Trieste - Obrov - Opatija
77km
5:16 ride time
14.5 avg speed
3250’ of ascent

Our first day came with much intimidation for European driving, although that proved to be unwarranted — the drivers were generally courteous and gave plenty of space… no worse than at home. However, we seriously underestimated the roads getting out of Trieste. The small neighborhood road kept getting steeper — much steeper than exits anywhere in Seattle. We found ourselves pushing our bikes, barely, up to a highway on the ridge above town. Today was not going to be a warm-up.

>From there we continued going up. It was a harsh reminder that border crossings in Europe involve high mountain passes — none of this “49th parallel” business like we have in the New World.

After crossing into Slovenia, we climbed some more, to 2200’. This section of the country is a 30km ridge before dropping down into Croatia. Slovenia happened to be the first country I’ve visited where I shamefully don’t know how to say “hi”. (And now Croatia would be the second.)

We rode downhill most of the way to Opatija, a small riviera-type place that’s kind of a playground for German tourists. The campground is no more than a weed patch, but offers hot showers. There’s a great walkway along the water for several kilometers, where we can see tomorrow’s route along the bay and onto the island of Krk.