Nova Gorica

Thursday 2nd June

We've enjoyed our first day out in Slovenia - and we popped back into Italy for a couple of minutes!  The bikes have had a good bashing today as we decided to cycle to Nova Gorica.  This involved going uphill on a lane into the village of Ozeljan then following bike signs along rough farm tracks, some between vines, and small roads past tiny villages (usually with very large churches).

Photo taken on our way back!

All this time it was drizzling with rain, so we were pleased to arrive in the town and look for somewhere to get some lunch.  The lady in the Tourist Information gave us some ideas - and Restavracija Mlincik proved to be a great choice.  Not particularly smart, but plenty of food and cheap.  Another interesting toilet experience though - in the ladies there were 3 doors with numbers on - 1,2,3 - but all of them were locked! I was brave enough to go and find our waitress to explain my problem, but before I even tried she handed over a key with No.1 on it!  What a relief!!

No more rain from lunch-time onwards, so we had a look around the town which was mostly built in the 1950s.  This is because the post WWII peace treaty awarded the town of Gorizia to Italy but left the villages immediately to the east in Slovenian hands.  The Slovenians decided to build a new town on their side of the border and Nova Gorica was the result. 

50s architecture! A Giant Jenga?

We went to the railway station because there is a square opposite where there is a plaque on the ground with a line dividing the two countries.
When we got there, two chaps were sitting on chairs facing each other and a film crew were doing their stuff.  We managed to get in their way a couple of times, but they did move off that area eventually and another friendly chap offered to take a photo for us. 

Two trains were in the station so we wandered along the platform to have a look.  They seemed pretty ancient and they were covered in graffiti.


  There were several tracks behind these trains and hoards of youngsters were walking across them to the platform.  We sat on a seat as John hoped to see a train move and eventually an announcement was made and a lot of the students wandered out onto the tracks again - we were a little concerned about the H & S aspects here, but when the train arrived, they hopped up onto a tiny platform and into the carriage - this is obviously their daily routine.


Our next stop was a couple more miles north to see the Solkanski Most - the Solkan railway bridge over the River Soca.  The bridge was opened in 1906 and at 280ft, the high central arch makes it the biggest stone-built bridge in the world.

Despite being blown up by the Austrian army to prevent its capture by Italian forces in 1916, it was rebuilt by the Italians in 1927.  We viewed it from the road bridge and marvelled at the railway bridge, the amazing turquoise colour of the river and the antics of the canoeists. 

It was a long cycle home, with quite a lot of ups and downs, but this time in lovely sunshine.  The GPS told us that we'd done 32k, which is pretty good going for oldies!