Mick + bike vs Europe

Disclaimer:
Bit of a bland report this one I'm afraid, but that may just be because I'm a bit grumpy after today (puncture, bent front derailleur & bad first impression of Pula). Even so it really wasn't a bad day compared to some others, just the first bad one in a while I guess.
/disclaimer.

The Munich to Zagreb train trip wasn't any real problem with the bike, little bit of hassle in that train doors and hallways really aren't big enough for bikes. Had to pay on the train for the bike on the Slovenian and Croatian legs of the trip, whereas through Germany and Austria I paid for the bike when I bought my original ticket. €20 all up was the cost of taking the bike on the train. More than I thought, but not too bad I guess (it was €95 for me). Also a different feeling having been in four countries in one day on a train.

Had a bit longer in Zagreb than I thought I would thanks to Oktoberfest catching up with me. Took 2 extra days to (largely) get over whatever bug I picked up in Munich (just as my sinuses had finally gotten over the Berlin bug). I'm sure all these wogs smoking everywhere isn't helping my cause. Zagreb itself is a good little place, especially if you're a people watcher. Plenty of young people about, just watchout you don't get rundown by a tram, they're stealthily quiet & everywhere.

Heading out of Zagreb showed me its 'developing world' outskirts. An odd mix compared to the centre.

Zagreb to Karlovac was uneventful, but good to be riding through different landscape. Saw my first taste of recent Croatian history in Karlovac - buildings riddled with bullet holes just near the centre of town.

The campsite that night was a bit out of town, when I got there a sign on the door at reception said to help yourself to a spot and someone would be back soon. Back soon never eventuated, even in the morning, so I free camped at a campsite. Win.

Next target was Plitvice lakes NP (one of, if not the biggest tourist attractions in Croatia and my Rough Guides to Europe book has nothing of it). Campsite was decent, as it should have been for about $18/night. The park itself was pretty damn cool, basically it's a series of lakes and waterfalls formed from the limestone kast. I did the big walk loop, not sure how far but about 7 hours all up (including lunch, photo ops & one 3 minute boat ride). I took about 140 photos that day, almost triple what I've taken on any other day this trip. Should give you and indicator of what the scenery is like. As always, photos when I can.

A few beers in the late arvo sunshine were great at the end of that day. If only I had a slab of beef on my BBQ & the beers were greens it would have been perfect.

The ride across to Senj was one of the best of the trip. Quiet roads for the most part, three long climbs of about 10km each spaced across the day. The second one turned to dirt about halfway up which was fine, seeing as I'm on a MTB. There was however extra incentive not to crash off the side of the road - landmines. A 10km stretch had warning signs everywhere. Was interesting going downhill on gravel with slick tyres. Thankfully no off road excursions. The final section of the day was the reward - a 15km descent to Senj. Brilliant. Was very cool cresting the final climb, seeing the ocean & islands then covering the final 15km without a pedal stroke. A few sundowners topped it off nicely after I'd setup camp. The campsite wasn't bad either - tent pitched about 5m from the waterline. The bloody wind got up that night which was the only downside (definitely gale force winds according to the string on a stick scale).

To Rijeka was an easy 70km, one good climb around a bay not far from town. The town was very nice for a port town (comparing to the shithole that is Toulon from earlier in the trip), but there's not much to do. Hostel was good so that was something.

Made it to Pula late today after 112km (only decided to come to Pula late today after figuring out the low season ferry timetable didn't fit well with the timing I had planned), not a great first impression of the place so will see how things pan out. Hostel full of school kids didn't help either. Hoping to get across to the Brijuni archipelago in the next day or two. Supposed to be worth a look.

Will likely backtrack much of today's route to get the ferry to Cres later in the week, before jumping another ferry from Cres to Zadar.

Right now I'm going to have another beer to help the grumpy go away, so bye bye.

I developed a serious case of the shits with the wind. It blew constantly from the S-SW the whole time from Berlin to Nuremberg, meaning a constant headwind for a week. Combine that with having been bedridden in Berlin (some virus - couldn't eat, head & body aches) and it equalled about two weeks of me questioning WTF am I doing this for? A couple of nights in Nuremberg and some decent food and I was keen to push onto Munich to let the good times roll.

In Munich I had to make a quick switch from riding fitness to drinking fitness. Oktoberfest is truly mental. Everything about it is big - from the steins & food, to the beer halls & crowds. (A pork knuckle is possibly the best thing ever after a day in a beer hall - huge lump(s) of pork & crackling. Glorious.) Munns & Katie were in fine form too. Good to catch some familiar faces. So many Australians in town for 'fest too, can't go two minutes without running into an Australian accent. Kind of cool after being away from home for a while.

Have booked a train to Zagreb (Croatia) tomorrow. Should be a good change of pace, and warmer weather too. Continuing with my plan of no set plan, I think I'm going to head from Zagreb to Rijeka, then take my time heading South down the coastline. As always that could change anytime.

Fixed a couple of things on the blog, archiving is now working, added the extra photo sets that went AWOL in the intertubes, & added a link to download the kml to view in Google earth.

Am guessing internet may not be so readily available in Croatia, but you never know.

Chow from Germany.