Day 1: Fifteen riders, two languages, one message

The words were in both Slovene and English, but folks were speaking the same language — promoting sustainable use of energy — as the latest Green Bike Tour opened in Slovenia on Saturday. Fifteen riders opened the tour from Nova Gorica, near the Italian border.

Read David Osterberg's first-day blog post for The Des Moines Register.

The first leg of the bike route had about 15 riders. Professor Mladen Franko had arranged for a lot of students to accompany us to the agriculture branch of Nova Gorica University in Adjdoscina, which was only about 20 miles from our starting point.

The second leg of the first-day ride took us to Postojna up over our first big hills. The scenery was beautiful. Professor Ushka Stangar, her husband Rajko and daughters Marusa and Anja were with us both days of our ride from Nova Gorica to Ljubljana. Here they are. And here they are with Green Bike veterans John Moreland, Joe Bolkcom and David Osterberg. The girls, 14 and 12 were very strong bike riders.