While reaching Zagreb, our final destination for this first European cycling trip, we experienced mixed feelings. Although we looked forward to enjoying several days of rests in town, we also felt a bit nostalgic of the road and countries we had cycled through in the past several months. Throughout our journey, it seemed we were blessed with exceptional weather. On countless occasions, the rainy weather forecast changed overnight in our favor in the morning. While we brought our camping equipment in the event that we could not find some accommodation in smaller communities, we did not have to use it.
A few trip statistics…
| Topic | Value |
|---|---|
| # of kms cycled: | 4,249 |
| # of flat tires: | 4 |
| # of camping nights: | 0 |
| # of days with continuous rain: | 1 |
| # of times rain ponchos used: | ~12 (Jenny) / 0 (Gilles) |
| # of days down jackets used: | ~24 (Jenny) / 0 (Gilles) |
| # of different accommodation used: | 81 |
| # of booking/reservation errors: | 0 |
Trip summary:
| Country | Total Days | Cycling Days | Rest Days |
|---|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom | 17 days | 656 kms / 13 days | 0 kms / 4 days |
| France | 36 days | 1559 kms / 28 days | 6 kms / 8 days |
| Germany | 20 days | 810 kms / 15 days | 0 kms / 5 days |
| Austria | 10 days | 341 kms / 7 days | 0 kms / 3 days |
| Slovakia | 3 days | 71 kms / 1 day | 0 kms / 2 days |
| Hungary | 14 days | 518 kms / 11 days | 0 kms / 3 days |
| Croatia | 12 days | 288 kms / 6 days | 0 kms / 6 days |
| EuroVelo2022 | 112 days | 4243 kms / 81 days | 6 kms / 31 days |
2022.07.31 – [HR] Slatina ==> Virovitica (33 kms | Total: 4113 kms)
Although our hotel reservation had not included breakfast, when we inquired yesterday upon our arrival, the manager arranged for us to enjoy a breakfast on-the-house. Although we anticipated a short ride today, it was fairly slow going for us because of the constant strong headwind. We arrived at our accommodation by 12:30pm after stopping at a grocery store along the way. We were shown by the owner and an English speaking friend of her a very nice and fully furnished apartment for our overnight stay. The owner had even kindly filled the fridge with various staples. The only downside to our arrangement was that we had to carry the tandem up one floor into our apartment. We opted to cook our own evening meal with food items made available to us in the apartment. Later we had some complementary cakes on the patio of the popular bakery downstairs from our apartment. We wrapped up the evening with a long walk around the ground’s of the Gradski museum – just across from our accommodation. It was really nice to be able to cook our own meal in this nice apartment – something we had not done for almost four months.
2022.08.01 – [HR] Virovitica ==> Bjelovar (56 kms | Total: 4169 kms)
Jenny prepared us a nice omelet breakfast this morning. We removed the rear wheel on the tandem in order to make it easier to bring down from our apartment. We rode our first 10kms along a major road with a fair amount of traffic. Later we moved on to a countryside road which gradually climbed. We were a bit leery about cycling a 7kms stretch of gravel road while tackling steeper climb. We encountered our first few un-fenced dogs along the way which made Jenny and I panicked a bit until we saw their tails wagging with pleasure for seeing some rare tandem cyclists coming their way. We eventually rejoined a major road on our last 15kms. We were surprised to ride continuously up and down hill on this stretch. The road was also quite busy with car and large trucks. Shortly after arriving in town, we located our apartment and with email instructions from the host, we were able to access our accommodation. In the evening, we visited a Croatian restaurant for our dinner of fish and squid.
2022.08.02 – [HR] Bjelovar ==> Vrbovec (42 kms | Total: 4210 kms)
We had our breakfast staples in our apartment before riding out of town. Although we rode along some main roads without shoulders, the traffic was relatively light for most of our day’s journey. The exception was a stretch of 8kms on which we encountered a steady flow of fast traveling cars and heavy trucks. On one instance, we had to stop on the side of road to recover from a close encounter with a truck that zipped by us at high speed. Before check-in into our accommodation, we visited a grocery store. For some unknown reason, the reception desk kept on wanting to keep our passports until morning. We clearly did not agree and voiced our concern until they managed to register us in their system. In the evening, we went to a nearby Croatian restaurant for a nice dinner. We learned that the building beside the restaurant was currently housing over 100 Ukrainian families displaced by the invasion of their country.
2022.08.03 – [HR] Vrbovec ==> Zagreb (39 kms | Total: 4249 kms)
We savored our last hotel breakfast on the road. Although the road was mostly flat, we had to cycle along some very busy roads while we tried riding on sidewalks and bicycle lanes wherever possible. As we approached Zagreb, the vehicle traffic continued to intensify until we finally moved to a side road which offered a continuous sidewalk/bike lane up to our hotel. Our check in was delayed by 30 mins as the room was not yet ready. We also managed to extend our hotel stay by one extra night – providing us with a 3 night stay. We promptly started our hunt for a bicycle box as well as storage bags. After a quick visit of the bus station, we dropped by an e-bike shop nearby to inquiry about the availability of boxes for our tandem. We were ecstatic when we were offered to choose among two large cardboard boxes sitting outside of the store. We walked back to our hotel with one of the boxes while being thankful for our luck in finding a box so quickly. Later we took a tram to a hardware store to buy rolls of packing tape. The salesman even suggested a store where we could possibly buy the type of storage bags we needed for checking our luggage at the airport. After a short tram ride, we located the store and were delighted to find and buy two transport bags being offered at 50% discount. We returned to hotel with a load off our shoulders. In the evening, we visited another Croatian restaurant for a seafood diner.
2022.08.04 – [HR] Zagreb ==> Zagreb (0 kms | Total: 4249 kms)
We had a light breakfast at a bakery outside the bus terminal. We bought additional snacks and beverages at the nearby grocery store. We visited 5 hairdresser studios around our hotel, but unfortunately 3 were closed for vacations while the other 2 required reservations. Back in our hotel room, we learned from the hotel reception that they had managed to secure our outstanding Saturday night stay after receiving a cancellation. We were relieved that we would not need to find another accommodation for a single night. In the mid-afternoon, we tackled cutting and resizing our bicycle box to approved air carrier dimensions. It took us almost two hours to complete the box resizing work, but the result was well worth it. Late afternoon, we ventured out for our early dinner to a restaurant where we had enjoyed during our 2018 Central Europe visit to Zagreb. Unfortunately, it proved to be quite a saga to have an early dinner. Firstly we started off by taking a tram in the wrong direction, secondly as we walked up to the old restaurant location, we discovered it had closed (just like Google Maps was reporting) and thirdly the visit of a couple of another restaurants which proved unsuccessful. We finally managed to find, with the help of locals, a nice air conditioned restaurant for our evening meal near the central plaza. (Walked: 7 kms)
2022.08.05 – [HR] Zagreb ==> Zagreb (0 kms | Total: 4249 kms)
This morning we opted to pickup our breakfast staple and coffee from the nearby grocery store. Later we headed out for a self guide walking tour of the old town. At the tram stop, we found it unusual to be waiting for more than 10 minutes for our tram. As we walked we tried to stay in shade as the sun was out in full force with temperature forecast to reach 37C. Towards the end of our 1.5h walk, we stopped to a visit of the very popular Museum of Broken Relationships. As we were trying to find a café/bistro for a rest, we realized that it was statutory holiday (Victoria Day) in Croatia which explained why the streets were so quiet – just like a Sunday. We returned to our hotel for a well deserved afternoon rest after purchasing some snacks and beverages. We enjoyed another nice evening meal at an outlet of the same chain restaurant as yesterday which was nearby our hotel. (Walked: 8 kms)
2022.08.06 – [HR] Zagreb ==> Zagreb (0 kms | Total: 4249 kms)
We picked up fresh pastries and coffee at the nearby bakery for our breakfast. Later we took the tram to visit the Botanical Gardens and few other parks along our walk. Jenny got her sunglasses fixed again. We stopped at a cafe for a rest and some refreshments before returning to our hotel. We had an entertaining video chat with Gang and Sharron who were helping us start up our cars in preparation for our airport pickup mid next week. In the evening, we visited a Chinese restaurant for our evening meal. (Walked: 10kms)
