On Friday we said goodbye to Ad and Ellen and their nice and friendly hotel. We continued our trip via the Mur valley, thus avoiding another high mountain pass to cross. In this valley their is a signposted cycle route. It led us over counrry lanes, gravel paths along the river, some steep short climbs on the mountain sides. In 2 day we reached Graz. Again another lovely preserved medieaval and baroque city, in perfect condition and lovely soft colours. A pleasure to stroll around in. The next day we continued and after some 50 kms we crossed the border into Slovenia and we reached the town of Maribor. Beautiful again, but the difference with Austria is the condition of the historic buildings and of the public space as a whole. It is just not as perfect and here and there a brush of paint would be necessary. From there we again followed a cycle route, this time through the valley of the Drava (Drau), a river that has its source in Italy (Alte Adige) and runs through Austria, then Slovenia and Croatia to mouth into the Danube. Now we are in Ptuj, Slovenia's oldest town. Very small and very historic. Tomorrow we will ride into Croatia and try to reach Split in a week.

There is little internet available along the road, so we will meet again some day some time.

The tracks from Sankt Georgen ob Murau till Ptuj:

Download 2010-07-16Kreischberg Grosslobming

Download 2010-07-17Grosslmng Frohnleiten

Download 2010-07-18Ungersdorf Graz

Download 2010-07-19Graz-Maribor

Download 2010-07-20Maribor-Ptuj

Sankt Georgen ob Murau – Grosslobming:

Profile St Georgen – Grosslobming:

Grosslobming – Frohnleiten:

Profile Grosslobming – Frohnleiten:

 Frohnleiten – Graz:

Profile Frohnleiten – Graz:

Graz – Maribor:

Profile Graz – Maribor:

 Maribor – Ptuj:

Profile Maribor – Ptuj: