Many people spoke some English, which made route finding easier. I was also surprised by what seemed to be a fairly prosperous country: there were many new houses being built that would be considered very nice by American standards, many new cars including quite a few SUVs and just a general sense of new-found prosperity.
Ljubjana to Prebold, 77 km
The next morning we headed East, following a main road with a bicycle path out of town and then taking then "yellow roads" or smaller side roads. Although there are bicycle paths, they are not labeled and it was difficult to find our way out of the city quickly, despite stopping to ask directions several times. However we were then into fairly flat farm country in a river valley, which rapidly became hillier. And hillier. Pretty, though, with church steeples and forests and lots of hay racks, which are apparently special to this area. Then very hilly, then we turned in Izlake and had one short but very steep section that was a 10% grade. From the top we swooped down and were on a nice low-traffic road near the freeway. We took a small detour to see a church with a candy-apple red spire, and ended up meeting a Slovenian woman who spoke good English and invited us in for drinks (beer for Tom and Stacey, black current juice for Erich) and her mother brought us out palascintas (like crepes) with chocolate sauce and whipped cream...yummy, especially because we were starving by then. We left and rolled down through the valley past many hop fields...this valley, the Sava, is known for hops production apparently. We stayed in a campground near the highway, noisy as usual.
Prebold to Ptuj, 90 km
This was a big tough day, with hills, hills, and more hills, including several steep grades. Tom and Erich rode them, even the 16% grade, but I walked quite a few sections. It was still beautiful countryside, with lots of forest, and I had plenty of time to contemplate that beauty on the slow slogs up the hills. We were hearing cuckoo birds in the woods, but they apparently can't tell time, because they weren't just cuckoing on the hour...bad joke. We finally got to Ptuj, which is pronounced just like the spitting noise...The campground there is a big resort or therme, with lots of pools of warm water, some inside and some outside, and water slides. The price of camping includes admission to the therme and water park, and we ended up staying an extra day to sight see in Ptuj, with a small historical center and castle, but mostly so Erich could play in the water park. The campground was again full of German retirees who came to "take the water" and they wandered around in their bathrobes and bath sandles, and frequently stopped by our site to ask where we were from and talk to Erich. He was quite a hit in this campground full of grandparents.
Ptuj to Moraske Toplice, 67 km
From Ptuj we headed east toward Moraske Toplice, where there is another therme and camping ground. There wasn't much to see in the town itself, and the campground was another of the big resorts with water park and mineral baths. Erich made some buddies in the water park, and had a great time. Tom and Stacey got in some water rides too: see the picture.
Moraske Toplice to Lenti, Hungary, 38 km
We woke in the night to rain on the tent, but the rain had turned to light sprinkles by morning. As it was Sunday morning there was almost no traffic, so we made good time to the Hungarian border. Again, there were buildings from the former border controls, but no one in them. And once in Hungary the roads seemed deserted but ther were parking lots full of semi trucks sitting out the day. We thought maybe the customs were closed, or there is a law against driving big trucks on Sunday, or.... Anyway there was a bike path from the border to the resort town of Lenti. On the bike path two Hungarian men were walking with speedos and their t-shirts rolled up to chest height as they patted huge bellies. Welcome to Hungary? We will see, as we continue through Hungary for the next week.
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