Cycling in the Julian Alps

The first ride of our Slovenian bike tour was an out-and-back ride from Bled into the Triglav National Park (Slovenia's only National Park). We headed north out of Bled and looped around the north side of Lake Bled, through several small towns before we entered the national park and rode through the Radovna River valley. The clouds from the previous night's storms lingered, giving us overcast skies, but it didn't rain, and it was a pleasant ride. Along the way, we stopped at the ruins of a stone building, preserved as a memorial to the town of Radovna and the massacre of civilians here by the Nazis as a reprisal for Partisan activities in the area during WWII. The turn around point for our ride was a homestead museum, where we stopped for drinks and a bite to eat before we began our ride back to Bled.

The next day, we did another out-and-back ride from Bled to Lake Bohinj, also inside the Triglav National Park. This time, we rode through town and around the south shore of the lake before setting off up the Sava Bohinjka River valley. This ride was originally planned to be our first ride, but our guide delayed it a day to ensure that none of our route was under water after the thunderstorms the evening of our arrival. The majority of this ride was on dedicated bicycle trails (though a stretch of it was under construction, and we had to walk our bikes around the work for a piece of it), and the weather was glorious. Someone compared the views to those in Yosemite Valley, but without the traffic. We stopped for lunch at a restaurant by a campground shortly before we got to Lake Bohinj, and when we reached the lake we had a little time to take in the scenery (or go for a swim, for those willing to brave the chilly water). We then retraced our path back to Bled.