Last Day - Mangart Pass

Mangart Pass is said to be one of the greatest climbs in Europe.  I am sure that is right.  It was hard.  Really hard.  Basically it is a 10 mile climb that is unrelenting in its gradient.  You start out of this little town and just keep on going, turning right at the bridge, but up, up and up.   I finished it in tortoise-like fashion, but slow and steady did not - unlike the fairy tale - win the race.  But I got to the top.   We has earlier done the climb up the back of Vrsic Pass, which was no cakewalk itself.

Along the way I realized that climbs that were not double-digit gradients and that were green and pastoral really were more enjoyable (at least to me) than the mega-climbs that take you to the tallest passes, where the rock and the scree overwhelm any plant life and there is more of a moonscape feel.  Okay, it is true that I don't like heights, and I am certainly not a mountain person.  And maybe it's the memory of how hard it is to push a bike up there (which it certainly is).  Oh well.  It was quite a day, but I have no real pictures to show for it, as it took all I could summon to get myself up the mountain.  And since the Boston contingent all rode in the same group, I didn't want to slow everyone else down.

I do want to correct one thing.  We had a fantastic dinner at a very nice contemporary restaurant in Kranjska Gora tonight.  The food was wonderful - pumpkin soup with Slovenian dumpling, duck breast served over lentils, chicken and prosciutto served over mushroom mashed potatoes and vegetables and an apple dessert that was delicious.  I ordered up a bottle of Slovenia's finest red wine.  A 2006 Veliko Rdece from Movia winemakers.  A blend of caberner franc, cabernet sauvignon, pnot noir and a touch of merlot.  It was delicious.  So I take it back about Slovenia not being for foodies.  That is not true about the Ski Pass Travel Restaurant and Hotel in Kranjska Gora!

I am sure there will be some follow up, but I am too tired not to think about it.  Packing and leaving in the morning.  Bikes are back in their containers and let's hope they (and our luggage) find their way back to Boston.   

Bled to Kranjska Gora

Another spectacular day as we started out on our longest ride of the week combined with the most climbing.  There were two climbs.  The first one was about 11-12 km fairly early in the ride where the gradient typically stayed more than 8% but never more than 11-12%.  Challenging but doable.  We break up into three riding groups - A, B and C - and I've been consistently a B rider.  Today, truth to tell, I proved that I was truly a B minus rider, finishing up the rear on the climbs.  But I finished them, and that's what I came to do.

Between the first and second climb there was about 90+ kilometers of riding through the gorgeous Slovenian countryside.  We stopped for coffee at a cafe in the total middle of nowhere.  It was sunny and very, very pleasant.  We rode through little villages and along rivers with the clearest, clean water you have ever seen.  Tom took some photos of the rivers and I'll try to post them when he sends them to me.  But it was truly beautiful.

At 135 km (about 80 miles, which at that point surpassed my longest ride of the year), we began the 8.5 km Vrsic Pass.   This is a classic, and the climb was amazing.  My good friend and neighbor Tom rode with me the entire way, as my legs were beginning to feel the accumulation of a week's worth of climbing.  It is interesting (at least to me).  In the early days of riding, your physical limits are defined by what your heart can do in terms of maximum heart rate.  As the week goes on, the maximum heart rate you can reach drops, as what is in the legs is the limiting factor.  That was certainly true for me today.  From a oxygen intake and output standpoint, the climb wasn't that hard, even though it was an unrelenting 9-10% throughout with patches extending up to 15-16% near the top.  But my legs just didn't have the juice to get what they needed from my circulatory system!

Vrsic Pass is famous for having 49 switchbacks, including on the way up and the way down.  We saw all of them.

Here are some photos taken along the climb and the last three at the top of the pass:

Seeing these photos makes the scene appear totally idyllic.  Not quite.  The one downside to going up the Vrsic Pass is that you're doing it, frequently, with dozens of your favorite motorcycle buddies.  I thought I was in Laconia, New Hampshire!  We were pedaling up this beautiful climb and all of a sudden coming up behind us was a gaggle of disgusting motorcycles, belching smoke, making huge noise and driven by the most unsavory characters you could ever imagine.  It was so, so disgusting.  I can't tell you what utter contempt I have for that "sport" (although I'll bet you can probably tell).

The descent was a quick 20 km down to the hotel, although the switchbacks on the way down are paved with cobblestones, so you couldn't fly down in the same way that you typically would.  It was jarring and a little dangerous.

I arrived at the hotel dead last.  The C group would have taken that honor, except that they cut out virtually all of the middle part of the ride and had the van take all of them to the last climb well ahead of us.  In some respects a wise choice, but in another respect they really missed out on another day of monotonously beautiful Slovenian countryside.  Here is where we had a picnic lunch (that's Tom coming in on the bike).  In the first photo is a church (I should have zoomed), again in the middle of nowhere.

All in all, an epic day.  Tomorrow is our last.  The forecast is beautiful and we do the Mangart Pass, which is one of the great rides in Europe.  I think the Boston contingent will all ride together (the Ropes & Gray boys have thus far been consistently "A" group riders, in keeping, of course, with their A list status as a firm!).  It will be fun to all ride together.  More to come . . . .

Thursday's ride

All of this exquisitely beautiful and picturesque scenery is getting a little boring!  After all, if you've seen one quaint mountain/pastoral village, you have seen them all.

Only two climbs today, and the distance was rather short.   Only 51 miles of riding and 5,600 feet of climbing.  The equivalent of a rest day, as we have two epic days ahead of us.  We broke up into our usual three groups and off we went at 8:30.

First, around Lake Bled, where I caught a picture of the church that is on an island in the middle.

Lake Bled

Then, after rolling for a little while through some farm country, it was up the first climb, an 8.5 km appetizer with a fairly steady 9-10% grade throughout much of it.  Our group spread out (not surprisingly) as each of us summoned whatever he (we were all guys) needed to make it to the top.  We all did.

And then it was the descent.  We were rewarded with a 14 km sweeping descent, with great views of the mountains and various other monotonously beautiful, pastoral settings.  Like the one below . . .

The setting sort of reminds me of Vermont, but without any vowels (the name of the village was unpronounceable).

A village awaited us at the end of the descent.  You guessed it - another incredibly picturesque church with the distinctive style of architecture you see in the country.  Perhaps a blog reader with some knowledge of Eastern European architecture can post a comment and tell me what the style of architecture is.

Had a coffee at a cafe on a lake at the base of the mountains you can see in the photo above.  And then it was off to do the second climb of the day.  This one was the main event.  A 12 km climb that - I kid you not - for much of the ride was between 11% and 14% grade.  There were times when the grade went above 15%.  It required at least as much mental discipline as it did physical exertion.  The trick is not to let yourself think that what appears to be a flattening out in the horizon is actually a less steep section of the climb.  It usually is not and the trick is all about setting expectations.  We all made it (for me, slow and steady) to the top.  A quick descent down and we were back in Bled by 2 o'clock.

Devoured the pizza I mentioned in the last post and did some sightseeing.

Tomorrow is our biggest day - almost 100 miles and over 10,000 feet of climbing.  And only two climbs, but they will no doubt be killers.  I'll sign off and hope to get a good night's sleep (that hasn't really happened yet, despite being exhausted each day).  Hope to post again tomorrow.

Random observations

So far, we have observed that Slovenia is probably not a destination for foodies.  Two of the dinners have been buffets, so you can imagine that the quality wasn't uniformly high, but even the two places where we ate sitdown meals the food was only ok.  I have been surprised that the red wine has been pretty good, particularly the house pinot noir that we had the first night.  The beer of Slovenia is Lasko, and we've tried both the regular and the dark beer.  It pales in comparison to the Czech Republic.

We did have a pizza today in Bled at the Pizzeria Rustika.  It was really, really good.

One of the things about taking a biking trip is that you end up mostly interacting with people in hotels, but you don't as frequently meet other people from the country who rely on tourism.  The people we have met have been very nice, with pleasant dispositions and perfect English.  I've been a little surprised that the people we pass as we ride through the villages usually don't even look over at us.  I might have thought that as a matter of curiosity they might do so.  Most people have rather serious visages as well.  Not jolly and lighthearted.  Of course, I am stereotyping and painting with a way broad brush.  But anyway, that's the observation.

This was a new one for me.  The safe in the room at the hotel, rather than having a self-setting combination that you key in, asks you to swipe a card with a magnetic strip and it will use that to re-open it when you come back.  We had this vision of someone hoovering up that information when the poor unsuspecting tourists swipe their cards to set the combination.  Their possessions would be secure in the safe, but they have just given their credit card information to some hacker.  We have not used the safe at this hotel.

Slovenia seems all about the outdoors - mountains, rivers, etc.  That said, it doesn't seem like a country full of health nuts and exercise devotees.  We have not seen a lot of other riders on the roads, even though it is absolutely a fabulous place to ride.  A lot of smokers.

Anyway, I'll post next on the ride we did today.

Kranj to Lake Bled

We learned yesterday that Marko's luggage had arrived and had been delivered to tonight's hotel.  So now everyone is totally equipped.  Only took 4 days, Air France.

Have I mentioned that Slovenia is a gorgeous country?  Forgive me for saying it again.  At some point I think I will just be inured to yet another picturesque church atop a hillside framed by mountains in the background and clear blue skies.  We are going through very pastoral areas, where there hardly seem as if there are any people, yet there always seem to be a significantly large church in the vicinity.  Makes you wonder how they fill them up on Sunday!

A word on the demographics of the group of 19-20 of us.  Only one is from outside the U.S. (from Colombia).  For the others the riders are clustered around Massachusetts and Colorado, with a smattering from New York City, Cleveland (though previously from Needham), Kansas City, Augusta, Georgia and Palo Alto.  Quite a number of lawyers, several doctors and a bunch of folks connected to the energy industry.  Three women, the rest men.  It really is a nice group - quite congenial.  And the tour operators are uniformly terrific - helpful and a great deal of fun.

Today was hard.  About 80 miles with almost 8,000 feet of climbing.  We started in Kranj and rode 10 or so miles through lovely farmland with the mountains in the distance.  We knew what was in store.  All told we did four climbs today.  The first one relatively short but way steep (grades up to 16%).  The second was longer, but less steep.  Three would have been just fine with me.  The fourth was not incredibly tough in itself (although no slouch) but coming as it did after three hard climbs it was exhausting.  But really, really nice.  One could say that the scenery is monotonous because it is just so pretty each step of the way.  And the climbs - because they don't have any famous names like the ones from the Tour de France, for example - in many respects simply merge into memory.  But they are great.

A few pictures:

The church that is off in the distance next to my head will come more clear in the next two pictures.

 This church is literally in the middle of nowhere.  How big can the congregation be?

I am still looking for my second piece of litter.  When I find it, I may stop to take a picture and post it to the blog.

Lake Bled is a beautiful lake surrounded by mountains.   We'll some more pictures of it tomorrow as we ride from here and come back to this hotel.  It has a little bit of the tourist feel to it.  We hope to explore the town a little tomorrow, as the ride is "only" 57 miles and 7,000 feet of climbing.

I am little worn out and will sign off until next post (I hope tomorrow).

(Most of) the luggage has arrived

Today two of the remaining three suitcases were delivered to the hotel where we ended our ride.  Marko is still odd man out, but we are hopeful we will see it tonight.  Upon opening my bag, I realized I had packed too much - although I hadn't planned on wearing the same clothes for almost 4 days!

Today's ride was from Logarska Dolina to Kranj.  It was really beautiful.  The ride started out challenging - about a 9km climb with grades ranging between 6-7% and 10-12%.  A steady uphill, with not really any flat parts.  But it was up through a forest, on a rode with no traffic.  When we got to the top, we are in Austria.  Nothing at the border; an old border crossing station was boarded up with no one in sight.  The downhill was quite nice, and that led to another uphill climb for about another 6-7km in Austria.  And that was it for climbs today.  There was an option to do a killer climb at the end of the ride, but I wisely chose to head back to the hotel along with probably half   of the group.  There are 4 days left of riding and they will be hard.  No need to have left it out on the road today.

We are staying at a lovely resort - the Hotel Brdo in Kranj.  It is a lovely setting, in a park in which there is a very modern conference center.  The weather continues to be spectacular (hope I didn't jinx it), and even though it starts off a little cool each day we have seen sunny skies and the threatening clouds that occasionally appear have not yet delivered.

Tomorrow we go from Kranj to Bled.  It is a long day with what appears to be 4 significant (read - steep) climbs.  The climbs here are shorter than the ones, for example, in the Pyrenees, but they can really be steep.

One observation - everywhere we have gone we have seen stacks and stacks of firewood piled ever so carefully.  And it is not just a few of the houses, it is every one.  In keeping with the general neatness of the country.  I have seen two pieces of litter over two days of riding.  Amazing.

I'll post a couple of pictures.

 A view from the Austrian border looking back into Slovenia.

A village on the road to Kranj.  And below the view looking the other way.

More pictures that Tom took.

Also, there are these religious "shrines" all around the country side.  Many of them seem quite old; others are very new (which makes you think that the newer ones came in only after the Communist regime left power.  

We Ride

Our bikes arrived at the hotel as we slept last night.  All four, which is great.  Unfortunately, none of our suitcases made it.  Fortunately we could get bike clothing from Thomson.  I borrowed shoes from Ed Black (size 46 vs. my usual 44.5) and got pedals from Thomson, so I was good to go.

This country is spectacularly beautiful.  We had a great ride, the weather was delightful and it was only too bad that I couldn't get out of my mind the awfulness of being on Day 3 without luggage.  On a 8 day trip, that's a sizable portion.

But the setting here is very pastoral and the mountains frame just a picture perfect setting.  The roads were good and, although narrow, we didn't encounter any problems with motorists.  It worked. The climbs today were terrific - not too steep to be simply crazy, but challenging enough to have us working hard.

I will post a couple of pictures, although I didn't carry my camera on the bike, so I didn't shoot all the terrific scenery.  I will remember it.  And I will do better as we go along.

The other thing that is incredible is how clean the country is.  We basically saw no litter.  Very impressive.

Still not luggage, except that Ed's arrived.  We are told that 2 bags are coming in tonight from Zurich and one from Frankfurt.  But we've been told things before.  I will believe it when I see it.  But I have washed out my bike clothes from today and plan to ride tomorrow whatever may happen.  I still am wearing the clothes that I had on my back Friday when I left Boston.  But I can't let it ruin this incredible biking and scenery.

I did want to note that there are tons of churches in the country and little shrine-like structures (small) in very town we went through.  It made me wonder what the religious like of the country was like when it was under Communist rule.  Very interesting.

Travel Woes

I should have taken it as a sign.  When I received the e-mail from Air France about online check in, I clicked on the link and was redirected to its "partner" - Delta - for this was a codeshare flight.  Only then I learned that the seat I had chosen three months ago was not mine, and Delta had assigned me a window seat in the last row of the plane.  After an hour on the phone with Air France, I was told that they did not control the seating (despite my having booked months ago and having dealt exclusively with Air France).  Basically, tough luck.

I should not have been encouraged by the fact that at the airport I was able to switch seats to . . . .  You guessed it - the original seat that I had chosen.  That was the last time I was satisfied with a travel detail on this trip so far and we are approaching 48 hours into it.

The flight arrived late to Paris.  We ran to the connecting flight, but it left several minutes before we got there.  Do you think that Air France knew that there were 4 passengers connecting to catch the one flight to Ljubljana per day?  Did they care?  Obviously not.  The next hour or so was spent learning our fate and dealing with the delightful customer service people at Air France.  Long story short, rebooked through Zurich to Ljublana, spending many hours waiting in both CDG and Zurich airports.  And we arrived after 10 o'clock in Ljubljana, about 24 hours after we had left Ed Black's house on the way to Logan Airport.

What are the odds that our luggage followed us?  You guessed it again - zero.  After spending another 30 minutes with Tina from Adria Airways (who was quite nice), we had our reports filed and off we sent to the hotel, with only the clothes on our back and what we had in our backpacks.

So far the first thing I wanted to do on the trip - sightseeing in Ljubljana and dinner in town - well, scratch them off the list.

I will spare you the complete story.  We are at our first stop, we still have no bags, although there is a chance that are bikes are on a plane arriving from Zurich tonight at 6 pm and maybe there will be 2 of our 4 suitcases with them.  One other suitcase is still in Paris (they think) and they don't know where Marko's bag is.  But I doubt they have a clue where any of them are, and I'll believe them when I see them.

The second thing on the list was a ride today in Rimske Toplice - to get the kinks out and warm up the legs.  Scratch that off the list as well (although it did thunderstorm, so maybe I should look at the bright side).

We have heard now that 3 of the bikes are in Ljubljana and are "on their way" to the hotel where we are staying.  Suitcases are another story, although there is a possibility that one or more will arrive on the last flight in from Zurich tonight.  We probably won't know until we wake up in the morning, so it may be like Christmas.

I'm too tired even to talk about what a beautiful country Slovenia is and how nice the people are.  All that is true.  I am hoping that I get my luggage situation squared away to be able to report on it.

Preparations

The buildup to this trip - biking across Slovenia - has been a long time coming.  We signed up more than 6 months ago.  It always seemed so far off in the distance, and now here it is.

The Trans-Slovenia Challenge.  If you look up Slovenia in Wikipedia it tells you that the country is the size of Massachusetts.  So, it's like traveling across Massachusetts.

Seven days of riding.  Total distance traveled will be about 460 miles.  Total elevation gain will be about 58,000 feet.  We will be staying in Ljubljana, Rimske Toplice, Logarska Dolina, Kranj, Bled and Kranjska Gora.  The country is very mountainous and 2/3 covered by forest.  By all accounts it is beautiful.  I hope to be able to take some photos, post them here, and let you decide for yourselves.

I took a bike trip this same week of September in 2008.  The entire trip all the news from back home was about Lehman Brothers.  We arrived back home and shortly thereafter Lehman filed.  I hope this trip is not as financially momentous.

I am going to schlep my laptop on the trip despite Andrea's well-meaning protests to the contrary.  I think I won't regret having done so.

Off on Friday night.  Stay tuned.