Travel

Buzet to Lovran

Today was billed as a big day and it lived up to expectations. I showed 1250 meters of climbing for the day. Some members of the group (the majority) took the scenic route early on and clocked a bit more time and climbing. Soon out of town we did a sustained 10-12% grade, which is about the best we can do on the tandem. But after a couple of kilometer the grade leveled off a bit -- but continued climbing, eventually reaching 750 meters. We were rewarded with some nice views.

Nice shoot of old Buzet up on the hill overlooking new Buzet.

However most of the scenery was hills and pine trees -- hardly a novel site for Canadians. Most of the morning the group was split up, but by noon everyone had got back on track and we were all together for lunch. Shortly after lunch we be began the big descent. However we picked up heavy traffic about half way down and hand to ride quite cautiously. We were descending towards Rijeka, which seems to be a large and very busy port city. We did not go into Rijeka but still picked up a lot of traffic. This is also the Istrian Riviera -- lots of tourists and tourist traffic. Opatija seemed to be the center of the Riviera. We passed some very expensive yachts and villas. From there we continue a few more kilometers down the coast to Lovran where we would spend the evening.