I woke up this morning starving, a good sign of my metabolism speeding up. After an early hostel breakfast, I wandered over to the supermarket before stopping by a bicycle shop for a replacement tube. The shop owner didn’t speak any English, but writing 32 x 700 cc on a piece of paper got us to whether I wanted a tire or tube, and it was easy after that. That’s the closest I’ve come to language difficulties so far this trip. The response to my apologizing when asking if someone speaks English is, “Of course!”
Before leaving town I also picked up stove fuel at a sporting goods store. I can’t carry fuel on the plane, and I find not being able to cook for myself limiting, esp. since the campgrounds haven’t included a stove.
I left Postojna twice, one because I should have played a Left instead of a Right following EV9 for a couple of kilometers before it turned south and I realized that was not the way.
I passed a small tower and cave about 10 km outside of Postojna. A lock hung on the tower door.
There was no attendant at the pathway to the cave. I wandered down the trail to the cavern. A good explorer, I carried my headlamp, but about the point that darkness encroached I reached a sign (and gate) that I could go no further without calling the local caving society.
I spent today following a secondary road following a motorway – little traffic. I had to diverge only once when the secondary road ceased to exist. I rerouted myself to pass nearby another castle that I had previously flagged as not interesting. However, I had a great time wandering through the ruins. That castle won’t be there much longer; I knocked a small section of wall down when I leaned against it. “Here lies Rick Steeves, killed by a falling castle wall.” Not exactly the epitaph I want, but not statistically unlikely.
Between my metabolism starting to shift, the marshmallow puffs I found that are mostly glucose, and the entire day being flat or downhill, I made great progress today, arriving in Ljubljana by 3:30. I checked into the hostel, visited the castle, and spent the evening wandering about the city.
I spent this evening talking with Sam, a 1st generation Londoner. We got embroiled in US politics, healthcare, and guns, and that used up the remainder of the evening.
I spent a couple of hours last night intently looking at my maps. I don’t know what Mark was talking about – there’s a great route to Zagreb along the Sava River. I head out towards Zagreb in the morning. I can’t quite get the spacing to line up for somewhere to stay along the multi-day trek to Zagreb, so I don’t know quite how that will play out.
