Balkan Stage 3 (rest day)

Today was an optional ride – we are staying at the same campsite in Bovec for two nights. The ride was short, only 52km, but climbing to the highest point on a road in Slovenia, 2200m, a climb of 1800m or so. Both my Achilles were hurting from the previous two days so I opted for a rest day, along with many others.

After breakfast I walked “downtown” and did a little shopping, did my laundry, read and passed the morning very nicely. By lunch time everyone was back and we enjoyed a double meal of lunch plus soup. In the afternoon, not much happened, but we did make it to the Thrsty River brewery by 4. Bob and I had planned to meet there but when I showed up with 6-7 others, he was already there with 6-7 others. So we had a grand Bike Dreams party, sitting outdoors, most people opting for 4-beer samplers. I had a great NE IPA called Mirky, a stout, a “Belgian IPA” and a “Sour IPA”. And pretzels and more beer, so fun.

After that we walked back to camp and had a nice dinner, with lots of Slovenian Merlot. Bob had the “Marmot” and gave a great talk about the funny things that happened in the last day. Life is so good.