June 18th: Rifugio Pian dei Ciclamani to Bohinskja Bela

Riding up over the pass after a generous breakfast, we discovered that the pass was labelled in both Slovenian and Italian, indicating how close to the bother we were. Indeed, after a quick descent we found the border, a bridge overlooking a river, with passport controls and customs buildings nearby, both obviously no longer used. We took photos to commemorate crossing our first border by bicycle before heading down the exhilarating descent to the market at Zaga, where we stopped for ice cream.

The next section until Trinova ab Soci was harrowing, with heavy traffic including big rig trucks and huge tour busses passing us. From there, the Komoot driven path descends to the river where a very pleasant bike path began. The ride was fast, especially with Mark Brody going to the front and pulling the tandems at speeds exceeding what the typical e-bike was legally allowed to provide assistance for.

We passed hordes of other tourists on this descent until we got to Tolmin, somehow passing Otto Sr in the process without noticing it was he had driven to Most na Soci and was riding towards us.

At Tomlin, we found a supermarket and bought a picnic lunch before riding down to the Soci river.

After lunch, we debated what to do. Stephan had had found memories of the Soci river and wanted to stay in the area, but we’d gotten there at 1:00pm and it was hot! I wanted to just hop onto the train to Bled and ride the loop to the upper Bohjinkska lake before dinner. The RV couldn’t take the tunnel train anyway and would have to drive the long way around, so we decided not to compromise.

We followed Otto Sr on his e-bike back to the RV where he had parked, grabbed our luggage, and made our way to the train station, where we had time to buy tickets for ourselves but couldn’ figure out how to work the machine to dispense bike tickets. We were not worried as other cyclists started showing up and told us to just board and let the conductor sell us bike tickets.

While waiting we looked at booking.com and booked 2 nights at an apartment at Bohjinkska Bela, the closest we could get to Lake Bled without having to pay 1000EUR/night prices. The kids were looking forward to their promised rest day, and Arturo and I were very happy to snag 2 nights at Lake Bled in the middle of the week from Wednesday to Friday rather than having to pay weekend prices.

The tunnel train that Jobst alluded to in his trip reports turned out to be really ancient, and getting the tandem aboard required that I remove my seatpost from the bike, which was still much less onerous than a coupler disassembly. Once aboard, the conductor sold us the bike tickets. The prices were all very reasonable and the train ride gave us a mild respite from the afternoon heat, despite the train not being air conditioned.

Once we got off the train at the upper Bohinjska lake, Arturo and I realized that we’d made a mistake booking near Lake Bled instead of at the upper lake. There was plenty of lodging, lots of activities, and access to Bled would have been easy by train! Well, what’ done is done. First, we made an ice cream stop, trying their local Slovenian flavors which we agreed were great. “We’re no longer in gelato country!” said Bowen with just a twinge of disappointment.

From there, we rode to the upper Lake along a series of increasingly narrow roads until we got to the one lane bridge crossing the lake outlet. There, we stopped the bikes and went down to the water for photos. Folks were out swimming, paddle boarding, boating. This was clearly a great nature destination, quite capable of supporting a couple of days of exploration all by itself. But the day was getting long, and we rode towards the main road to get to our lodging.

I was completely unprepared for the road to get even more scenic, but it did, with that narrow road leading us to cute picturesque villages where two small cars would have to negotiate passages too close for more than one car to pass. Imagine my astonishment as just before we rejoined the main road, our route took a sudden dive into a gorge. Spray filled the air from the river that had carved the gorge, providing a shock to our heat-drenched bodies and then a swift descent!

The last 8km on the main road to Bohinsjka Bela were a chore. Not only were we weary, but the road was boring with platoons of cars and trucks harassing us as we rode on the nearly level road which even occasionally climbed instead of descending as was our just due after all our work so far.

We made it to the bike path and then looked at our phone in dismay as we realized that one of two restaurants were closed, and it was the better rated one that was closer. Having no choice and depressed in spirit, we rode to the second one, which had the virtue that at least it was within 100m of our apartment. Finding it right next to a supermarket and fairly crowded, we sat down and found to our delight that the single proprietor was customer service oriented and fast.

We ordered pizza, the local sausages, and various dishes that were new to us. While the food didn’t blow us away, we were hungry and capable of eating it all. While waiting for food, I checked my phone and discovered that the apartment was one of the contactless management places. We did our registration online and they would text us instructions on how to get into the apartment.

The apartment, as might be expected, was only 100m but that 100m was entirely uphill, and when we found it we were relived. We unlocked the place, and then moved all the luggage and bikes up the narrow staircase, the latter operation requiring once again the removal of my seatpost.

Staying two nights at a place is a luxury when touring. It means that any laundry you do will have a full day to dry. All your electronics will get a chance to charge to full, and you’ll get to know the place well enough to optimize your experience.

We took showers, did laundry. Unfortunately, whie handling his bike computer Bowen dropped his Edge 830 and broke it into 2 pieces. The Edge 830 had a history of delaminating in the wet and cold and what we had put his unit through was too much.

We went to sleep, having noticed that the supermarket would be open the next morning. We made plans to visit Bled via bus and spend the day hiking, paddle boarding, and swimming. Rain swept in while we slept but was all gone by the time we woke up.