This was a great day’s cycling, but harder than yesterday at over 50 miles and 3000 feet of ascent. We started early to beat the heat.
The first section was up the valley to Celje – quite a large town with a castle towering above.
Our coffee stop at a cafe with stylish modern furnishings turned into a crèche, with babies being passed around and cooed at.
Then, for the first time on the trip, we left a river valley and headed up across rolling hills. And it rolled pretty seriously! The next 10 miles were very slow indeed. But the countryside was beautiful, a patchwork of meadows and forest.
Finally we crested the last steep climb and cruised down to a river valley – a tributary of the Drava. A minor road led downstream, on the flat valley floor, and a tailwind appeared from nowhere. This was lovely, easy riding.
It was getting seriously hot, 33C on my Garmin. We found a cafe for cold drinks, where the owner told us that this was the last day of summer, with cooler weather forecast from tomorrow. Sounds ok to us, I must say.
One final climb saw us onto the floodplain of the river Drava, the same river we had followed from Obervellach down to Villach. Here in Ptuj it’s very big, and we stopped on the bridge to admire Ptuj castle above the red roofs of the town.
Tonight we’re in the Music Cafe – with an eclectic play list that we are enjoying in the tranquility of their tea garden. We’ll wait for the heat to relent a little before venturing out to explore.