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| Typical village scene in Slovenia |
After leaving Croatian Istria, we travelled inland, and into
Slovenia again.
The scenery on this leg of the trip was really lovely. We went
through some beautiful villages that had white churches with ornate spires, and
houses with colourful flowers growing in windowsill planters, and lovely lawns and
gardens.
We also admired the many beautiful and well-tended farms and
villages, and the abundance of trees backed by spectacular mountains. It was a
very scenic drive.
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| Postojna Cave, Slovenia |
Postojna Cave is a 20-km long karst cave system of underground passages, galleries and chambers which you can only see via a guided tour.
We travelled through the first part of the cave on a cute little
railway system, walked a bit, and then took the train again to get out. The
temperature was about 8-10 degrees so we had to rug up to keep warm.
It was a terrific experience seeing the array of formations in such
an extensive cave system.
Although we have seen several spectacular caves on
this trip, the Postojna Cave seemed to have the greatest variety of colour, formation
type and chamber size.
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| Predjama medieval castle, Slovenia |
We also visited an amazing medieval castle in Predjama, just 10
minutes out of Postojna. The castle is perched half in and half out of a rocky
cliff face that is over 100 meters high.
It’s a very old castle - at least 700 years old - and it was quite impressive.
Looking out from the castle windows, there was a spectacular views
over the beautiful green countryside and mountain ranges.
Just outside the castle, we stopped and bought some strawberries
from a stall set up underneath a 1000 year old Linden tree. The strawberries
were sweet and delicious, and the Linden tree was spectacular.
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| Marg sitting under a 1000 year old Linden tree |
After Postojna we moved on to Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia.
The weather in the mountains is much cooler, especially at night now
that the European autumn is kicking in. After such a long time in high
temperatures we are starting to feel the cold. Our tank tops and shorts have
now been packed away for the rest of the trip.
Each morning in Ljubljana we awoke to a cool, foggy morning but by about 10 o’clock it had lifted and become a lovely sunny day. The receptionist at the camp told us that if it is foggy, the day will be great but if it is cloudy to start with, the day will not be so good. It proved to be true!
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| Marg at the market
in Ljubljana, Slovenia |
After a few days of catching up with washing, and cleaning etc at the campsite, we headed into Ljubljana city centre to see the sights.
We really liked this city. It has a compact old town, built around the river and under the walls of an ancient castle. It has interesting and well-preserved baroque architecture, and it's colourful and beautiful.
We caught the cable car up to the castle after wandering around the local market, where we bought some tasty cheese, meats and veggies.
While we were in Ljubljana there was a campervan and camping expo on so we went along to have a look.
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| Us in Ljubljana,
Slovenia |
We bought our campervan, Vanni online, and the web didn’t really give us an accurate picture of what it and others looked like in terms of size and quality. So, we loved checking out the other models ‘in the flesh’. We weren’t tempted to swap it though.
When we were ready to leave Ljubljana, we were checking out of our campsite, and met a Kiwi woman and her parents. They had recognised our ‘pukeko purse’ which we use to carry our Euros. A
pukeko is a New Zealand native bird.
The little purse was a bon-voyage gift to us from our friend Helen,
and has caught many an eye, while also being very useful.
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| Lovely Ptuj, Slovenia |
While in Ljubljana, we heard that Ptuj (Ptooi) was one of the oldest and prettiest cities in Slovenia. Speaking to an English couple we met in Ljubljana, they
confirmed this, and even gave us a map of the Ptuj area, which later, we found
very useful.
So, after a few days in Ljubljana, we drove up to the north-eastern
corner of Slovenia to see Ptuj.
Ptuj, is old - it has been
inhabited since the late Stone Age. In the 1st century BC, the town was a Roman
military fort, and an important centre in the Roman Empire.
Now days, its architecture is mainly Austro-Hungarian, and we
admired it as we waked around this compact medieval town. It has a lovely
castle sitting on a hill overlooking the city.
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| Poet, France
Preseren statue in Kranj, Slovenia |
We thought Ptuj was lovely, but not as lovely as Ljubljana.
After a few days in Ptuj, we drove north-west to Kranj. Kranj is also very old, with 6,000 years of continuous
settlement, and built on on the shores of two Alpine rivers.
We walked around and quite enjoyed Kranj. It’s known today
for the famous Slovenian poet - France Preseren, and there’s a huge statue of
him outside the Prešernovo gledališče (Prešeren theatre).
After a short stop in Kranj, we drove to Bled, across some
impressive mountains, and through lots of gorgeous little flower filled
villages.
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| Lake Bled with Bled
Castle perched on a rock high above the lake |
Bled has a lovely lake. There is also huge castle perched on a cliff top high above the lake, and a charming old church, that seems to grow
out of Bled Island near the centre of the lake. It looked so beautiful, we couldn't wait to explore.
We caught a small road-train from our campsite into Bled village and had a lovely walk around. Then we sat and watched the swans on the lake
while eating an ice cream, in the very warm and lovely afternoon sun.
The next day we hired a row boat and rowed out to Bled Island. The
island is home to the 17th century Assumption of Mary church.
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| Rowing out to Bled Island |
We had to climb 99 steps up to the church entrance, but it was worth it. Excavations on the island have revealed the
remains of a pre-Romanesque Chapel, and a large Slavic cemetery dating to 9 AD.
The church has a ‘wishing bell’ so we rang the bell and made our
wish. We now know why we can hear a bell ringing all day from the campsite.
It’s very popular and we reckon that millions of wishes have been made by now.
We walked round the lake and climbed up to Bled Castle, which has
the most spectacular views over the surrounding countryside. It is the oldest castle in Slovenia, dating back to 1011.
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| Inside Bled Castle |
After that, we walked around the other side of the lake back to the
camp site. A beautiful walk and we felt
very virtuous about the amount of exercise we’d had.
We met several Aussies while in Bled, and it was good to have some
laughs, use English in conversation, and catch up on the Rugby World Cup (go
the All Blacks).
We also had a delicious meal of locally caught Bled Trout in the camp restaurant. It was really very tasty.
Overall, we think Slovenia is a well-kept secret. It is a small,
sophisticated and very clean, green country, and the people are lovely, and very
friendly. We will try to visit here again.
Our next stop is Austria and the Alps.