European Bike Express Coach (www.bolero@jsdesign.demon.co.uk for more info.) to Lido de Cavallino (Huge Campsite, mainly for fat, lobster-pink, sunworshipping Brits) - 20km from Venice.

There follows about 80km of flat, straight, boring, very busy A road the whole way to Trieste. Very steep, narrow descent on busy main road approaching Trieste. Trieste is hideous, enough said.

Take funicular railway up virtually sheer mountainside to Opicina/Sezana, the border crossing to Slovenia. (Picture 1)

Scenic, undulating detour south to Skocja Caves. 5km underground,fantastic, like something out of Indiana Jones film! Worth the detour.

Ride unexpectedly alone on huge highway northwards to Senozece. Discover why all alone: New super highway built through this area from Italy to Ljubljana (capital) & towards Hungary, so all main traffic taken off local route. Villages like Senozece have had to close shops, hotels etc as now all bypassed. Shame! Great feeling though, having a huge motorway all to myself. Cyclists dream! Stay at only bar/restaurant/hotel in the village. Very cheap & old fashioned but delightful! (Why do all the few females I see in this country have very orange bottle-dyed hair?!)

The scenery gets more beautiful & unexpected at every turn, seriously: Great mountains, rivers, flowers, meadows a la The Sound of Music!!!!!!!! To Postojna. Charming town, good campsite for campers & caravans because ground is concrete & stones, so had to put up tent using stones to keep guy ropes taut, very dodgy! (Picture 2)

  More caves & castles & hills!

Next on to Idrija, passing Austrian ski chalet type houses all obviously trying to be the most florally decorated home in the country. (Anywhere else & it would be sooooo twee, but here it was beautiful!) Rolling hills. Tiring route, but certainly worth it for the sights. Where is everybody in this country? I havent seen a non-tourist (& hardly any tourists) since I arrived in Slovenia. No one on the streets anywhere!

Idrija, at last there are people! (orange haired women abound!) Great descent for miles down into the bottom of the valley to find this gem of a place.Very café-orientated town with shops, churches, museum, river, bike shop - perfect. The best tourist information office & most helpful assistants in the country, definitely. Stayed at school/hostel up the top of a very steep hill. Stunning views from the top of hills around this town, very extravagant looking churches! Lots of good day rides from here (always uphill of course!) along the rivers, hills etc. Getting picturesque scenery fatigue!

Idrija to Ziri to Gorenja Vas to Skofja Loka: Looks great on paper, dont be fooled! Uphill for a few hours, but dont expect the reward of a smooth descent because the road is rarely tarred & full of pot holes. I expect its fine on a MTB with suspension, but my little tourer had a torrid time, as did my body! A surprise to find big supermarkets in the middle of nowhere along this route, in Ziri! (& the sort of road sign you would find in the U.S.! along with the hair dye..) (Picture 3)

Skofja Loka, 13th century town, now this is what culture & historic buildings are all about. Beautiful, beautiful etc. (Shame the traffic is increasing though!) Need a whole day to explore. Check out another castle!

Next, to Kranj, another café town with redheads! However this is a weird contrast of UK 1960s council tower blocks & picturesque Prague type bridges. Bike routes abound, unfortunately the one parallel to the tourist highway towards Bled, suddenly stops & you have to dice with death for a few km, without warning!

Great rabbit warren of bike routes from Kranj to Radovljica, many of which I wouldnt have found at all if it hadnt been for a local cyclist who came to my rescue (Slovenians are not good on signposts!). Brilliant bike lanes through fields, villages, churchyards, but no signposts!

Bled, the tourist capital of Slovenia, typical British London traffic: lorries, cars, coaches, caravans, trailers & road rage! (Redheads included!) Definitely the best way to get around is by bike! Hotels & tacky tourist shops & malls, casinos & amusement arcades surround The Lake. Best time for photos of The Lake is just after dawn, mist rising over the mountains, off the castle & church(Picture 4)

   But a great base for traveling in Bohinj District, (more lakes, mountains, gorges, churches & awesome scenery.) Please discover the village of Krope with its iron works & museum, then keep going up, up, up. (picture 5);

   Picnic on the shores of Bohinj lake in sight of Mt Trglav; Return over the mountain route via Koprivnik, Konjska Raven, Zatrnik, then Radovna & back in the National Park; walk along Vintgar Gorge. In this area, dont stick to a map exactly, be brave & you will discover the most unexpected sights of beauty, I was often moved to tears! (maybe thats just because Ive lived here in the Middle East too long & I have forgotten what mountains & rivers look like!)

*

I experienced 2 weeks of the above tour in wall to wall sunshine & turquoise skies. I suspect I was just lucky, but the weather can be a nightmare in the mountains!!

* Bled to Maribor: (The weather changed: Winter Monsoon!!)

Bled to Brezje via previously mentioned non-signposted cycle paths. (Check out St Marys Church here as the Slovenian pilgrimage holy spot. Shame about the tacky tourist market stalls outside, selling rosaries etc! Up, up, up hill into the wilderness, a MTB is definitely preferable here, Golnik, Cerklje to: Kamnik is a dump where you dont want to stay unless you have run out of daylight & getting soaked to the skin, as I was. Uphill still, from there to Celje on quiet main roads. Celje is a very nice town, gargoyles & sculptures on colourful buildings. Certainly a bit more classy. Bike lanes abound, with signs! Checkout the half ruined castle up on the hill. As it had been raining since I left Bled, the whole way to Celje, I cheated & took the bike on the train to Maribor! Unlike UK, Slovenian railway stations dont all have platforms, so you have to be very tall & strong to get yourself & bike (& half a ton of luggage) up above your head & through a narrow door on the train. (I didnt realize until arriving back home, the extent of the physical injury I developed due to heavy lifting of my bike throughout the whole trip to Prague, but thats another story)

Now out of Maribor, (which was interesting, but I had developed Slovenia Fatigue by day 19..) there is a fantastic bike route the whole way to the Austrian border. It eventually runs parallel to the Superhighway, then you just slip in past all the queuing cars at the customs.. (picture 6)

   However, it took 2 hours for me to find it, not to mention ending up on the Superhighway going the wrong way by mistake, but it was worth waiting for!

Thus ends Italy to Slovenia. It is only a brief description, taken from my brief diary. Please buy a decent road map, if you can find one.I was just lucky. I got from Italy to Bled on a 1:850,000 road map of Yugoslavia, Croatia, Bosnia, Macedonia & Slovenia, before I found a semi decent one to buy! You may notice I missed out the capital, Ljubljana, but I confess I took a day trip there on the bus & train from Bled, (mainly to experience Slovenian public transport, but also to try & meet some real Slovenes, (red headed or otherwise!)

Thanks for reading so far. I had such an adventurous & exhilarating time in Slovenia! I couldnt have managed without the Lonely Planet Guide to Slovenia (essential), a basic knowledge of German, a world service radio, my flute, (packed in 2 socks!) The Tourist Information Office & bicycle shop in Idrija, & the little old lady in Ziri who discovered me, passed out on the roadside from dehydration & sunstroke, & who let me recuperate in her home for a couple of days, & wouldnt take any payment from me!

Allie Hopkins 2000 (Picture 7)

   Please see map of route. Picture 8