PARENZANA Mountainbike Tour Istria July 2020

A new bycicle adventure in Istria:

Along the former K&K railway track PARENZANA: Connecting 3 countries...

ITALY - SLOVENIA - CROATIA and the following cities/villages...

TRIESTE - KOPER - Izola - PORTOROZ - Buje - GROZNJAN - MOTUVUN - POREC

parenzana.it 

Parenzana.net


11.7. 
Heading South with the obligatory family visit at Turracher Höhe and an overnight stay at Spittal/Drau at Opa Sepp's.

12.7.
Early on the road again (to avoid traffic jam) towards Italy via Vall Canale and Udine.
Arrival around lunch time in TRIESTE at the self service Mamaca Park Camper Stop, situated in the hilly suburb Servola. I parked my Camper and took the bike to cycle (against strong winds) down to the center and the Lungomare at Miramare castle for swimming.

 Trieste Harbour
 and Piazza Unita

In the late afternoon I met Lucia, a very nice teacher colleague who invited me for a very interesting sight seeing tour, a "capo in bi" and an excellent dinner in a local trattoria.

13. 7.
Ready for the Parenza!

The first 12km of the Parenza leading out of Trieste unfortunately were on main roads (but with not too much traffic at 9:00 P.M ;-) But finally in MUGGIA the offical bike track started. First I cycled along a canal and then through a forest and later through a tunnel to cross the border to Slovenia.

A passionate elderly man, named Enzo accompanied me on the route towards KOPER

 In KOPER I made a short sightseeing and coffee break
(also to get rid of Enzo ;-P)

 and then I cycled along the D8 coastal "bike highway" towards IZOLA

I made a short detour to the old center of Izola and then back on the Parenzana (D8) bike route uphill and through tunnels again...

 ...over the hilly peninsula of Portoroz/Piran

I parked my bike at my prebooked hotel "Maestral Residence", located in the upper part of Portoroz and had time to spent a very nice afternoon on the beach boulevar.

In the evening I walked down to Fiesa on the north coast of the Portoroz Peninsula and along the foot path to pittoresque PIRAN

Beautiful view from the castle hill and Campanile

14. 7.
After a nice breakfast on the hotel terrace I cycled down to the harbour of Portoroz and then along the bike route towards Lucija. There I lost the track (which was leading through a campsite !?!), passed a park with sculptures instead and found the track soon again leading along the Salinas of Secovlje.

South of Secovlje I had to cross the border of Slovenia/Croatia on the main road (and had to show my passport and Corona registration document)

Some meters behind the Croation border the bike route went on along the south side of the salinas and then uphill the Savudrija peninsula. The Croatian Parenzana track was completely offroad but with good navigation signs

The whole morning (around 25km) I constantly cycled uphill (toally alone!), passing by the village BUJE and a pitstop (at the highest "peak") in the pittoresque medieval village GROZNJAN

After a lunch break (with coffee and Palacinke ;-) in Groznjan I cycled offroad downhill over old bridges (Viadukt) and through tunnels to the lonesome village Livade (the Parenzana museum unfortunately was closed)

Beautiful villages along the route...and I was again totally alone on the route!

In Livade I crossed the Mirna river valley and decided to take the shorter (but unfortunately more challenging and hotter) main road uphill to MOTUVUN (instead of cycling around the hill).

At 16:00 I passed the gates to the medieval old center of MOTUVUN to search for B&B Antico (behind the church).

 After a warm welcome from the owner and a shower I was ready again to explore the town...

 Truffel specialities ;-P

 Parenzana exhibition

 

15. 7.
And after a wonderful breakfast...a bad morning surprise! My front wheel was without air!
Luckily I was prepared and had an extra tube with me. 15min later I was ready again to finally leave beautiful Motuvun.

The path now went uphill again through fields and beautiful vinyards, passing by the villages of Visnjan, Kastelir and Vizinada.

And I asked myself again and again "Tiny train, where have you been driving around !?!"

Witnesses of the old railroad track downhill the route towards the coast

Just some few kilometers before my final stop POREC my tire lost air again (!?!) and I also lost the official Parenzana track (and ended up on MTB tracks in a forest). That was the time when I decided to take the main road for the last 3km to POREC. My appartment "Villa Katana" was situated in a nice suburb of POREC. The owner gave me a warm welcome (she was a retired teacher) and after a shower I walked the 20min down to the beach.

I spent the whole afternoon at the beach facing the old town center

In the evening I had a wonderful seafood dinner and explored the old town center

After the last days mostly alone...that were soon too many tourists for me ;-)

 The famous Basilica (with mosaiques)

16.7.
I got picked up at 9:30 P.M. from "Fiore Tours" (my prebooked transfer back to Trieste)

After a (unpleasant) unusual border experience at the Slovenian border control I arrived in Trieste around lunch time and directly drove home towards cold and rainy Austria. I visited Opa Sepp again for a coffee in Spittal/Drau and finally was back home in Vienna at 21:00.

I will definitely come back one day to do the PARENZANA again!