Day 23: Cycling from Berlin to Athens

Day 23

Ljubljana > Ltija > Trebnje > Novo Mesto

93.4km

5 hours 50 mins

1,282m elevation gain

On our rest day in Ljubljana we had a look at the route ahead and after reading many blogs of other cyclists, we decided to stay away from the the Croatian coastline. Apparently there is one main road along the coast and there is heavy traffic, especially during the high season and it can be very unpleasant. We therefore looked up new routes and cycling blogs and we decided to head to Zagreb and then down through Bosnia and Herzegovina to Sarajevo and then across to Dubrovnik. The day started out with a few minor detours and then a big detour - overall it was a good day but there was a lot of hills and it was hot. I thought at the time that we had made a bad decision on the route, but now I am pleased.

Slovenian countryside

Allotments and churches - we saw lots of these today

Plans Change - not once, but twice

We had chosen to take the more Northern route to get from Ljubljana to Zagreb (we knew it would take two days as it was over 150km) which follows the River Sava. There was supposed to be a bike route marked and it's easy enough to follow a river in general as well as the routes normally being more flat, in our experience. So at first when we were joining the path - there were bike signs along the road - we ended up taking the wrong direction of the path! It was confusing as it seemed to be the correct direction but after that we were on track, for the most part.

Then further along the route we met a nice Slovenian racing cyclist who slowed down for a while with us to find out about our trip. He recommended that we travel through the countryside and onto the Southern route (the old main highway) as the vineyards are lovely. He said there was only one main hill and that after it was flat. So at lunch in Ltija we had a look at the map and saw there were a few options down to the old highway and we picked one. There was more than one hill and the roads were fairly busy so I was a bit disgruntled that we hadn't just followed the river. However, in the long run we are happy because we changed our heading from Zagreb (West) to Southbound in order to visit Plitvicka National Park, which has amazing reviews and... wait for it... Una National Park in Bosnia! My namesake NP plus the River Una too! I am excited about seeing them.

The River Sava

Vineyards along the way

Sights of note

• Two deer bounding through a field
• The road works where they were working on the road right ahead of us and moved so we could get by - maybe close the road?!
• A heron and a cat having a face off

On our approach to Novo Mesto

Novo Mesto - we had a fantastic dinner at Don Bobi's