Day 56 - Torek 4. junij 2013

From - Ptuj
To - Zalec
Distance - 75km
Time - 5 hours
Total - 3636km

Last night I went out and had a Slovenian Pizza. Like all pizza, its difficult to distinguish between some of the varieties but this has some horseradish sauce in one part of it and some black beans as well as all the normal things like cheese and ham and tomato. The woman at the restaurant told me a joke. It involved the Slovenian President talking to the Chinese President casually after an international leaders meeting. He asked the Slovenian President what population he had. The reply was '2 million'. The Chinese President then asked 'Where exactly is your Hotel'?

Later, I also had a chat with a man who managed the hostel. He gave me some advice about a hostel to stay in at Ljubljana. It is the 'Hippest hostel' according to Lonely Planet and was previously a prison. It still has its bars! So I have booked it for two nights but I have to get here first!

A decent sleep. I was the only person in my six bed dormitory but no breakfasts available at this hostel so I went to a supermarket and successfully bought something similar to a sausage roll, a chocolate doughnut and a croissant filled with vanilla. You probably don't think that is very healthy but it did the job washed down with a carton of orange juice.

Today's riding started flat on a busy road westwards to Slovenska Bistrica. It was a fairly bland town that wasn't helped by the drizzly weather. I could see the rain coming towards me as I cycled. It was only a brief shower but its not been a great day weatherwise.

I then got off the busy roads into the country. The scenery has been beautiful and lovely villages dotted the hillsides. The cycling was very much up and down. Steep ups and steep downs, its really annoying but I managed. Granny gear was fully employed. I stopped in a bus shelter for my lunch, not really the best place ever but it was out in the country and I got a seat with a view and no reservation required.

The last part took me through the fairly large town of Celje, it looked a bit of a commercial centre so I carried on towards Zalec. On the way I stumbled across an old mansion called Novo Celje that was under renovation. It had been owned by he man who introduced hop growing into the area and more recently it had been a mental hospital till the Second World War when the Germans took the patients away and executed them.

I had noticed the hops growing in the fields as I cycled and when I arrived at Zalec the lady from the tourist information directed me to the Hop museum. I was a bit reluctant, after all how interesting can hops be? I was wrong again. The museum was in an old hop drying factory and I was the only visitor. I got a personal tour from a friendly English speaking lady. She showed an old film about hop growing and picking from the past. It was really quirky and showed thousands of hop pickers getting off trains and enjoying their work. I suspect it was actually hard graft in reality. Now the best bit..... I got to drink beer made from local hops and only sold at the museum. It was lovely, just what I needed after my cycling. Another member of staff was kind enough to give me a second beer free and he took a nice picture of me.

I moved onto my hotel which I had booked previously by Internet. I had taken a gamble on booking the Casino Hotel. It's a large green modern building in the centre of town. I must say it is very comfortable and to my surprise there are some English speaking channels on the TV. The best I have ever had before was BBC World News and that has only been in a couple of places.

I have become aware of the flooding in parts of Central Europe. I am thankful it isn't affecting me. It is affecting some of the places I have been through. I believe Passau is badly affected. I recall speaking to a local man near Linz called Conrad who was telling me of the floods of 2002 and he proudly showed me new flood defences. I hope they have done the job for him but like lots of flood defences they just move the flooding problem elsewhere! The weather forecasts for Europe still seem very unsettled for this time of year, even Northern Italy is having rain. I was banking on a bit of sunshine when I got to Trieste and Venice. I'm still hoping. I think it could be the Vernon curse. Dodgy weather follows me around.

Bigger hills for me tomorrow in my attempt to get to Ljubljana and get to that prison cell. I checked a different mapping website called ViaMichelin.com and it is really good because you can do a route and click a cycle icon and it will use smaller roads to work out a route and also show where steep hills are. Well the good news is that tomorrow there are five steep hills and all of them are downhill!! However, I know that I am going about twice as high as I have been today so the website is keeping the bad news to itself. Apparently there is a small village at the top of the hill that does the best doughnuts, so I will have to give one a try as a reward for getting there.

Song of the day has to be 'At the Hop' by Danny and the Juniors.

Photo 1, Town of Slovenska Bistrica.
Photo 2, Slovenian countryside.
Photo 3, Village of Ponikva.
Photo 4, Scenery near Celje with train.
Photo 5, Hop plant.
Photo 6, Novo Celje.
Photo 7, Church in Zalec.
Photo 8, The Hop Museum.
Photo 9, The best bit, sampling the beer at a Hop Museum.