What goes up must come down!
Today we rode across Brač from Milna to Bol. The route was rated 5 out of 5 for difficulty. What made it a “5” was the climbing we’d be doing to get over the peak in the middle of the island.
Mike thinks it is safer to be as close to the front of the group as possible.
The first part of our ride retraced our shakedown ride from yesterday. Except when we reached the place where we’d turned around at the day before we just kept going .
We stopped for a break at an overlook for the town of Ložišća. What a lovely view!
Meet our two guides for the week: Lucija on the left and Miranda on the right. Lucija was the “sweep” rider. She made sure that no one got left behind and more importantly, she was a fount of information about local history and ways of life. Miranda was the lead rider all week. She also made sure we were aware of the route for the day and at each stop gave us a heads up about what to expect as far as turns or stops before the next stop. Both ladies did their jobs quite well and always with patience and smiles.
Ložišća is one of the younger towns on the island. It was settled in the 1700’s and the church tower was not completed until 1899.
While the group (including me) took more pictures in 5 minutes than the paparazzi do at the red carpet the night of the Academy Awards…the church chimed in by ringing its bells. I think we all hopped back on our bikes with delighted smiles.
Next, the followed the winding road down to go through Ložišća… and got the red light at the only stop light on the island. This was a complicated intersection with almost no line of sight for oncoming traffic…thus the stop light.
Not much further down the road, the was a quick break in a town called Nerežišća. When the group is spread out a bit and there’s a turn coming, Miranda will stop at the corner to make sure no one misses the turn. For those close behind her, she will give quick directions so we can keep going until she catches up again. This stop’s visual reference was – We’re stopping near the church with the tree growing out of its roof. WHAT?
Well… This is St. Peter’s Church, built in 1413. It is believed that the tree is 150 years old.
This little plaza area was a hopping rest stop for bicycle tours. There were more bikes than cars. The group got beverages and coffee at a convenient restaurant -adjacent to the big pine tree in the background of this picture.
Croatia and the Dalmatian islands have an incredibly deep and complicated history. While early civilizations didn’t seem interested in particular about populating Brač -All of the Dalmatian Islands did get swept up in the various “conquering civilizations” active in the Mediterranean over the years. The Illyrians were in the region in the 2nd millennium B.C. (4,000-ish years ago). The Greeks were hanging out in the 4th century BC. The Romans arrived in the 1st century and did linger a while -building country homes and introducing agriculture to the region. The Croats arrived in the islands in the 600’s and within a few hundred years had established the Croatian Kingdom -partly with the help of Byzantium Empire.
Between the late 1200’s and 1700’s the Venetians were mostly involved in the area -but mixed into those years were some do-si-dos with the Hungarian and Bosnian kings – not to mention the Ottomans taking the islands for a brief time in the late 1500’s and Napoleon rolling through in the early 1800’s… .and this is just Croatian History “lite”.
In many ways all of these past civilizations overlayed the islands -leaving their imprint in buildings, traditions, agriculture and more. The towns along the water weren’t developed until the 1400’s because it was safer for the inhabitants to live up in the hills rather than be “sitting ducks” along the shore for the pirates operating in the islands or other dangers arriving by ship. Because of this, Nerezisca was chosen to be the capital of the island for around 800 years, starting around 1,000 A.D.
A special traditional Croatian lunch stop had been arranged for the group at an old farm property. The owners of the farm have created an interesting picnic like setting for visitors like our group, Mike and I chose to not participate in the lunch, so while everyone was eating, we found some shade and I took some pictures of the various farm buildings -in various stages of decay. It was interesting to see.
We found a bit of shade next to a building and used the wall to lean on… Mike took this picture of his view.
After lunch we had a few miles of somewhat gentle ups and downs… but, as promised in our morning briefing, we arrived at the point where the only direction for the rest of the ride was was down -back to the seashore- for about 5 miles. As we topped the last rise -we were treated to an amazing view of the sea and neighboring islands. I pulled over to take a photo -which does not do it justice.
The group started down, quickly spreading out based on how slow or fast each of us wanted to go. Because I’d stopped, I had to wait for almost everyone to pass before I got back on the road. Before long, I realized two things: 1: I was going to be descending much faster than most of the group because I like to go down hills fast, and 2: It wasn’t the type of descent where it would be convenient for photo stops and Mike had told me that if I pulled out my camera while in motion on this downhill he would be VERY unhappy with me. I was going to have to set the camera aside and live in that moment.
- Bike 101 about the brakes. On these bikes, it is the left brake that controls the front tire and the right that controls the back tire. If a rider only squeezes the front brake in a ‘slam on the brakes” situation – they’d simply end up flying over the handlebars and definitely not be landing gracefully enough to get style points from the judges. I hold the camera in my right hand when riding -so the camera had to stay in my pocket on the big hills.
What a magical experience it was. Before long I reached a space where I couldn’t see anyone out ahead of me and knew no one was closing in on me from behind, Other than the occasional car -I had the road to myself. I can’t describe the feeling of pure fun as I guided the bike around the twists and turns as fast (but safely) as I could – all while being amazed at the amazing views the whole way. It took about 15 minutes to get to the bottom. It felt like I was flying. My bike GPS says my top speed was 26.5 miles/hour.
At the bottom of the hill, we had arrived in the outskirts of Bol. We regrouped and were led a short distance to the city’s famous beach: Zlatni Rat. The beach and the pretty park overlooking it were very nice.
As you can see in the picture above, the beach wraps around both sides of a point of land.
Below is one side of the beach.
The water was very pretty.
Up in the park area there was a church and a statue of a donkey (among other art installments and a restaurant).
This is the church of St. Peter & Paul. It was first mentioned in documents in 1720, but it is believed to be older than that.
While “chilling” at the beach, Lucija offered to take a picture of us. For whatever reason, we seldom get pictures of us together on these trips.
The Colombo was moored about 1/2 mile down the shoreline. We were allowed to head for the ship whenever we wanted to. This is a view down the shoreline as we pedaled toward the mooring.
We found Colombo moored between two other ships at a group mooring dock. My first thought was the song “Stuck In The Middle With You”. Amore to the left of me, Princeza to the right….stuck in the middle with you!
We had to cross the boat closest to the dock to get to ours. Anyone staying in the 3rd boat had to cross the one by the dock and ours to get to theirs.
When we end our ride, we have to take the batteries off the bikes. We’re in charge of making sure they’re charged up for the next day. After we brought our bike things to the cabin and changed clothes -we took a walk through the town of Bol.
This statue is meant to represent fishermen pulling in their nets. That description wasn’t on my bingo card. I thought they were wrestling!
The statue below was on a narrow dock in town. I can’t find any information on it.
Mike took a picture of me precariously balanced on the edge of things while I took the photo.
We walked along the water in front of the wall of storefronts. When we reached the end, I realized that the building we’d walked in front of was built under the steps and sidewalks above.
I believe this egg is related to Easter celebrations in Bol.
Dinner that night was on the ship. The chef prepares some simple, but good meals. This dinner was stuffed peppers with mashed potatoes.
Both Mike and I really enjoyed today’s route and the things we saw.
Miles: 32 Ascend/Descend: 3,087 feet Average Speed: 10.9