Aerial view of cyclists on a wooden suspension bridge over the river Soča in Slovenia

© Amazing Aerial Agency/Offset by Shutterstoc

Get on your bike and ride

To mark World Bicycle Day, we're at Triglav National Park in Slovenia. This bird’s-eye view takes in riders crossing a narrow wooden suspension bridge over the glacial blue water of the Soča river. Protecting some of the most magnificent mountain landscapes of the Julian Alps, Triglav is Slovenia's only national park, but it's a stunner. Running along its north-west border with Italy, Triglav was first protected as a conservation park in 1924, then made a national park in 1981. It gets its name from the mountain at its heart, Triglav, long considered a symbol of Slovenia and of Slovene identity.

Since 2018, the UN General Assembly has recognised 3 June as World Bicycle Day to recognise “the uniqueness, longevity and versatility of the bicycle, which has been in use for two centuries”. The bicycle has gone through many iterations since Karl Drais created a brake-less, pedal-less forerunner called a velocipede in 1817. The German inventor would probably be floored by today's options, from new lightweight road bikes to heavier mountain bikes with fatter, knobbly tyres designed to handle rougher terrain. More than 200 years after von Drais introduced his two-wheeled contraption, bicycles remain as popular as ever. Chances are, there's one just waiting for you to take it for a spin. And what better day to do so, than World Bicycle Day?