By Bike

Day 2 – Logatec to Bled.

Feeling melancholic this morning as I learn not far from here a mass grave was exhumed of a whole village exterminated by the Nazis during WWII. I discover also that over 8% of the entire Slovenian population perished during the war.

It’s hard to join the dots between the bloody past and the peacefulness, harmony and ease with which we are able to travel in Europe today. It brings me a great sense of hope that we are able overcome our differences when we give our hearts to it.

I remind myself though that not far to our north and to the east there are horrific wars taking place, there is an increasing normalisation of fascism, racism and xenophobia across Europe, and at home we have still not reconciled with our genocidal past. The dots remain.

The ride thankfully, lifts my spirits. It’s not far before we’re climbing steadily for @8km through beautiful tall evergreen forest on the edge of the Polhov Gradec Dolomites. Then it’s a lovely 36km descent of sweeping curves down an increasingly wide valley and super smooth roads to Škofja Loka where we get our first sighting of the Alps.

The final leg of our journey for the day is equally enjoyable – a marked cycleway via back roads and paths through fields of maze, pretty villages and forest.

Our camp and our first rest day is set in the woods beside a fast mountain stream a few kilometres from Lake Bled a picturesque lake at the base of the Julian Alps, the eastern most section of the Alps as whole.