CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
A 291 km round trip from Ljubljana - roughly 4 h 16 in the saddle. On the way it passes Idrija - Smelting Plant, Škocjan Caves and back through Idrija - Smelting Plant. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 900 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
It is the city's central burial ground, laid out on the eastern edge of town, and in the late 1930s the architect Joze Plecnik added a series of chapels, arcades and entrance structures that turn it into a quiet landscape of white walls, columns and calm courtyards. He called it the Garden of All Saints, and the name fits. Plecnik was Slovenia's great architect of the twentieth century, a man who also shaped the bridges, markets and riverbanks of Ljubljana, and his works in the city were added to the UNESCO list in 2021.
Read the complete Plečnik’s Žale - Garden of All Saints write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Plečnik’s Žale - Garden of All Saints is where the day begins. Next is Idrija - Smelting Plant.
In 1490, so the story goes, a tub-maker soaking a wooden vessel in a spring found shiny drops of liquid metal at the bottom. It was mercury, and the mine that grew from that discovery at Idrija, in the hills of western Slovenia, became the second largest mercury mine in the world, operating for five centuries. Together with Almadén in Spain, it was inscribed by UNESCO in 2012. The smelting plant, where the ore was roasted to release the mercury vapour, was the heart of the operation, and its buildings and furnaces now tell the story of the industry and its toll on the workers.
Read the complete Idrija - Smelting Plant write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Idrija - Smelting Plant comes up about 65 km into the recorded legs. Next is Škocjan Caves.
Underneath the sleepy stone villages of the Slovenian Karst, a river called the Reka plunges into the earth and carves one of the largest underground canyons known anywhere. The Škocjan Caves, a UNESCO site since 1986, are the reason the word karst became the scientific name for this kind of limestone landscape everywhere in the world. Inside, a narrow footbridge spans the Reka gorge far above the roaring water, the chamber walls disappear into darkness, and the scale is so huge that your mind struggles to accept it is all underground.
Read the complete Škocjan Caves write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 145 km into the recorded legs you reach Škocjan Caves. Next is back through Idrija - Smelting Plant.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Idrija - Smelting Plant write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Idrija - Smelting Plant, late in the day. Next is Plečnik’s Žale - Garden of All Saints.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Plečnik’s Žale - Garden of All Saints write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Plečnik’s Žale - Garden of All Saints. That is the ride.
Plečnik’s Žale - Garden of All Saints → Idrija - Smelting Plant is 65 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Idrija - Smelting Plant → Škocjan Caves is 80 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Škocjan Caves → back through Idrija - Smelting Plant is 79 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Idrija - Smelting Plant → Plečnik’s Žale - Garden of All Saints is 67 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.