To Koprivnica

October 5, 2021

living in suspended animation with no connection to reality

Another perfect, blue sky day for us to finish the Drava cycle route. We began this route in Villach over 250 kilometres ago back in Austria. We have now travelled through three countries and followed roughly one third of the river's 710 kilometre length.

The R1 Drava cycle way ends at Legrad, Croatia where the Drava and the Mura rivers meet. There are a couple of cycle routes from Varaždin that follow the Drava and we rode the R3 Drava route. The R3 comes within a few kilometres of Legrad before it turns and continues on to head south to Koprivnica. It would have also been worthwhile to have completed our trip on the R1 route, but based on weather forecasts and the extra distance, we thought it was best to reach Koprivnica today to be on the safe side.

Our ride today started on a separated cyclepath as we left Varaždin beside a fairly busy road. About ten kilometres from the town the traffic was all but gone as we turned on to seldom used secondary roads. We wove our way from one settlement to the next watching the farmers with their farming equipment in various stages of the corn harvest. The crop has been drying in the fields in the nice warm weather so we assume they think it is time to bring it in before the rains return.

Picking out our lunch. It appeared to be a popular place with the students. The total cost for a couple of sandwiches was around 22 kuna which is a bit more than four dollars. Croatia is such good value.

Lots of cyclists of all ages in Varaždin.

We really enjoyed the ride through this rural area of Croatia although a pesky headwind was a chore to deal with from time to time. As we approached Koprivnica we travelled through quite an industrial area on route to the town center. Scott stopped at two bike shops to try replace our backup tube inventory but the 20 inch size tube with a presta (or french valve as they are called in Croatia) seem to be hard to come by. We carried on to the town square that was lined with bars and large umbrellas to provide very necessary shade from the late afternoon sun. Temperatures were in the mid twenties!

We came across many different bike signs as we rode today. We liked "Happy bike"!

This beast of a machine took up the whole road! We think it must cut the corn stalks and perhaps strip them of the cobs.

Corn, husked and drying for feed during the winter months.

Kilometres and kilometres of this secondary road through corn fields. Note the trailer full on the right.

A sea of orange is a welcome site amongst the acres of corn.

Koprivnica is not a polished tourist town like our last two stays. Accommodation opportunities are also much different. With only three choices, we are staying in an apartment for the night that is close to the city centre. We went to a local bakery to pick up some bread for breakfast and Scott asked if this weather was unusual. The reply was that is is not normal and the lady's theory was that spring was late so now fall is coming a bit late. Forecasts show a drop in temperatures by about ten degrees in the next few days.

Our post ride beer. We are becoming so predictable! Nice warm afternoons to sit outside and have a cool one.

This the town square in Koprivnica. The surface has been blacktopped and unfortunately it looses all the flavour of the old town squares,

One of the nicer buildings in the square.

We found our home for the night as our host was in front of her house calling to us as we were searching for the address! As with other things in Koprivnica, restaurants are also not so common. When asked, our host was hard pressed to come up with nearby dinner suggestions but said the restaurant back in the centre square was good. So, after checking out the location of the train station for our travel tomorrow, we made our way back to the town square where we had simple but very tasty meals.

Tomorrow we will take a train the last 85 kilometres to Zagreb.

Today's ride: 66 km (41 miles)
Total: 810 km (503 miles)

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