SKOFJA LOKA: FIRE & ICE

t’s Christmas day and Natasa and I have it alone-together.  Natasa suggest we walk around Lake Bled I tell her I also want to go on the river walk that has all the bridges, VINTGAR GORGE.

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IT’S A TRULY AMAZING HIKE WITH THE WALKWAYS ATTACHED TO THE SIDE OF THE MOUNTAIN.

I last visited Lake Bled on my original bike tour through Slovenia, it was fun to come back.

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LAKE BLED IS AN AMAZING PLACE IN AN AMAZING COUNTRY.. THAT’S THE CASTLE ON TOP OF THE ROCK ON THE LEFT.

After a full day of adventure hiking and walking, were not done.  I’m driving and suggest we go into Ljubljana for the Christmas lights.  There’s a river cruise, so the tourist in me says, let’s go for a boat ride.

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I HAVE NO IDEA WHY THEY HAVE E=mc2 (squared) IN LIGHTS

Meanwhile back home, it’s snowed and the sledding hills are showing themselves in Skofja Loka

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THERE’S A GREAT SLEDDING HILL RIGHT NEXT TO THE CASTLE IN SKOFJA LOKA

You can tell by the last post Christmas was awesome.  The excitement didn’t end there.  I had the flu so on New Years we stayed at home watching The Grand Budapest Hotel.  We heard this big explosion, looked at each other? WTF?  Being it was New Year’s and there were plenty of “real” fireworks and explosions that night, we shrugged it off and  went back to watching the movie.  A few minutes later, we look and see this.

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THIS IS THE FIRE JUST GETTING STARTED (those are 2 lights below the flames)

Soon the entire apartment is engulfed in flames.  The first 3 fire trucks only had extension ladders.

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THE APARTMENT ACROSS THE SQUARE WAS ON FIRE, AT ONE POINT THE FLAMES ON THE BACKSIDE WERE 5 METERS (15 FT.) IN THE AIR.

From our window you could see the whole thing unfold.  One firefighter stood on the ground using a hose, that couldn’t reach the fire, it would have been funny if it wan’t potentially so tragic.

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THE LADDER FIRE TRUCK FINALLY ARRIVED  FROM A NEARBY VILLAGE AND GOT THE BLAZE UNDER CONTROL.

They thought they had extinguished the fire, and brought the ladder down.  From our vantage point we could see the fire had started up again.  They raised the ladder again and extinguished the flames again, they did that twice.
The next day we learned that the guy committed suicide by lighting a room full of natural gas.  I talked with the neighbor yesterday, he said he saw the explosion, a blue flames shooting out the windows and the whole roof had lifted up.

We got some sunny winter weather and I was able to bike around .  People ask how do you ride when it’s -3?  I always say, it’s like going skiing, you just wear a few extra layers and off you go.

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I”ve never actually lived where you could or had to bike with snow all around.  I have 5 layers on,

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RIDING THROUGH THE FARMERS FIELDS, “IN THE SUN”

Surly sent me some parts for my bike and told me to go to Pici Bici  to have it fixed.  They had some cool bikes and other bike stuff.  They specialized in refurbishing old bikes and are the Surly representatives in Slovenia.

They had a bike with a sharpening stone attached.  You removed the bike chain and attached the grinder chain to the front sprocket, start pedaling.  I think something like this could work really well at on of Portland’s many Farmers Markets.

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BICYCLE WITH SHARPENING STONE ATTACHED
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LOOK CLOSELY AT THE FRONT BRAKE ASSEMBLY. YOU PUSH THAT ROUND KNOB, THAT THEN APPLIES THE BRAKE TO THE TIRE
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IT’S A BBQ BIKE TRAILER, MAYBE ANOTHER BUSINESS OR A BBQ PARTY!
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AND OF COURSE A PORTLAND FAVORITE, KEG DELIVERY.

RIDING THE SNOWY BACKROADS CAN BE CHALLENGING, YET LOTS OF FUN TOO.

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SOME PARTS WERE A SHEET OF ICE, ALMOST BIT IT, BUT NO.
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ONE PLUS, THERE ARE NO CARS OUT HERE!
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                                                 SOMETIMES I FEEL LIKE I’M LIVING IN A FAIRY TALE

I wanted to get a clock for the living room wall.  I shopped on ETSY for bike clocks, but with shipping it was going to cost $50 easy.  So I was in the Chinese shop at the mall and bought a clock for 8 euro.  I  also bought a bike shoe box at the same store a couple weeks ago.

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I SCANNED THE BIKE SHOE BOX AND REMOVED THE OLD CLOCK IMAGE AND PUT THE BIKE IMAGES INSIDE THE CLOCK.
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I MADE MY OWN BIKE CLOCK FOR ABOUT 10 EURO ($12)

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE JABBA THE HUT?
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i didn’t take a photo of Natasa cleaning up and stomping down the last of Jabba the Hut. It took 3 weeks to melt.

The stories that I planned to write about this time will have to wait till  next time.  There is so much to share about living here in Skofja Loka, Slovenia and best of all with Natasa.
MORE PHOTOS HERE

Thanks for reading.
People People where are the comments?
JEFF

NEXT? Farmers market, walking bridges  politics, and?

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6 thoughts on “SKOFJA LOKA: FIRE & ICE

  1. There were 3 of us who commented on your post from last time! So, there. Looks great. Especially the Xmas day hike

  2. Hi! Love the town with snow. It must be so cold riding your bike around there. What happened with the big fire next door? Keep those photos coming; I really enjoy them!!
    Mary

  3. What an adventure. I have been following your site and travels ever since I put a postcard back in a friend of yours mailbox that had fallen out in our small town. It was from Portugal if I remember right. Have wanted to see Lake Bled and the Gorge myself. Maybe someday .
    Continued safe travel for you are yours

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