Cycling the EuroVelo 9 through Slovenia – Bad Radkersburg to Trieste via Maribor, Celje, and Ljubljana

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Ever heard of EuroVelo? They’re our go-to for choosing our multi-week summer biking trips. This summer was EuroVelo 9 – the Baltic-Adriatic Route. We didn’t plan to do the whole thing, as the trail is over 2000 km long. Also, most of the trail is in the works still, and not yet officially outfitted with consistent signage. In the end, we decided on a large chunk of the EuroVelo 9 starting in the Czech Republic, through Austria’s Styria region, and clear through Slovenia until our destination just across the Italian border: Trieste.

We chose this section of the trail in part because there is a guide book printed for part of the route. Another reason was getting to see multiple countries, cultures, and landscapes along the way. And then there was enough of the EuroVelo 9, but not too much, that was a bit more uncharted and adventurous: Slovenia.

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There were no guide books or blogs to assist us on our journey through Slovenia. We bought two hiking maps and two biking maps to help us get from the northeast corner of the country to the southwest with our bicycles intact. Before leaving, I highlighted the maps according the general route suggested by the EuroVelo website. Once in Slovenia, we quickly realized that this route along the main road with many hills would be four days of agony through this dazzling land. Finding a more detailed, cycle-friendly map on the Slovenian EuroVelo site was a game changer.

Did we both make it from Maribor, Slovenia to Trieste, Italy? Find out below!

EuroVelo 9 Day 1: Bad Radkersburg to Maribor – 56 km

In Bad Radkersburg, Austria, we stayed at a fancy campground next to one of the big spas for which the town is famous. Though no longer the youngest chickens in town, we significantly lowered the age average, even at the campsite. We were actually the only “real” campers there, as everyone else was staying in a motorized version of a tent. We had the tennis court-sized meadow for the real campers all to ourselves. No other campers came in the night and we woke up as lonely as we had gone to sleep.

Mur River

Interested in other bike trails? Check out these ones in Germany: Historic City Centers of Brandenburg, 100 Schlösser Route, the Werse River Bike Trail

Back on the trail, we continued to the town of Mureck. We had a long break there in front of the town hall, and saw that the international kids’ chess tournament was beginning today. There were chess boards set up outside to practice on. The next 15 km was quick through a lot of cornfields and pumpkins and soy. We saw a nice waterfall at one point, short but very wide.

Leaving Austria behind for Slovenia

I knew Slovenia was hilly and mountainous, but I didn’t expect the bike trail to be so many hills. And there were many more to come!

A camp for REAL campers!

We walked around the old town a bit (of course with a stop at the supermarket) and then headed to camp which was across town. It was a bit far outside of Maribor and we began to wonder if it would even be a camp, when we finally saw the caravans. The camp was so great! It is really designed with “real” campers in mind. It was easy to do laundry, there are plenty of showers and toilets, and the tent area is actually close to the bathrooms. Another godsend: there are plenty of picnic tables and many are under a roof so there is space to go when it rains. Luxurious in our eyes.

After cooking, we walked to where the gondola brings you up Maribor’s highest peak. The camp isn’t so close to the Maribor town center, but it is right next to the city’s biggest attraction: Mariborsko Pohorje – the ski resort. Depending on weather, going up the gondola is one of our top choices. But it looks like there will be a lot of rain or fog.

Rest Day: Maribor

I know, it doesn’t seem like we deserve a rest day after just one day. But we were actually already on the trail for around 10 days by this time, having crossed through much of the Czech Republic and clear through Austria.

It rained all night, but it was possible to have a dry breakfast in the morning. After consulting the weather forecast, we switched up our plan and went straight to the town center instead of up the gondola first. We rode into town and locked the bikes at our ice cream shop, which we ate at three times during our 24 hours in Maribor.

Mariborski Grad

For our first tourist attraction, we visited the castle museum, which I found very good. I felt that there was the same amount of info in English as Slovenian. And it was a fair price! Just 5€. At the ticket counter, the woman told us that they would guide us through the castle, otherwise we would get lost. It sounded strange, but there are many rooms and floors to go through, so the guidance was welcome. They were very nice and helpful.

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The museum was comprehensive about Maribor, Slovenian culture and dress, tin figures, models of traditional homes and jobs. In the armory, some school art projects were displayed, which interested me much more than the military garb. The next room had furniture, paintings, and carvings. The final room exhibited modern Maribor (the last century), including different sport clubs, culture, and prominent citizens. At the end, our guide exited us through a magnificent pink stair case.

The World’s Oldest Vine

We got a bit lost looking for the world’s oldest vine. But when we found it, it was huge! We went inside the tavern and read all the information about Slovenia’s wine history and all the wine queens of Maribor and Slovenia. We also read about how the vine was nearly dead until some people became interested in it in the 1980s. It produces 100L of wine per year and 40kg of grapes. Only the Mayor can give out the wine from this vine. Bill Clinton received some, and there’s a letter on the wall to prove it! We each tasted a glass of white wine – I had Muscat from 2017 and C had something from 2018. Sorry, mom and dad, that we’re not better wine people!

Vegans and Basketball

Then we went to the vegan restaurant Slovegija. It was great! We piled our plates high with the various buffet dishes, and shared goulash and Burek. When we sat down with our meals the restaurant became really busy. We enjoyed people-watching and waiting out the rain that was drizzling down. We walked back to the main square to see the last quarter of the Slovenia vs. France semifinal basketball game for the Summer 2020 Olympics. Two restaurants on the square had TVs out so we watched in suspense with the rest of the town. Sadly Slovenia lost in the last seconds but it was close right up to the very end!

Then we got more ice cream from the same shop as yesterday. I practiced my Slovenian again because besides please and thank you I can say my new favorite ice cream flavor: blueberry.  Borovnice!

Mariborski Pohorje

We rode the bikes back to the camp and walked to the gondola at the ski resort. We had to wait a bit for a clean gondola car because many were being used by the mountain bikers to bring their muddy bikes up to the top. At the summit we walked around a bit and even ran into our camp neighbors. Luckily, the skies had begun to clear from the rain and the view was amazing. We spent some time watching the hikers and trail runners come up and the bikers go down. The sun was out and the view was great! We could even see our camp.

Starving when we reached the bottom, we ate pizza and salad from the most popular restaurant there. Back at camp we chatted with our neighbors, the Dutch couple who were cycling the Drau Radweg (the river which passes through Maribor), and we made picture postcards to send to our parents. 

EuroVelo 9 Day 2: Maribor to Celje, Slovenia – 58 km

After the rain yesterday, we could luckily dry everything in the sun this morning. We had delicious peach and blueberries (picked up from someone selling them on the street) in our breakfast. (at this point in my notes about our trip it says: PS i love this campsite)

This would be our first day without the guide book. The plan was to follow the rough map from the EuroVelo website, which had us on the main road connecting the biggest towns, but wasn’t on the highway where we assumed all the cars would be.  

So far, so good?

First, from Maribor there was sometimes a nice wide smooth bike path next to the road but eventually we had nothing. The road started out not so busy in the early morning, but then it became heavily trafficked. It was manageable-hilly at first but then it became eye-poppingly hilly. So at first everything was OK, and then it was NOT OK!

The first break we took was in the city of Slovenska Bistrica. We stopped at a square with a pleasantly dripping fountain for snacks. Then we cycled to the castle just to have a look. From this point, the trail was much busier. And harder. The signs warning about the incline said 10% then 14% and then 18% incline! The first few I managed with maybe one short rest in between. By the time we got to the hill with 18%, I needed lots of breaks. There’s a good chance that I cried once. The busy road was so stressful.

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Then we had another break in Slovenske Koncije. The town was cute but I was so tired that I wasn’t interested. A stage had been set up for a town festival or something in the center of the main pedestrian area. I laid down on it because there were no benches in the shade.

Can you hear my exhaustion?

EuroVelo 9 Day 3: Celje to Dolski, Slovenia – 84 km

There was a near slug nightmare in the night. C saved me again (we had a similar, but much worse situation one night in Austria where slugs were EVERYWHERE!). The morning was misty, but then the sun came out fast and hot. We had delicious peaches and blueberries in our müsli again at breakfast to power us for the morning.

To follow the map or not to follow the map?

It was easy to find our way as we rode through Celje. We saw the castle and a church on the hill. On the bike trail, we rode along the Savinja River for a while. The quality of trail was so good we followed the bike sign instead of our new EuroVelo route, but this was a mistake. It was very hilly …well, one big hill which nearly did me in. The other side of the river would have been on a big road, but flatter. Despite being a heavily trafficked road, we did see a lot of bikers on it.

Beer here!

On another short hill before the city of Lasko, a man stopped walking with his wife to turn around and look at my bike as I pedaled uphill past them. I couldn’t make out what he said but he seemed to be impressed that there was no motor. In Austria, most people (all on E-bikes) gave us pity smiles as we rode by with our packed bicycles. In Lasko, we passed the brewery and realized why the name seemed so familiar. And the town even smelled like beer!

Uncharted territory is…uncharted

We were on a nice bike road for a while, except for the section where they were paving. The signs seemed to say the road was closed, but taking any other option would have added a lot of kilometers and altitude, neither of which interested us. No one seemed to be concerned with completing the road, so we passed the bumpy section without problems.

We got to another place where we should cross the river according to our map, but there were bike signs enticing us otherwise. We checked google maps, which told us to follow our plan and take the main road lest we do another 100m incline! As much as I despise using phones on outdoor adventures, it was so helpful on this trip! So we took the busy road, on which a great many bikers waved to us The waving was still unusual to us, since Austrian bikers did not acknowledge one another. Then we were in the town of Zidani Most, where we took a break at the train station (and I considered getting on).

The Sava River

After the break there were some more hills, as we now followed the Sava River (Zidani Most is where the two rivers meet). The road was less busy. Then we had a stretch with traffic lights and one lane roads. The first time we didn’t make it to the other traffic light before the other cars already started coming. Luckily, we were swift enough the other two times to make it before the other light turned green.

We stopped at a bus stop for another break. The bus nearly halted for us, but we waved him on. The reason we stopped there is because we expected a big hill to come up based on the Slovenian website’s altitude profile. It never came. Thankfully! This stretch on the Sava River was the most beautiful in terms of scenery, but we couldn’t stop for any pictures because we were riding on the main road which had no shoulder.

Nearing Ljubljana, Slovenia

We biked on and on and on.  In the village of Sava we crossed the bridge again and took a good long lunch break. There was barely any shade under the sparsely-leaved tree and we half napped in the heat of the noon sun. A truck carting rocks to and fro kept passing by.

In Litija we stopped at the Spar for groceries. We also got ice cream and a sugary drink. It was needed! We still had 18km more until our camp, which seemed like a lot for our 60 km day. Fortunately, these last kilometers went by quickly because we were sugared up. The hills were easy and we passed through lots of villages. One time we almost got stuck on the tracks because the train was coming! Ok, there was no danger of getting run over; the gates came down so quickly, which startled me. We saw lots of trains today and even had to wait twice at crossings. As we neared Ljubljana, Slovenia’s capital, we saw more and more cyclists. Once we arrived at the camp, C said the Tacho measured more than 80 km!

Oasis Camp

Like yesterday, the camp was not advertised at all. There’s no website and few reviews on Google, none of which were all that descriptive. We had no idea if we would show up to a campsite at all. It was like an oasis though. It’s at a farm, and really adorable. There’s an outdoor shower and one toilet built onto the side of the barn. The shower water is warmed by the sun, so get yours in early if you want warm water (we had none). Kids played in the hay in the barn as the cows stared back at them. Campers can pitch their tents under the apple trees. The previous night there had been too many campers and they began to turn some away, but by our visit many had already moved on.

We went up to the historic farm buildings to give our donation (payment) to the owner. The farmer and his wife served us cheese and bread and tomatoes and wine as we watched kids from the camp play with chickens and the farmers’ daughters bring the horses into the barn. They were lovely people and so curious about our trip and what we were doing. It was such a fun place and my favorite campsite of the whole trip.

I really loved the campsite at the Dolski farm, but I recognize that I would have had very different feelings if it had been raining. We had perfect weather to enjoy the beautiful setting, but there is little covered area to stay dry. The camp is very rustic, which was part of the appeal 🙂

EuroVelo 9 Day 4: Dolski to Logatec, Slovenia – 51 km

In the early morning, the rooster crowed and the cows mooed. They chewed their hay in the barn as we had our breakfast. Kids jumped from the upper level of the barn into the hay below. We packed up our belongings and were on our way. Based on the altitude profile, I didn’t plan to bike after today. I wasn’t sure if I would only bike to Ljubljana or further. The problem was, how would I make it to Trieste if C cycled onwards without me?

Ljubljana, Slovenia’s capital

The ride to Ljubljana was quick and easy. Although it was still early on a Sunday, we saw lots of bikers who waved to us. Once inside the city limits, we ditched the route. If there had been bike trail signs it would have been nice to ride through the outer neighborhoods of the city (as suggested on the Slovenian website), but without them, weaving through the winding streets would have been a headache. Instead, we stayed on the main road until the train station. Easy, but uninteresting. The bike lanes here are better than in Maribor, but could still use some help.

Tickets to Logatec

In Ljubljana, we managed to get the train ticket I wanted for tomorrow. This meant that I could bike and stay with C until Logatec. At the train station I learned that it’s pronounced “low-GAH-tes” and not “LOWG-a-tek,” but I walked out with the right ticket anyway. Leaving the station an elderly, presumably Slovenian, man stopped and asked us in German where we were going and what we were doing. He told us about traveling to Berlin in the 70s and reminisced how easy it was for a Yugoslav to go between the two Berlins back then. It’s so nice when people are curious about where we’re going and share some part of themselves with us.

Ljubjlana to Vrhnika

In the city center, we parked the bikes, and had fancy lemonades and expensive ice cream cones before getting back in the saddle. It took a while, to get out of the city, but soon we were on gravel roads through farmland parallel to the highway. In Vrhnika, a small, gray city, we stopped for a lunch break. We cycled around a while looking for a bench but couldn’t find any. Finally we found one next to a parking lot, at least under a tree in the shade facing a quiet street. We knew the last 8 km of trail would include a 200m climb, but we didn’t know what that would look like.

The trail went pretty steadily up the whole way, and wasn’t ever crazy steep. C took the “sausage” for me at the beginning because I was still too tired to pedal up. The sausage is our black roll bike bag which carries our tent and some other camp stuff and sits across the back of my bike. It’s the WURST. We alternated pedaling and pushing until we made it to the top. The road was mostly gravel and we passed an army barracks. C could’ve pedaled all the way to the top but is too kind to leave me (and knew I might have a meltdown if he left me struggling behind for too long).

Low-GAH-tes

Once at the top it was a steady decline to Logatec. We had to wait for the train to pass and then we could cycle through town. It was easy to find the campsite which is like a big sports park with a volleyball court and soccer fields (indoor and outdoor). When we arrived, we were the only ones in a tent and there was just one RV.

We cooked the last of our ready meals and then had smoothies, fries, and ice cream at the restaurant. Afterwards, we walked through town to find the bike shop for C to pump his tires up for tomorrow on the hard inclines to Italy. The shops are all closed (it’s late and Sunday), but a man asked if he could help us. He said he had a pump now we could use or he could come by the castle to lend it to us. We said we’d stop by the bike shop tomorrow. He let us know which apartment he lived in so that we could knock on his door if the shop wasn’t able to help us. Really sweet!!

EuroVelo 9 Day 5: Logatec to Trieste, Italy – 92 km

I can’t say much about this particular chunk of trail because I took the train the rest of the way. There’s a direct connection from Logatec to Trieste a few times a day and it was easy to get a last-minute ticket for my bike too. I took some of the heavier stuff out of C’s bags and he pedaled on his own all the way into Trieste.

C felt that the cycling was just as strenuous as the altitude profile suggested, but like the other days, many more kilometers than anticipated. What looked like 60 kilometers turned into over 90. C said he found a campsite along the way, which would make the very long journey feasible over two days. Some of the trail was rough road and a lot of it was gravel. The views into Trieste and the Adriatic were amazing as he came down the mountain. That downhill breeze made the kilometers behind him all the more worth it.

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Part of me was a bit disappointed to not have completed the rest of the trail. To not even have tried. I could have done it. I would have made it. But I’m pretty sure there would have been a ton of tears and frustration along the way. It wouldn’t have been fun for me and then definitely no fun for C. It would have been a horrible way to end the trip. Instead I happily greeted him with the rest of our luggage at the train station in beautiful Trieste!

The EuroVelo 9 continues on to Pula, Croatia where it officially ends, but Trieste was an easy stopping point for us because there was a direct Flixbus connection back to Berlin. To recuperate from the long journey from Brno, Czech Republic to the Adriatic Sea via Austria and Slovenia on the EuroVelo 9, we enjoyed three lovely days in Trieste, Italy at the end of our joureny.

sLOVEnia

The only country with “love” in its name. I have been to Slovenia now on three separate occasions and have loved it every time. It is more rural than other European countries, allowing it to offer so much rugged nature. Sometimes finding the trail was tough, but it was worth it! Other amazing parts of Slovenia include Postojna Cave and Predjama Castle, Skocjan Cave, Lake Bled and the surrounding region including the Vintgar Gorge, and Piran. We didn’t spend time in Ljubljana on our trip because I had previously spent several days there, and you should too!

For our trip on the Euro Velo 9, we used this Bikeline guide to get us from Brno, Czech Republic to Maribor, Slovenia (though the last kilometers from Spielfeld to Maribor were bumpy). From Maribor, we followed the map and altitude profile on this page. The trail drawn on the map made for good cycling. While the altitude profile gave an accurate picture of the elevation we encountered, we found the kilometer count to be woefully inaccurate.