Karyn's Day: Day 14 Back to Ljubljana. End of Tour

It rained during the night but cleared up nicely for our final departure. We were all feeling sad about the arrival of our last day on the bikes. Last briefing from Anze and we headed into the hills of the peninsula and to the walled-mountain town of Motovun. ( think Gordes). This was our early coffee stop and we happily wandered the wall and cobbled streets without the expected crowds of the day.

Then it was onwards to Slovenia. We had a mild drama at the border-crossing as one of our group misunderstood the requirements. They actually held another of our group "hostage" until the issue was sorted. Made for a good story over dinner.

Wend our way through the back streets of Ljubljana to the small garage complex to return the bikes. On a tall table under the only tree, awaited celebratory glasses of bubbles. Taxis took us to the hotel but we had to sign in ourselves and take up our own luggage...the party was nearly over! We met for our last dinner, obviously accompanied by much banter and heartfelt farewells.

Half of the group had left for the airport before we had breakfast the next day. Tony and I went into the old town and visited a few sights and enjoyed a relaxed mode. We had lunch on the roof top cafe of a quite impressive art nouveau office building.

In the evening we returned for aperitifs and to dine at one of the umpteen restaurants that line the central river/canal. The local thing to do is to drink coffee or alcoholic drink, seemingly any time of day. We have noticed a welcomed absence of take-away coffee. I have not seen anyone buying one or walking down the street with one in their hand. People watching is great. Bicycles are so normal. All age groups wend their way through the pedestrian centre, no helmets and no Lycra in sight. We did see significant numbers of traveling cyclists during our two weeks on the mbike. Ljubljana has been voted the Green City of Europe. You can safely drink from all water fountains, rubbish is negligible, bus engines are so quiet and there are many green spaces, be they parks or areas amongst the residential streets. Residences with veggie patches are minutes from the city centre.

It is raining today and I am able to catch up on emails and the Blog. Am going to treat myself to a massage this afternoon. Two weeks on the bike and I think my muscles need a treat. Ready for one week on a bicycle. We fly to Split tomorrow, with Paul and Marg, to begin our boat/ bike week amongst the islands.