Lost in sLOVEnia
... as I liked it so much the first time!
29th May - 3rd June | 2022
This afternoon I am going to visit the famous stud farm of the Lipizzaner horses in Lipica (www.lipica.org). I was there at late lunchtime and had a stroll around the premises. Later I attended an interesting guided tour and after that was the highlight of the visit: the show. It was short but very interesting.
As the weather is not really improving for the next 1-2 days, I will spend 3 nights in the outskirts of Ljubljana for a city trip and catch up on some paperwork and the blog.
Ljubljana is such a cute, little charming city. I had a stroll through the main centre, from one bridge to another one, from one street to the next. Ah yes, and I found a super nice hairdresser. They cut my side hair, in in-between their clients - wow that was super flexible! If you ever need a haircut, www.roksalon.si is the place in Ljubljana!
On the way to the hotel, it was time for Schimmelchen to get a wash after all the offroad in the last weeks. And then at the hotel, the chain got some oil - sort of Spa day for Schimmelchen ;-) I decided that finally, my hair needs a bit of colour, so the Spa day continued ;-)
Let’s talk weather: at Lake Bled it was 26C hot and sunny, the next morning raining at 14C only, in the mountains even 7C, Lipica a mixture of rain and clouds with around 12C, 2nd day in Ljubljana it was again sunny and 24C - what a difference in temperatures within 4 days, is that normal?!?
The 2nd day in the hotel was a day reserved for doing NOTHING - ok, some work on the blog material, emails and preparing for the next days of the journey direction Hungary; not sure how I can still get rid of the remaining Croatian Kuna though ;-)
The next morning I was really good: 2.5 hrs sitting on the packed bike! I visited the geological centre of Slovenia "GEOSS" in Spodnja Slivna. Osmand took me through very nice back roads. After that, it was time to visit a "lost place" close by Ruse. It was again a lovely mixture of offroad tracks or back lanes, however, Osmand decided also to send me on the motorway even though the parameter is to avoid motorways! After a good 25km, I went off to the backroads. Yes, now I got my backroads! The distance was 10km shorter, but additional 90mins of time! I must admit, in the end, I thought I will never arrive...
On top, I put the waypoint right into a river, and the lost place was on the other side, so I had to make a detour of 20km. Well, a lesson hopefully learned for the future!
After that, I wanted to take a picture of the famous "Herzerlstrasse" close to the Austrian border. As forecasted, the bad weather was on time. It started lightly to rain whilst I drove up into the vineyards-mountains. This area is famous for its wines.
Arrived up at the place, they want €5 (!!!) for going on the platform to take a picture of the heart road! Serious!! I gave this a miss, but if you are interested in what it looks like, search for "Herzerlstrasse" in Slovenia. The road back took me briefly through the famous Steiermark (Arnold Schwarzenegger's birth county) in Austria, so country no. 10 ;-)
My final destination was my camp for the night "Lucijas Farm" close to Maribor. On this last stretch, the elements were obviously against me: heavy rain, thunderstorm, long waiting periods at red traffic lights, Google maps sending me all over the place, etc. Finally, at the end of the day, I found the little paradise of Lucija. I clicked directly with her - horsey-people ;-) And as the weather is so bad, I could make my bed in the hay! So in the "bedroom" was Schimmelchen parked, my "bed" for the night and the stable of her horses - what do you want more?!
Later that evening, we sat together in their nice dining room with the two young helpers from France and her partner Simon. I felt so much like at home and we had such a great conversation, I could have carried on the whole night. Unfortunately, I was really tired after the day of being lost in the woods of Slovenia!
I first had to establish the noises around me as soon as the light was switched off, but once I told my brain, that the scratching noise is the cat, I was already sleeping like a log!
And man, how did I sleep! I slept through until late that morning. During breakfast, poor Lucija had gone off to work really early, we had again a nice conversation which made it really hard to leave! Just before noon, I was finally on my bike with the aim to enter Hungary today!
I first visited the last working watermill in Slovenia in Verzej. That was really interesting as they still produce flour! It is an old family business for the last 110 years. It takes about 1 week from corn delivery until the finished flour - interesting! Unfortunately, the watermill wheel broke during winter, so the production runs on electricity currently. However, I found that all very interesting. Also, people came to buy the flour there!
My next, and last stop in Slovenia was the tower "Vinarium" in Lendava, which is basically on Slovenian soil, but right at the edge between Croatia, Slovenia, Austria and Hungary. There I had some traditional lunch and the lady was so kind to let me pay in Kuna - bye, bye last Kunas! I got into a really nice conversation with her and her husband; with him about hunting and bears. Whatever you think about hunting, the fact is Slovenia has currently roundabout 1200 bears, an impressive number for such a small country!
As I still had to go another 40-50km to an official wild camping spot in Hungary I, unfortunately, had to leave. When I drove down the hill, I was already in Hungary! That was fast then; no border control at all! So, welcome to country no. 11 on my travel!
I went to Lenti for an ATM to get Hungarian Forint; I am rich now;-) 100€ is currently 40000 HUF! The next surprise was then in the supermarket - €3 for a tin of beer, a small package of Muesli, 1 apple, small water and a yoghurt! Petrol is about 1.20-1.30€/l - PARADISE!
To get to the marked place ended up in complete disaster for the last 5km! Osmand insisted on sending me on hardly used offroad tracks - no way I will do that on my own! And the last bit even on a track, that didn´t exist! So I decided, also as the rain was coming, to book something close by via booking.com. A small, simple apartment. The welcome dring was directly a glass of Vodka :-)
Let me take you on the next blog to Pécs, where I have been 30 years ago during a school exchange (... sweet sixteen ...).
Places | Cities:
SLOVENIA
Lipica, Ljubljana, Slovenske Konjice, Ruse, Maribor, Lenart, Verzej, Lendava
HUNGARY:
Lenti, Szalafö
Driven km | Trip:
Total | Steffi: 13365 km
Maintenance | Breakdown:
Loose nut on the centre stand, hopefully, can change it in Budapest whilst getting a new back tyre and cush drive.
Health issues:
./.
Special thanks to:
Lipica to be such an impressive place with an interesting history.
Ljubljana for being such a charming little town.
Lucija and Simon for making me feeling like at home and being such an amazing host!!