I did the section of the Drava cycling trail from Italy, through Austria to Maribor a few years ago. However, I didn’t know at the time that the trail in fact goes right down to the Croatian border for another 70km. So I am staying in Maribor for a few days and doing the rest of the path as well as the Mura River trail.
Anyway, as you might have expected the first day was a disaster. It was cloudy and threatened to rain. Then the place I went to rent a bike, a considerable walk, didn’t, have any left as they rented them all out to some Austrian group. The only option was to hire a city bike from the tourist office. Skinny tyres, three gears and upright handlebars. It was like steering from an armchair. At first it wobbled all over the place and I struggled to stay on the seat as it was that smooth. Anyway, naturally, things only got worse. Most of the 30km to the town was on gravel farm roads, some were quite rough, so I had had to hold on for dear life but I didn’t have any spills. I got through that and got to the beautiful town of Ptuj on the river. The intention was to catch a train back. Unfortunately that plan came unstuck as the train would arrive after the tourist office closed, when they wanted the bike back. But I thought I could ride back and get there in time. Big, big mistake. Halfway back the energy reserves ran out, with the bike wrestling and the appearance of previously non existent hills. I got slower and slower. With no chance of getting back in time I rang the tourist office and they were happy for me to take the bike back to my hotel. I finally arrived back at Maribor over 45 minutes late. One thing I learnt is that city bikes are not very good for long distances. Everything hurt. On the plus side it didn’t rain.
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