Ljubljana to Trieste
Trip miles 1,557
Our decent down the final slopes of the Alps was through the alternating green fields and forests of Western Slovenia. With the craggy Julian Alps in Bertha’s rear-view mirror our way down to sea level was a gentle sloping drive under bright blue skies on excellent roads that were well worth the cost of the 10 euro vignette we had paid to travel on the motorways. We had one final stop in Slovenia 5kms from the border to top up with LPG and adjust our tyre pressures which had significantly increased when crossing the Alps at altitude.
We crossed the border with Italy a few miles north of Trieste and wound our way down the final forested chicanes to enter the port town under a steaming hot noon sun - "the orange thing" reached 26 degrees.
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| Trieste Marina Piccolo |
There was no mistaking we were in Italy! Driving Bertha
through the centre to reach the aire at the port we were grateful for the lack
of traffic on the roads as the Italian lunchtime brought the aromas of baked
breads , fried fish and garlic wafting along the tall, hot, narrow streets. We
parked up at the leisure marina and got the bikes off to explore the historic
centre. Trieste surprised us with its large public squares, grand merchant
houses, colossal churches and emerald waterways.
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| Bikes ready to explore Trieste |
A little down at heel it seemed a ‘grand old dusty dame’ and cycling was easy down the wide open pedestrian centres and along the suddenly shaded and cool streets behind the port proper. A supermarket shop and a port-side beer in a ‘pub’ selling Munich lagers set us up for an early night ahead of the 3am start for the ferry.
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| The camper aire at Trieste |
Once on board the Minoan Lines crossing we headed up on deck and looked out over the city in the early morning darkness to watch the rising sun bring a bright cool dawn to the busy docks below as we pulled away for the 30 hour trip down the Adriatic Sea to Greece.
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| 4am: Bertha on the Minoan ferry to Greece |
