Minou and I caught the 5:49am train from Ljubljana to Trieste. (I’d caught this train more than a year earlier, with Dennis and Franklin as we escaped the flooding in Slovenia. We thought Italy would be drier but we were soon dodging the floods there too).
Luckily, the room we had, wasn’t far from the station. I was up early for a little breakfast and a coffee before we carried bikes and gear down the stairs and packed up. It had to be done quietly too.
The train left on time and it retraced our steps through Logatec, Postagna and Divaca and then along the steep and spectacular coastline into Trieste. It’s just not the same. We saw so much more by bike.
As we made our way from the platform, we noticed that the station which was almost deserted ten days ago was completely full of people. It was really a zoo. There were police and volunteers helping people as well. They weren’t the usual train travellers though. They all had twice as much luggage and were dressed up in clothes that you don’t see at railway stations on weekends.
While on the train from Ljubljana, I’d decided to train it to Udine to avoid the coastline and weekend traffic near Trieste. I’d ride from Udine and take the Ciclovia Alpe Adria path – Miles had recommended it and he’s really good with cycling tips. I thought there’d be some other cyclists too and it might be more sociable. So I went to the ticket office at Trieste central and bought my ticket.
I asked the ticket lady why there were so many people and she said that a cruise ship had arrived and the people were going to Venice.
The incompetence shown in transporting these people from the ship to the station was amazing. They seemed to be wandering around not knowing where to go or how to get tickets. They stood in doorways, blocked footpaths and generally got in everyone’s way. And the stream of passengers from the boat to the station went on and on.
The best was when they decided to walk up the cycle lanes with their massive wheelie bags, and shopping bags. The locals sorted them out with a couple of rings of their bells and a few stern words. Brown’s Cows is the best way to describe the cruisers.
I guess Venice is restricting the number of cruise boats and this is the result. I felt sorry for Trieste.
On a positive note, it was a beautiful morning and Trieste was at its best. The brown scum that was on the waterways last week had luckily blown out to sea with the change of wind direction. We sat in a cafe, ate toasties and people watched.
Pretty soon it was time for Minou to catch her Flixbus to the airport and for me to go back to the station. (It was almost back to normal again. Phew). Wed had a great father-daughter time, seen some really nice places, talked a lot and really appreciated what Slovenia offers. (The pizzas we had there were top shelf).
It was sad to say goodbye again to Minou, but I’ll see everyone in six weeks or so as I head to London and fly out towards home.
***
Then it was time to get on the train to Udine. It was completely uneventful which is how I like my train journeys.
From Udine station, I headed north and followed what I thought was going to be the Ciclovia Alp Adria path. I’d just downloaded it from Komoot, but what I had, was certainly not the official path. More likely, it was someone’s misguided attempt to follow the path – and they failed. In the middle there was a 3km loop for no reason and a few times, the track did two long sides of a triangle instead of the simple short side. It was bizarre.
When I was fleetingly on the official path, there were loads of cyclists coming the other way. Many of them were older than me and riding in big single file groups with hardly a smile amongst them. The vast majority were on ebikes too – hardly necessary here. As a result, I was pleased to be on the non-standard, haphazard route. It included a few kms of single track. It was actually double track but the recent rains had washed half of it away. I copped plenty of scratches from the overgrown thorns as a result, but it was great to ride through more interesting places – as well as riding in the shade !
Eventually, I rejoined the signposted route that would take me to Gemona. There was a campsite just north of the town, so I stopped at the supermarket for supplies before finding the campground.
It was full of cyclists heading south and I met a few talkative people who gave me some tips. They all raved about the beauty of the path up to Austria.
As I started cooking dinner, a dozen students arrived with their chaperones and the quiet campground changed character immediately. They were fine. Iate my dinner in the tent as it started to rain – it continued intermittently for the rest of the evening. After eating, the rain stopped, so made a cup of tea, then it started again, so back into the tent I went.
It had been a really long day and the camp talking and snoring, didn’t stope from sleeping very soundly.
