Birthday celebrations in our favourite culinary destination.

Our big trip for this year, with the goal to take in a couple new destinations - namely Croatia & Slovenia. But these are a long drive from home, so our journey there and back will all part of the adventure.

Quick stop in Provence, then a few nights in the Alps.

The Alps are where it really gets going for me with the first of many phenomenal cycling days. The riding on this trip was just out of this world. Sometimes I can't believe my luck, or what is still possible. Too many dream days out to re-list, just see below.

Continuing east and we pass the Italian lakes. They never disappoint & had another beautiful stopover by Garda. Then onto Croatia & Slovenia.

Croatia has some very cool & interesting coastal villages - love them! But the beaches as a whole were disappointing for me - far too rocky. Lucky we aren't really beach people Away from the coast, in the area we visited at least, lots of quiet, rolling countryside was wonderful. There's nothing like seeing more deer than people while out on your morning ride! Then Plitvice Lakes - wow!

Next, Slovenia. I found this place a real treat! Wine regions were beautiful & well kept, and as a cyclist loved the mountainous border with Italy & Austria. Then Lake Bled - deserves another wow!

Turning towards home, a short stop in Austria - you just had to have a dip when by camping by an Austrian lake, right? Into Switzerland for more riding and hiking - favourite walk of the trip for some, which is hardly surprising - it is Switzerland after all!

At this point we really should have gone straight to the Med. coast due to huge storms forecast in the Alps, but choosing that final hike in Switzerland over a day of driving meant staying further north than planned. Near Lake Como we took some happy snaps in the late afternoon sun, before sleep... & waking to chaos in the way of torrential rain, floods & traffic snarl ups that this brings - doh! You can't win them all, but we only had 2 days of bad weather the entire trip, so I'll take that!

... and besides, when the weather is bad we just drive to where it's not - ending the day back in sunshine on the Italian Riviera

On such a journey, I often feel guilty for blasting through parts of France that are wonderful in their own right so looked for at least a few of new spots. Menton. Col de Turini. Sommières. Loved them all! In fact loved it all - what a month!