2025 Slovenia Tour – on the Sunny Side of the Alps
This tour took place from May 11 to May 25, 2025. Nine people participated: Jim Cilek, Charlene Dorward, Bonita Douglas, Lynda Edmonds, Heye Klaver, Ramona Lee, Bob Myrick, Annemieke Quinn and Deanna Simmons. Being a small group, we bonded quickly. The tour operator, Alen Augustine, was organized and extremely capable, as always.
For the most part we were self-led, as Alen was driving the support vehicle. I kept thinking how lucky we were – the weather was sunny and not too hot. Whenever we were in a busy city and unsure of whether to ride on the sidewalk or on the busy road, a local cyclist who was going our way seemed to magically appear and whatever option they chose, we followed. Whenever we were unsure of the route (such as coming into busy Ljubljana) we put our heads together to figure things out. We had 10 minutes of rain on the outskirts of Ljubljana just when we came upon a covered bus shelter. On another day we were caught in a thunderstorm just as we came to a café where we could shelter and drink coffee until it passed.
On May 22 our luck changed. The day started out with sprinkles and the forecast was not good. This was the day that we were riding over Predil Pass, with an elevation gain of 925 m. After an hour the rain started in earnest. Eventually we got about 2 inches (50 mm) at the top of the pass, and the temperature was about 7°. After 46 km we took shelter in a small café partway through the route. Alen, always ready with a solution, dropped off the luggage at the hotel up ahead and picked up those of us who were too cold to continue. May 23 brought nice weather again, which held for the remainder of the tour.
The trip included two winery tours along with tastings. One night we stayed in underground rooms at yet another winery and had an exotic dinner there. The starter was deep-fried seasoned dandelion leaves with yogurt and honey, and that was just the beginning! The food and wine throughout the tour was fabulous, and Alen arranged dinner at several restaurants where we sampled the local specialties.
We saw a lot of stork nests, hay racks, colorful bee hives and the famous Lipizzaner horses. The back roads on which we did most of our riding were quiet and scenic (and hilly!) In all we cycled 700 km with an elevation gain of 7,800 m. A big thank you to Alen who created this wonderful tour, and to Bonita, for organizing it for CCCTS!
Submitted by Charlene Dorward