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.
280 km from Ljubljana to Ljubljana, about 4 h 09 of riding. The stops in between: 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. The line favours views over speed.
Ljubljana is a small capital with a big reputation for charm, and much of that comes from the river. The Ljubljanica runs through the centre in a shallow curve, with cafes along both banks, willows trailing in the water and bridges at every few steps. The architect Joze Plecnik, who worked here for much of the first half of the twentieth century, shaped the embankments, the market colonnade and the bridges, and his work was listed by UNESCO in 2021 as part of a series of his buildings.
Read the complete Promenade along the Embankments and Bridge write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Promenade along the Embankments and Bridge 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 60 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 141 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 Promenade along the Embankments and Bridge.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Promenade along the Embankments and Bridge write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Promenade along the Embankments and Bridge. That is the ride.
Promenade along the Embankments and Bridge → Idrija - Smelting Plant is 60 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Idrija - Smelting Plant → Škocjan Caves is 81 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 → Promenade along the Embankments and Bridge is 60 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.