WOW! There´s so much to say (surprised?). I skipped Italy to come here, best travel decision ever. I spent 5 weeks here (so far), the longest time and in the smallest country. I didn’t know much about the country, but I know the little country on the block, tries the hardest and they didn’t disappoint.
Before I dig into all this I have to give two thumbs up to HOSTEL ALIETI in IZOLA and a big thank you to TWO WHEEL TRAVEL for bringing me here. I’m having a difficult time getting back on the road.

HOT CHOCOLATE CROISSANTS EVERY MORNING PREPARED BY MAJDA OR HER SON UROS^.
If you come to Slovenia, remember that the small towns have hidden Gems, that only you can discover.
I arrived by train to Travisio, Italy. I was trying to get the train to Lake Bled, but was told it’s faster to bike there. Since I didn’t have a SIM for my phone. I didn’t have a map so I just kind of rode where people told me to go. I just kind of fell on to this awesome bike only bike path. My first stop was the petrol station, where I was warmly greeted and gifted a Slovenian Flag for my bike, I fly it proudly.

THANKS FOR THE SLOVENIAN FLAG!
I head to camp KAMNE for my first Slovenian campground. I talk in my “international” english, Anna asks me to just speak in plain english, “please”. Slovenia’s tallest mountain MT. TRIGLAV is right across the street.

BARBARA AND ANNA RUN A GREAT CAMPGROUND.
Thought it was a one night visit, nope, several days. The local tourism people put on a history slide show of the region. One of only 3 they do during the summer. They served regional appetizers and blueberry schnapps which is super strong.

I HAD THE PRIVILEGE OF MEETING LOCAL CELEBRITY, HISTORIAN AND AUTHOR, FRANC (he’s pointing to himself in the photo).
I get Natasa’s address, which turns out to be a big part of my Slovenian visit.
I take the backroad to LAKE BLED.

I BIKE THROUGH TRIGLAV NATIONAL PARK. The route contains many points of interest to stop and explore. Slovenians have really reached out to attract tourist by helping them discover the highlights of the country. Bled is a tourist town, but there’s a good reason, it’s beautiful, the CASTLE, CHURCH and a bike path that connects it all together.

PICTURE TAKEN FROM CASTLE TO ISLAND CHURCH
You can swim in Lake Bled, it’s actually quite warm. The traditional costumed performance by local artist was awesome.

WOW! SHE’S HOT
Then my 23 mile 24 hour bike journey, again through TRIGLAV NATIONAL PARK.

IT’S NICE THAT THE CHURCH OFFERS ACCOMMODATION FOR THE HOMELESS.
Slovenia is trying to attract active tourist, there are many bike routes along rivers, lakes and secluded forest.

THE BIKE ROUTE SIGNS CAN BE A LITTLE CONFUSING AT TIMES.
LAKE BOHINJ was a little quieter than Lake Bled.

THIS IS ONE OF 2 ELECTRIC BOAT TAXIS, THEY ARE JUST BEAUTIFUL BOATS

THE WATERFALL HIKE WAS FUN (even for me). I HITCHHIKED UP AND WALKED BACK!

VIEW FROM VOGEL SKI TRAM OF LAKE BOHINJ
I rode gravel backroads and found myself stealth camping again.

LITTLE DID I KNOW WHAT AN IMPORTANT PART SKOFJI LOKA WOULD BE WHEN I TOOK THIS PHOTO
The people are a big part of Slovenia, no matter where I was or what I was doing, the people were amazing.

FELLOW CYCLIST JURE SHOWS ME THE WAY AND INVITES ME TO LUNCH WITH HIS FAMILY.
I told Natasa I would be in about 1pm ooops it’s 3pm and

LUNCH IS SERVED
I grow Blueberries at home (6 bushes) and I needed a blueberry fix and I got one. Natasa’s Mom made a blueberry cake

AND I ADDED BERRY ICE CREAM TOPPED WITH FRESH BLUEBERRIES. YEA BABY!
I visited Ljubljana and stayed with a local family. BBQ, music, culture, gardens, grandma and an awesome family.

I GOT A PRIVATE SHOW FROM SKALA
The museums of Ljubljana were all world class. I learned about the History and Culture of Slovenia and realized how “NEW” America really is.

PHOTO FROM ETHNOLOGY MUSEUM
There are 10,000 known caves in Slovenia. I had the privilege hiking SKOCJAN CAVES .

NO PHOTOGRAPHY IS ALLOWED IN THE CAVE
I got to live in SKOFJI LOKA for 3 weeks, “are you still here”? “when are you leaving?” This was an awesome time and then some.

The BEE CULTURE of Slovenia is fascinating. They paint stories on the bees entrance.

THIS BEE TRUCK WAS SPOTTED WHILE DRIVING
I love the community garden concept and visited the ones in Skofji Loka 4 times.

THERE IS LOTS OF SPACE AVAILABLE FOR MORE GARDENS.
I said earlier that it’s the people that make a country, not the beach, not the mountains, not the history, nothing, it’s the people. And things happen, when you expose yourself to the world.

THE PHOTOGRAPHER SUGGESTED WE KISS, OK!
I had the privilege of riding with TWO WHEEL TRAVEL from Skofji Loka to Izola. They are gathering information for a cycling book for Slovenia. I got to see how traveling by bike, as a couple can be,

A ROMANTIC LUNCH DATE IN A LOCAL BUS SHELTER
Now I’m in Izola writing this blog. Reflecting and what an amazing journey I’m on. Holy Shit I’m actually pulling this off, (so far).
Here’s a photo of the local “Italian” market here in Izola. I bought everything to make sandwiches for the week.

CHEESE DISPLAY.
The economy here is similar to that of every country I’ve visited; high un-employment, low wages, broken business and government models.
Readers Digest did a study where they “lost” 30 cell phones. SLOVENIA came in #1 for honesty, they returned 29 of the phones. I rarely locked my bike or worried about my “stuff”
So this is My Slovenia I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed living it and reliving it by writing this blog post.
Get ready Croatia here I come.
RIDE ON
JEFF

I posted a story a month ago that contained no details. In Slovenia stealth camping is illegal, a fine of $200 is possible. Since I´ve been here I´ve only seen maybe 10 policemen in 5 weeks. But the name stealth implies, you are not suppose to be seen or heard. So if you get caught you weren´t practicing stealth camping. I haven´t stealth camped that much, some campgrounds have so many amenities: pool, bathrooms, showers, WiFi, and most of all people! why would stealth camp?
When you leave camp at 1pm to head to your 23 mile destination, no problem. Right?

BUT WHEN THE VIEWS LOOK LIKE THIS, WELL IT TAKES ALL DAY AND MORE!
I realized I wasn´t going to make it to Lake Bohinj. When you show up to camp in the evening, the best sites are taken. It´s best to arrive at like noon, you can get the choice site. Also, rushing to get somewhere, you miss a lot. So if you stealth camp, the next day you have lots of time to explore while you reach your destination.
I had been going down hill for quiet awhile, stopping often to cool my brakes. Checking the time, it´s 7pm, I start scoping out potential sites. I see one that looks interesting, I walk around some and see 2 places where I can sleep without needing to set up my tent. It´s Aug. 14 and the sky is suppose have comets and shooting stars all night. I pick out a perfect spot with a great view of the sky. I can here voices from town, that are close, so I wait till the sun goes down to set up. While walking around I spot what I think is a huge light. I wait till sunset and yep sure enough it´s a flood light for the building.

THE LIGHT REALLY WORKS, MY SLEEPING SPOT IS SUPER BRIGHT.
The views from here are amazing

THEY THIN HARVEST TREES HERE, I HAVEN´T SEEN A CLEARCUT YET.
My breakfast view was spectacular.

I MAY HAVE RE-VISITED MOROCCO HERE TOO!
And here is my sleeping spot

YEP, I SLEPT AT A CHURCH
The pews are half logs, outside on the hillside next to the church. The inside of the church looks like an over sized roadside monument.

THANK YOU GOD FOR THE VIEWS!

VIEW OF CHURCH FROM ROAD
Since these photos were posted with all the Slovenian photos I have not been able to link them till now. TO SEE ALL THE SLOVENIAN PHOTOS CLICK HERE
NEXT? FINAL THOUGHTS ON SLOVENIA
RIDE YOUR BIKE
JEFF

My last weekend in Skofji Loka was booked solid; antique and crafts markets, biking, shopping, washing windows, dinner. I started with the antique market at 8am.

THIS IS MY SECOND HELMET FITTING THIS TRIP

I THOUGHT THIS WOULD MAKE A GREAT PIECE OF “ART” ($200)
We finally head out on our one hour bike tour

IT´S ALSO A RELIGIOUS PILGRIMAGE ROUTE, LITTLE TRIBUTES TO JESUS ALL ALONG THE WAY.
We visit this large church and decide to just lay there in the tall grass and listen to the wind. I feel so lucky to have found my freedom and someone that is willing to share it with me.

THATS THE OLD WELL IN FRONT THERE.
Most of the farmers use hay balls instead of the old hay racks. But they have found a new use for the abandoned hay racks:

OLD HAY RACKS USED AS WEATHERPROOF BILLBOARDS
We find this picnic bench and table along the river, secluded.

THIS LITTLE RABBIT WAS SITTING ON THE TABLE, FRONT ROW SEAT!
We stop at the store and buy supplies for Grandmas birthday. We spend an hour trying to save $1. I explain that I would rather spend the euro and have more time together; message received. Our 1 hour bike tour is now on hour 4, I´m starving. We head to the crafts market (again), this time for some vegetarian sandwiches.

HOTTEST COLD SANDWICHES IN SLOVENIA!
I´m cooking blueberry pancakes (go figure), bacon and “birds in a nest” for Grandpa (doesn´t like sweets for breakfast) (bird in a nest is bread with a hole for the egg, salsa, tomatoes, cheese)

NICE SMILE SARA :()
Natasa and I agree this is the BEST weekend ever. I tell her I want to go on the walk that we did the first day I arrived. I want to go to her favorite spot, where the 2 rivers meet.

IT´S TRULY AWESOME AND A NICE SPOT
Walking always reveals a towns hidden gems, like this bee box in a yard.

THEY WERE HAVING A BBQ AND SAID IT WAS OK TO TAKE A PICTURE.

YARD ART
Carolyn and Tyler of TWO WHEEL TRAVEL BLOGcalled and said they were heading to Croatia, me too. So I suggested they come to Skofji Loka and we leave from here, OK. That makes several people happy, I´m staying one more day!

ONE BIG HAPPY FAMILY
I play the victim and agree to whatever route they decide, just tell me where to turn. The route that Carolyn worked out was awesome.

IT´S BEEN RAINING ALL WEEK AND THE RIVERS ARE FLOWING REAL GOOD.

ROADSIDE LUNCH STOP

THE GRAVEL ROADS ARE QUIET AND VIRTUALLY CAR-FREE.
We pass Natasa´s work and stop by for one more kiss.

WHERE´S THE BROOM CLOSET? I GOT HIT!

A GOOD PLACE FOR SOME MINOR BIKE WORK
Were riding, again Carolyn´s routing is great, no rain until we reach the campground, 80 km. I´m dead, I haven´t ridden in a month. It´s thunder and hard rain, ALL night. The next day is the most serious rain I´ve ever ridden in.

I THINK I´M READY I’M READY FOR THE RAIN, BUT NO!
It´s raining hard we hide under a shelter for a few minutes.There´s talk of taking the train. We decide to keep riding. They ride faster than me, I pull up and their in a bus shelter making coffee.

WERE IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE I CAN´T FIGURE WHO USES THE BUS STOP?

IT´S POURING HARD!
Tyler and Carolyn are great tourer´s, I haven´t ridden with anyone in 5 months, so this was a new thing for me. They insist the extra 7km toHOSTAL ALIETI IZOLA is worth it. I stop and take this photo while riding along the shoreline bike path.

ONLY 75KM TODAY, I´M DEAD (again).
The Hostal is great we get our own room and use every inch to hang our wet clothes. The next day we do some day rides. The views are great

SAME PHOTO WITH PEOPLE
The next night we go for dinner. They´re vegetarian and I want some seafood. So I scope out a $8 pasta and squid dinner, too late. They just closed as we walked up, because of no customers. WTF? So Carolyn remembers the name of a highly recommended seafood place.

THIS PHOTO WAS TAKEN BEFORE THEY GOT THE BILL, HAPPIER TIMES
The bill comes to $125 for 3, were all in sticker shock, All I I’wanted was my $8 pasta, what happened?
I did take this funny photo of a lemonade stand today too.

THIS IS TINA AND NAJA WORKING THE LEMONS!
After dinner the sky is beautiful.

Then it´s back to the hostel for another exciting night of disco

THE MAP READER NEEDS HER REST AND SHE DESERVES IT. THANKS CAROLYN!

TYLER IS JUST KICKING IT
Carolyn and Tyler want to leave in the morning, I´ve got so much to do, blog, treat clothes, dry my tent and misc. stuff. I tell them I´ll catch up.
I call Natasa and suggest she come visit, score, that was easy. We get a dorm room for 6, to ourselves.
NEXT? Where did on sleep last night? the real story and all the Slovenian photos.
Your comments always welcome
remember to ride your bike!
Jeff

I´m still in SKOFJA LOKA. I know this blog is called JeffsBikeTour, but I got way laid. I´ve been living in the old town part of Skofja Loka. I met Natasa & her daughter Sara while camping on my first night in Slovenia. I asked for their address and Sara eagerly typed it into my Ipad. I couldn´t even pronounce where they lived, or did I know where it was or if I would be going their way?, I figured anything could happen. And it did.
After a few nights at the hotel I´m invited to “move in”. Natasa gives me her bed and she sleeps in Sara´s room. I´m living a dream, we laugh so much together that we buy extra tissue boxes to put around the house to wipe the tears away. One night we are on the couch talking and laughing, just pouring out the tears of joy.
When I come back from Ljubljana, we both devised plans (separately) for exploring Slovenia, amazingly they match. A caving expedition and a castle nestled in a mountain cliff. Slovenia consist of limestone formations, which means lots of caves. Slovenia has a recorded 10,000 CAVES.
I´m pretty excited because I haven´t ridden in a car for months. It´s Saturday and the roads are crowded. Were listening to the radio and its frequently interrupted with traffic reports about accidents or backups, while listening to the I-pod too. I hope Slovenia doesn´t go the way of the U.S. and invest every infrastructure dollar in promoting single occupancy vehicle transportation.. With the looming threats from Climate Change investing in an efficient mass transit system is the future. The U.S.´s roads and bridges are falling apart with no money or plan to fix them. Once you build it, you have to consider the maintenance costs, which obviously wasn´t thought through in the U.S.

We arrive early to the SKOCJAN CAVES and the cave tours are every hour. Within 10 minutes of arriving were hiking to the cave entrance.
I´m a little sore but I´m not sure why? Your not allowed to take photos in the cave. So I´m thinking there must be some good postcards?

I WANTED SOME PHOTOS INSIDE, BUT NO SO THIS ONE IS AT THE EXIT (nice photo)

IF YOU CLOSELY YOU CAN SEE A LITTLE HOUSE AT THE TOP

I LIKE PEOPLE PHOTOS BEST, ESPECIALLY THIS ONE!
I head straight to the postcard rack. WTF 2 ok postcards and one passable card (of my favorite formation). (Yes Scott that´s the card I sent you). I can hardly walk now, Natasa is calling me “Old Man”.
We stop for wood fired pizza up this country road in the middle of nowhere. The bathroom is downstairs, I can barely make it. Old Man or what?
We drive up to the PREDJAMA CASTLE. The Old Man comments continue, very funny, I´m die-ing.

THERE WAS A SECRET TUNNEL OUT THE BACK OF THE CASTLE TO GET SUPPLIES WHILE BEING UNDER ATTACK.
There are people dressed for serious caving, no thank you, too claustrophobic for me. The castle had some interesting images

LIKE THE DUNGEON

THE CASTLE CONSISTED OF 6 DIFFERENT LEVELS. THIS WAS THE SECRET ESCAPE TUNNEL.

I LOVE THE BABY WALKER (cage)
I crawl back to the car, the Old Man jokes continue. I drive the car back to Skofja Loka, everyone is speeding.
Were back “home”, I decide to take a shower and investigate the source of my pain. Holy Shit, one of my testicles is nearly the size of a tennis ball. I can hardly touch it. Google here I come, everything that it could be requires seeing a doctor immediately! We were planning a shopping trip to Ljubljana tomorrow, but now I need to tell Natasa. She understands and is supportive (thank you). The blood test comes back, no signs of cancer. The doctor says I have an infection (really!). Take these pills and you´ll feel better in 3 days. Day 4, I can hardly walk again, We make an appointment to see a urologist. He says they need to do an ultrasound on my testicle(s). “Can you please hold your penis out of the way?” I respond “do you have a glove?”
I have a thing called a SPERMATOCELE CYST You can do surgery if it´s painful, but they usually go away on there own. They don´t know what causes them, I suspect all the biking (2600km) I´m interested in how much the surgery would cost? 3,000 euros ($4000). and 2 weeks of recovery I opt for the do nothing option, wait and see. I was reading some blogs about this and one guy said he squeezed the cyst to get rid of it, OUCH!

NO COMMENT (comment)
Someone tells me about a place where you can collect Slovenian rocks, since it´s illegal to buy them. I show Natasa on the map, we head out, with pain pills, on Saturday. On the way we pass this amazing Bee truck.

Some Bee Keepers paint stories on the front of the bees entrance

THESE ARE SAMPLES OF BEE BOX PAINTINGS ON WOOD THAT WERE IN A SOUVENIR SHOP.
I didn´t know we were going to an established park called Iški Vintgar Gorge. We hike for awhile and stop to look for rocks. Natasa collects heart shaped rocks and finds a few interesting rocks for my collection.

AM I DREAMING?
Back in Skofja Loka, I´m making my rounds, bakery, post office, tourist office, Deli, they all say the same thing to me:”YOUR STILL HERE?” It´s obvious that I am, next question “HOW LONG ARE YOU STAYING? ” I can´t answer that question because I don´t know the answer. I´m having a super awesome time, enough said.
So it´s the first day of school here and a tradition called FAZANIRANJE a tradition of painting your face, during the first 2 weeks of school.

WHEN I FIRST ASKED FOR A PHOTO THEY HID THEIR FACES AND SAID NO. THEN I TOLD THEM I WAS A TOURIST, THEY EAGERLY AGREED TO HAVE THIS PICTURE TAKEN (?)
So I was left alone one evening and decided to see what goes on at the community garden on a Sunday evening.

THE GARDENERS CARRY WATER FROM THE RIVER AND FILL THE BLUE BARRELS FOR WATERING THEIR GARDENS.
As I´m walking along the river I see these kids playing cards. I walk pass them and think I really want that photo.

THATS THIS PHOTO, NICE TO SEE WHAT SMALL TOWN KIDS DO ON A SUNDAY EVENING.
One evening Natasa and I decide to visit a local art show. There was a presentation of historical musical instruments from the local area. The photos are from paintings on the walls of churches.

(sorry no video)

THE VIDEO OF HIM PLAYING THIS INSTRUMENT CAN BE SEEN HERE I played this one after the presentation.

THE VIDEO OF HIM PLAYING THIS INSTRUMENT CAN BE SEEN HERE
I hitchhike to Natasa work in Gorenja vas. I get a ride with these 2 guys who are headed to do Paragliding. Paragliding a big sport here, one I almost did. The town is known for it´s covered bridges. I took this photo of a pedestrian bridge with the church in the background.

PRETTY ARTISTIC HUH?
I walked over to this motorcycle bar, there were 7 classic Harley Davidson’s in the parking lot.

SEE THE MOTORCYCLE ON THE POLE?
We´re going on a bike ride tomorrow, checking on the nut.
Thanks for reading. I enjoy writing this blog and living my dreams.
until next time (it´ll be awhile)
RIDE ON
Jeff