays on this trip, and the’ve generally not been quite as special as a normal birthday as everything is pretty special every day.

We rode from Mantova, an amazing collection of grand buildings, to Cremona, an even more amazing collection of buildings – and a lot of violin shops. The road in between wasn’t awesome, with a number of trucks and no hard shoulder, but everyone’s being pretty considerate, so we shouldn’t have any trouble.

Cremona Cathedral is pretty spectactular, with the largest astronomical clock in the world, if you can believe conversations you overhear

The old streets of Cremona

Birthday boy having a birthday supper

What appears to be a public safety announcement to amateur knife jugglers

Compulsory promenading with gelati

Day 225: Monselice to Mantova

Another hot ride through one medieval Italian town after another. We’re into Lombardia now and there’s history everywhere.

Lunch in a sligh shabby sho cent - woth wifi.

Day 224: Venice to Monselice

We’re off and riding again, on a trek straight across the north of Italy. We’re a little nervous about the amount of time left and the distance still to cover so we’ve decided to cut out the South of France and head to Turin and cross the Alps. We may regret this later!

We’ve also had a bit of bad new about our rear wheel, the rim of which is cracking slightly, so we’re going to try and get a replacement in Milan - another reason to stay north. Anyone know where we can get hold of a 700c x 25 rim with drilling for 40 spokes in northern Italy?

We had a few boat rides today. First we had to get from Venice back to Lido to pick up our bikes, then we rode south to the bottom of Lido and caught a ferry across to Pellistrano, another island. Then south along that island to another ferry that took us to Chioggia on the mainland.

Crossing from Venice to Lido

We collected the bikes from Lido on Bike bike shop where Stefano had done a fantastic job. New brake pads, a new bottom bracket for Tiger’s Ari, which was looking super shiny, and the news about the rear wheel on Blue Strawberry. For what is mostly a bike hire shop, Lido on Bike offers a fantastic bike servicing knowledge - we were very lucky to find them.

Stefan at Lido on Bike

Crossing to Pellistrina

Quiet Sunday roads on the islands

The ferry to Chioggia was chockers with bikes

Monselice is an old walled city with a fort way above us on a hill

The most inventive toilet signage I’ve seen – quite tickled me

Day 223: Rest day in Venice

We ditched Tiger for the morning, so he could do some drawing, and had a nice time exploring Venice with Jackie and Nigel. We went up the campanile in Piazza San Marco for a good view of the whole of the city, wandered along the waterfront and checked out churches to cool down.

View of the Basilica San Marco from the Campanile (bell tower)

Practising those selifes

Aaah — The Bridge of Sighs

Maybe I haven’t quite cracked the selfies yet — from the Ponte del Accademia

Gavin tipped us off that the Peggy Guggenheim was well worth a visit, and indeed it was. Tiger joined us for a look round their permanent collection and a temporary show of Jean Arp’s work - a Dadaist. Still not sure about Dadaism, but there are some great works from artists of the last century like Mondrian, Dali and Kandinsky that really stand out. As Gavin said, “It’s an oasis of calm in Venice” - thanks Gavin.

In the courtyard of the Peggy Guggenheim gallery

We had a bit of a gondola ride in the afternoon and a really nice evening meal in a restaurant called “Ai Mercanti” that Nigel found. It really exceeded expectations, with an inventive menu that wasn’t contrived for the sake of being different.

At 11:30 there was a fireworks display that went on so long that, despite missing the first 20 minutes, it was still long enough to think “ok, that’s enough now.”

On a gondola. Done that.

Ponte di Rialto — jam packed with tourists

…and a nice firework display to round it all off

Day 222: Lido di Venezia to Venice

Spectacular views around every cornee

As we can’t take the bicycles into Venice we’d arranged to have them serviced at a bike shop in Lido. Stefano the manager there was well on top of things and I’m sure they are in safe hands.

Then we jumped on a ferry to Piazza San Marco and we arrived in “proper” Venice.

It’s an amazing place — bustling waterways, incredible views everywhere, a good honest “patina” on the whole city. At the same time, it’s such an impractical city and without the millions of tourists I can’t believe it would still be viable. So, on the one hand it’s a historical monument of a great naval power, and on the other hand, it’s Disneyland, a creation for tourism.

Fun though.

Jackie and Nigel, friends from Melbourne who are now back in the UK had timed a weekend break in Venice to meet us, and we were able to spend the afternoon wandering around with them, and then again for a lovely meal in the San Marina district, well away from most of the tourist crowds.

Nigel and Jackie are here!

Navigating Venice hasn’t got a lot easier with the advent of Google Maps as GPS really struggles in the tall, narrow streets. However, we did prove, yet again, that Tiger has an extraordinary sense of direction as he guided us back and forth within moments of arriving in the city.

Looking forward to another day in Venice tomorrow.

Day 221: Latisana to Lido di Venezia

Today’s ride was a really pleasant ride through the exceptionally flat road approaching Venice. We’d decided to enter Venice from the coastal side, which means we had less traffic to deal with and a perfect flat landscape. What a joy after the hills along the coast of Croatia.

Headi through the quiet country towns of Veneto

We stopped in Jesolo for lunch and headed down to the beach. What a weird beach! We were confronted with a whole bunch of signs when we rolled up - don’t park bikes here, no bikes on the beach - no fun!

We parked our bike against a “Don’t park bikes here” sign and went and sat in a small piece of exposed sand that wasn’t covered by sun beds, umbrellas and other rubbish.

Tiger pouted our that if you tried to do that to a beach in Australia there would be an armed revolt - mobs with armed with buckets and spades would soon sort it out.

Lunch amo a forest of sunbeds

No bike parking here

No bikes here

They may have a point about keeping bikes under control though - we saw hundreds of bikes after that.

Bikes everywhere

Bikes paths, woth more bikes

Then we were hopping on a ferry to cross over to Lido, the “reef” that guards the lagoon of Venice. It was only a short hop, but the rain started as we were on the boat so we headed fo a gelateria as soon as we landed and waited for the weather to clear. Luckily, Le Tour was on, so we got to watch Simon Yates win a stage.

Swift tactical ferry nap

Our Staging point for visiting Venice, the camp ground on Lido

I got into a certain amount of troubleBfor leaving my nut bar in my cycling jersey in the wash. There are a few nuts to pick out of our cycle shorts now. Oops.

Day 220: Trieste to Latisana

So Italy

We’re chugging through proper Italy now - great coffees, loud, expressive chatting and a bit of classical architecture.

A coffe in the piazza before we head off

Much of the early riding was on the clifftop road in the morning

Lunch under the war memorial

More grand architecture

Day 219: Rest day in Trieste

The only photograph I took all day.

Trieste is a very nice city. It was, and is, a busy port and many of the grand buildings in the neoclassical quarter where we’re staying were related to shipping or insurance. It looks like there’s not so much going on in that department these days - but there are plenty of tourists around.

We’ve had an “admin” style rest day, with a bunch of things to tackle, most of which we failed to achieve.

We went looking for new tyres for our bikes but the local Schwalbe dealer had everything but the touring tyres we’re after. We tried to get a SIM card but after waiting for thirty minutes, even when our number came up the member of staff decided it would be easier to serve other people in front of us. Decided to give up rather than make a scene.

We did all our washing at the local laundrette (yay - laundrettes are back! We haven’t seen one since Thailand!), but even after a spin and one hour in the tumble dryer it was still soaking, so is now decorating our room and bathroom.

We managed to cook ourselves a nice meal of tortellini, pesto and salad though - with the most amazing breadsticks that won my heart from the moment I saw them, and the coffee is obviously really good here.

Sarina and I spent some time trying to ensure we have jobs once we’re back in the UK, which is obviously important too.

Now we head for Venice, where I will hopefully remember to take a few more photos.

Day 218: Volosko to Trieste

Ciao Italia

Today was a new record — three countries in one day.

We climbed out of Croatia on a pleasant backroad, which dealt with the traffic, but increased the gradients enormously. We had 10% climbs for multiple kilometres at a time, which really starts to bit after a while. There weren’t a lot of people around, and no shops or cafés, so we stopped at a war memorial and ate our emergency rations.

I’d chosen the bars for today and there was a certain amount of disquiet from the enlisted ranks about them being something like “dog biscuits”. They seemed to do the job as far as I was concerned, and we’ve all got lovely shiny coats now.

We pressed on through more uninhabited hills and stopped at a roadside kiosk a few kilometres before the border. There was no-one around and we were about to give up and leave when the owner arrived. This at least gave us some more water and an ice cream for lunch. The owner explained that the village used to have 900 inhabitants before the Second World War, but many left to escape the Nazis and the village was now home to 15 people. It seems amazing that none came back over the ensuing decades, but there’s not a huge amount going on in the area except forestry. Once there may have been a dairy industry, but that’s long gone.

The Deserted streets of a Croatian village

The last stretch to the border wasn’t even much of a climb, and then we descended through a closed border crossing to leave Croatia. To our surprise though, the Slovenians still had a man posted at their border. He duly checked our passports and triggered the barrier to open so that he could go back to frivolities that seemed to be going on in his office.

So, Slovenia. It took us 45 minutes to cross the country, and excluding car drivers, the only Slovenian we saw in all that time was the border guard and one woman mucking out her stable. We know that Primoz Roglic (famous cyclist) comes from Slovenia, we know the capital is Ljubljana (but can’t say it) and we know it’s not Slovakia, which is further north. Apart from that, we learned nothing new about the country during our visit.

We had, luckily, pre-purchased flags, as we couldn’t have bought a packet of chips anywhere on the road we followed, let alone a Slovenian flag.

Flag fitting now we’re in Slovenia

Before we knew it we were descending past a sign saying “Italia” and we were in the land of espressos and Piaggios.

Climbing, climbing, climbing

Slovenian hay Bales

Italy feels so comfortable. For the first time in a very long time we’re in a country that Sarina and I have visited a number of times before. We know at least a little of the language and the buildings, signs and landscape seem familiar. We must be getting close to home!

Into Trieste

Day 217: Senj to Volosko

We had a slow start this morning as the rear tyre on Blue Strawberry had deflated overnight. It turned out to be a puncture from a thorn as we’d passed a lot of thorn bushes yesterday. As we were ready to go, Sarina discovered a thorn in Tiger’s tyre and when she pulled it out, the air started coming out, so another puncture to fix.

With two fully inflated tyres on both bicycles we set off to have a nice breakfast on the waterfront.

Todying up after breakfast

We’re seeing a lot more cyclists, like this Belgian guy as well as cycle tourists

But our troubles were not yet over. As we set off after breakfast we discovered we had an intermittent rubbing noise on Blue Strawberry’s rear tyre. A quick check and we found the rear wheel was buckled. We’ve corrected this with spoke tension as much as we can, but it looks like we could do with a new rim. Hopefully, Trieste tomorrow can deliver us a good bike shop to rebuild the wheel.

Once we were finally under way, the road was similar to the last few days. Undulating along cliffs and then diving down to sea level every now and again, requiring a big climb to get back up on to the cliffs again. It was hard work, and we were slower than usual, but as long as we get the 80km done we’re still on track.

Entertainment for the day was a powered skateboard speeding past us on the pavement, swerving through a puddle and sliding across the ground into a shop doorway. Luckily he was fine and I could feel ok about my smug giggle to myself. They look a great way to get around though.

Electric skateboard guy about to Have a bit of a lie down

The camp site we were aiming for turned out to be closed. “Chiusu” the man at the gate said. Oh well, let’s find an apartment then, and we found a lovely town down the road, an apartment and a selection of good looking restaurants. That will do.

Video: Montenegro

Riding up the Adriatic coast of the Balkans through Montenegro.

Day 216: Novaljis to Senj

We woke to the sound of raindrops on the trees outside our window announcing we were going to have a wet start today. It didn’t put us off though and we were out the door at the normal time, and straight into a nice dry café with WiFi.

Pulling away after an extended coffee break

Still a bit damp as we headed across the island of Pag

We got going eventually, and the rain had almost finished. There were a lot of hills on the journey across the island and we had to do a fair bit of work before catching the ferry across to the island.

We’re seeing a lot more cycle tourists now. This couple were coming off the ferry onto Pag.

Arriving on the mainland we faced a big climb from the ferry port, up a switchbacking road up the rock face. Then the road along the coast was climbing and descending constantly - we’re earning our kilometres at the moment.

We had a puncture on the Blue Strawberry, our 14th in the trip

Lunch was another beautiful spot, with the only thing missing the food. No shops meant we were on emergency tations.

Clouds were gathering towards the end of the day

Arriving in Senj

Day 215: Bibinje to Novaljis

Riding through a moonscape 

The weird landscape on the road to Pag

After we’d ridden through Zadar we continued north to cross the bridge onto Pag, one of the long thin islands that are strewn along the Dalmatien coast. As soon as we crossed the bridge the landscape changed. It was rock strewn and barren, with clear blue water on either side. To our right we were constantly tracked by a range of limestone mountains that towered above us, and thankfully, we don’t have to climb. Yet. 

Lunch was on the verandah of a deserted house by a fishing jetty, and then further up the island. 

Lunch spot

At some point, unknowingly, we lost Tiger. He’d punctured and had to stop but we hadn’t heard him. We rode about 5km back along the road before we found him, having fixed his puncture and all sorted. We need to get him some fresh tyres though. 

Tiger about to get a puncture

As we went north from Pag, Tiger had spotted that there was a smaller road along the western shore, and it was indeed quieter. However, about 5km in it turned to gravel. That’s ok though, we can cope fine with that. Another 5km and we come to a section that’s had a landslide. Not so good. We managed to pick our way through it though and carry on. 

Things got a tad more tricky in the off road section

Our destination was to be Novalja at the north of the island as there were a few places to stay. As we approached it became cleared as signs for Zrče Beach appeared, with plenty of posters advertising the DJs that would be playing here. It appears we’ve arrived in another party capital- and we had no idea. The town’s nice and quiet though, so no problems. 

Day 214: Grebastica to Bibinje

Seaside cycling

We’re still heading up the coast. We pulled in to Sibarnik for morning coffee and had a great view of the old town from the end of the bay. 

SibarnIk old town

Then, it was head down and keep pedalling into an increasing headwind. Lunch was another picnic by the water before ending up at a campsite 10m from the beach. 

We headed straight to a beach bar to use their wifi to watch the first big mountain stage of Le Tour - which is looking like a close, exciting race. 

Day 213: Split to Grebastica

After the thunderstorms of last night Split didn’t take long to repeat the performance this morning. We’d had a (rubbish) coffee on the waterfront and then set off to buy a replacement GoPro mount (I’ve broken 12 now!) when the heavens opened and a deluge commenced. Luckily we had some shelter so I could get the GoPro bits and Sarina and Tiger could play Pooh Sticks in the flash flood that had developed. (Sarina won.)

The waterfront at Split - nice marble, rubbish coffee

Sarina’s stick wins the Pooh Stick race

Riding in the rain - it was a pleasant temperature anyway

The rain soon abated and we left Split in a light drizzle. We had coffee in a nice seaside town called Kaštel Novi (Newcastle - but not a single a coal mine to be seen) and then on to lunch in a place called Marina. It did have a large marina too, presumably the Marina Marina.

As we carried on along the coast, admiring the beautiful pays and the improving weather we met another cycle tourist, Lennart from Bonn. He’d cycled through the Alps from Salzburg and was nearly at the end of his journey in Split. He rides a British made tandem with his wife or son occasionally so we swapped tales with a kindred spirit.

Meeting Lennart on the road

The coast road was pretty good, although a little narrow. However, it did stay nice and low, skirting the hills inland. We rode a lot further than we had to today, but avoided a lot of climbing that would have been required otherwise.

We’re in a little seaside town full of holidaying families from all over Europe - very pleasant, and Sarina is cooking a masterpiece from the limited selection at the local mini mart.

A nice swim after our ride

Day 212: Ferry from Sobra to Split

Waiting for ferries, in a very attractive waiting room

We’re doing a fair bit of waiting around for ferries at the moment, but it’s no hardship in a café by a crystal clear bay.

Sobra is one of the smallest villages we’ve spend time in – it has only  one shop and three cafés to its name, so it’s been a very quiet day, with a lie in and a nice cooling swim.

The ferry turns up at 5pm and whisks us off to Split, meaning we’ve successfully avoided the main road along the coast and spend a small amount of time on empty island roads instead.

The ferry is about to arr

Here it is

As it turned out, we had some rain as we arrived in Split, but it was still warm, so it wasn’t a problem. We made our way the 1km to our apartment and are looking forward to a ride along the coast tomorrow.

Spectacular lightshow in Split on the way to our apartment.