Ljubljana

I woke up rather late, at 8:30. There was a mosquito in my room that mollested me throughout the night. At the rare moments when I got some sleep I dreamt of a big blood-sampling project that was too complicated and was getting out of my hand. When I came down to breakfast all the tables were taken - there were about 15 Harley-Davidsons sitting at three tables. Helena had me seated at a table together with an exausted-looking couple. The breakfast was unusually modest and there was a big competition over 6 slices of salami and 3 slices of cheese. I rightly assumed they were all mine, since Helena brought them after I came, together with my coffee and bread, so I helped myself without embarassment. The lady Davidson through some fierce gazes at me, but I didn't bother. She could loose a pound or ten, anyway. After a while each of them got an boiled egg, and that prevented a bloodshed, I guess.

So, up the Wurtzenpass I went. Stelvio, Giovo, Sella, Pordoi, Falzarego - all this reknown climbs above 2000 m were nothing in comparison to the Wurtzenpass (from Austrian side). There is a 800 m section of 20% that I could master only through 4 stops. Two roadies who overtook me, showed that it is perfectly possible to do it in one go, if one has appropriate gears - and strenght.

In Slovenia I was feeling at home. I didn't have a map and navigated by memory and by sometimes ambiguous road signs that our little country has. I wasn't even ashamed to ask for directions, although that chipped off big chunks of my self-sufficiency. Had I been a bit earlier, I would go to Vršič, to have a direct comparison how it measures with world-class passes. But climbs were obviously my addiction on this tour, so, just before coming home to Ljubljana, I made a final turn-off to 6 km pass at Katarina - and it almost defeated me.

Day 7: 130 km. Total 946 km.