Introduction

Sometimes back in June of 2012, it was yet again time for my annual major biking trip. Back then, I was living in Munich and have been planning a trip with my partner, Anne. June 7th was one of the many public holidays in Germany, this one having been Corpus Christi - however, the weather in Middle Europe was outright awful. We decided to throw the bikes in the car and drive south, hoping to get out of the bad, what bad, horrible rain and wind and darkness - that at the beginning of June...The drive from Munich was a rather adventurous one, as we decided to skip the traffic jams typical for a long weekend and took small roads through Bavaria - which are really beautiful. One exciting (well...) event was that my car started screaming for more oil, it was material fit for a comedy by the time we found the suitable liquid and poured it in the (hopefully correct) opening.I´ll admit I have no recollection of this, but it is probably true, why else would I have written it.We headed for Villach in the southern Austria, as the forecast for Slovenia and norther Italy, just on the opposite side of the border, promised to be nice and sunny. Let us see if one can believe the weather forecast (spoiler alert, and I clearly recall this - no, you can´t). Finally arriving in Villach, around 4 pm, we assembled our bikes and found a nice bike path along the River Drau, then came the first hill, leading us towards and into Italy. We made it to Tarvisio. I have to say the Italians are doing a much better job at labeling their bike roads than the Germans or the Austrians. That path is supposed to go all the way to the Adriatic sea, which is great, see? The next day we thought we really beat the bad weather, it was amazing sunshine, and as the road went downhill, we were happy campers...well, more or less. Poor Anne, I made her go up a 10 km steep climb to a dead-end, me naming it "sportive activity". The view from the end of the road was amazing, there was a mile-high mountain right above our heads. We also took a cultural de-tour to a Austro-Hungarian military cemetery from WWI.

This nicely marked bike path was an old train track (something like the Iron Horse Trail next to motorway I90 in Washington), and to make it challenging, the Italians built in a bit of a surprise, probably just not to make it boring, such as when the path abruptly ended in a cliff and you had to descend with fully laden bikes on a steeeeep hillside next to the cliff - that was not so memorable. Then, even though the path promised to take us all the way to the Adriatic sea, it was over, it ended, finished and we were left with biking on a rather busy main road. Oh, and the weather started turning sour and it was our first, and definitely not the last, encounter with this thing that every biker "loves": rain.

It was high time for the next mountain, one that would throw us into Slovenia, but it was getting dark, not that it was so late, around 6 pm, but the clouds were really intimidating. After some consideration, we went for the pass and got to a town just shy of the border. It was a very little town and we first met a very friendly businessman, who helped us in finding an accommodation. So we stayed at the family of Andrea, a young and very funny basketball player, who spoke perfect English and made us laugh a lot. He and the family were so nice, we even got a bottle of house-made wine and house-grown fruits on the house...

We slept like...eerm... what...milk...? new-borns...? not sure what the expression is. Anyhow, we woke to the noise of a huge thunderstorm, which luckily died down, but it was by no means a sunny day. We still had a few uphill miles to the Slovenian border but then we safely (but very "wet-ly"...) arrived to the other side, where we headed south. There was a chance to jump on a train, but I told Anne that it was clearing and that we could make it before the rain starts. I was wrong. What followed was a regular downpour and we were yet again climbing some crazy mountains, all soaking wet. After a while, I guess we did get lucky, it did stop raining, but we still had some 15 miles to climb to the next major town.

There we caught a train, which took us through a tunnel to the beautiful city of Bled. We had a bit of trouble disembarking, and a friendly railway worker helped us getting our stuff down the steep steps. The name of the lake, "Bled", is somewhat unfortunate, as it means "stupid" in Austrian dialect, but joke aside, this is a breathtaking place, a lake with a little island surrounded by high mountains. Tito, the former dictator of Yugoslavia, had a vacation house here, while I am no Tito fan, I have to assert he had a good taste. We stayed at a hotel, where they allowed us to dry our stuff in the sauna (which, by the time we got there, was already closed...hmmm...imagine if it would have been open and we would be hanging up our wet T-shirts and bicycle pants while others are drowsing...better not).

The next morning was just a bit overcast, even with some sunshine and we rode to Lake Bled where we saw small boats, just like in Venice, making their way to the little island. Even without speaking, we knew we would be going the island, but not via boat...so we changed and jumped into the lake. Some Japanese tourists clad in winter jackets and jumpers were a bit surprised to see a couple getting out with their bathing suits..but the water was amazing refreshing, not that we hadn't seen enough water in the last few days.

After the swim we circled the lake, where the European junior championship of rowing was going on and from there we took a train to Ljublanja, the capital of Slovenia. It was already Sunday and Anne caught a train to to her back to Vienna. We parted and suddenly I was left standing all alone in at a large railway station...sigh...a minute later I bumped into the very friendly railway employee who helped us get off the train in Bled the day before. See, Slovenia is not such a big country. He gave me some good tips as to where to go. It seems not only the Italians are nice, like Andrea, but so are the Slovenians, too.

So this long-weekend was a pretty precursor to my actual bike trip. Now I was "down" south in Slovenia - and I thought it would be interesting to see what is even "further down" - so I decided to head towards the Balkans, with the possible goal of reaching Albania. Let us see how this trip would proceed. May the rain stop.