Tarvisio was quite touristy but the tourists were generally older people on eBikes. It’s beautiful but it’s not my kind of place. Leaving was therefore easy. I didn’t even stop for my last macchiato in Italy.
I did meet a Polish family cycling with their kids. I’m always impressed by this sort of adventure, but I really hope the kids enjoy it too.
The Alp-Adria bike path was close by and I was quickly on it and away. There were again loads of cyclists heading south, but today, there were a few going my way.
My intention today, was to take the path to Kranjska Gora which I’d been told was beautiful. It was certainly beautiful on the way there, but a ski village crawling with people wasn’t what I expected. So I left and went back to Podkoren.
41 years ago, I’d been in Podkoren while hitching from Jesenice to Villach. I had caught the train through what was then Yugoslavia and got out in Jesenice. The train fare was double if I stayed on board until the next stop in Austria. Any poor backpacker would have done the same. I hitched with a German girl who was doing doing just that. We got one lift to Podkoren, then sat in the middle of town working out where we were and how to get out of there.
We got a lift over the Wurzen Pass, and I got out of the car near Furnitz and I stayed with some Australians I had met there previously. That’s another long story.
So, today was a ride down memory lane for me. The Wurzen pass is much harder on a bike, but the downhill is way more fun. There were a couple of nasty surprises though, due to roadwork. The first surprise happened when I came around a corner at 50km/hr to see a line of cars at a stoplight for roadwork. The second was when I was following the same line of cars a bit faster and they each stopped for the change in bitumen – it would have been a couple of centimetres but they all stopped and went again. The last one took off with me yelling at him to get moving. Gotta say that I’m really impressed with these brakes 😁
After the pass, I took a wrong turn and went through Furnitz. 😁
Villach wasn’t far away, so I went into town for a huge kebab and a coffee. After that, I wasn’t sure what to do. I felt pretty tired so I decided to camp nearby. Well, it turned out to be 5 kms away but it didn’t matter.
The campsite is expensive and cod ordinary but there’s no alternative without an extra effort, so it’s home for the night. The best part is that it’s full of nice people.
I met a Dutch couple whose bikes are similar to mine, and a German family who were fantastic. The guy came over and brought a beer in the evening, and the next day, they gave me some breakfast.
