Day 36: Moravče to Gorišnica – 59k

2,971km down: 3,254km to go

During the night it got quite cold. I had to get into both my sleeping bag and my sleeping bag inner for the first time, it was still a bit chilly this morning. Only 59k today, 480 up and 477 down. Only thing is that the up and the down were all at the same time. It was flat then it was up and up and up, followed by a big down hill and then back to flat. The view was fantastic; vineyards stretching for miles, a field of sunflowers, a monastery and a village at the top called Jeruzalem with a church and a vineyard. I rode the first part by myself but rode from the top of the hills with David.

About 5k into the ride we went past a house where there were a lot of models of houses and churches including one we had ridden past about 5k before. We went past a couple of really small churches, it took until the third one for me to realize that these where a new type of shrine. They have a wee altar etc.

Small shrine that looks like a church

Instead of just having the Pope or Jesus, the shrines here also have the Virgin Mary statue with the bright colourful ribbon of Poland. Certainly God is much more a part of people’s lives in the countries I have visited than at home. Every kilometre there is at least one shine.

Shrines with colourful ribbons

In every village there is at least one church and some have three or more. Being Sunday most of the churches ring their bells at 6am. This morning the church by the campsite started with about 30 bells.

Talking about 30, Yarn is 30 at the end of the month and we are trying to come up with the best one word to put before it so suggestions please. “Like fabulous at 50” but for 30. The best I have come up with so far is “dirty at 30” but it’s not really appropriate as he is a happily married man.

As it was a short ride kilometre wise today, we were at the lunch stop by 10am and at the campsite before midday. The campsite also has a hotel attached and YAY they had rooms. They have very nice rooms at a reasonable price, ensuite, balcony etc. The balcony was very handy for drying clothes but as it was facing the main road I thought they would not be pleased see to see all my clothes hanging over the railing so I put them on the ground of the balcony. It was really hot so they dried well.

I spent a nice afternoon having a lazy Sunday, I went for a walk around the town, it was very small so it did not take long. Because it was a Sunday everything was closed, including the small supermarket.

We had dinner at the hotel which was quite nice. We are only a couple of kilometres off the 3,000k so we had Slovenian red wine (a merlot) to celebrate. It was quite drinkable.

Tomorrow we are back to the usual distances – 106K with hills. Two more riding days until the next rest day then three more riding days till we arrive in Venice.