November 3-7
Hanging out high above Lake Bled, Slovenia
After having such an amazing experience in Croatia, Shaun and I couldn't wait to see what Slovenia had to offer! Once again, we knew just a handful of people who had been there so we weren't sure what to expect. We had done our usual last minute booking and decided on a place about 10 minutes from Lake Bled in a town called Radovljica. The Apartments Jansa had a one bedroom apartment available with a small kitchen and living room for just 42 Euro a night. We were really loving the cheap accommodations in this part of Europe!
As we drove up from Croatia towards lake Bled, we had to drive straight past the capital city of Ljubljana. (Pronounced Lubyana) We were unsure at that point whether we wanted to stay in the city next or just sightsee for a day so we decided to stop there for lunch and check it out. We both loved it immediately. As you come into town you cross over the "Dragon Bridge", which as its name implies, has dragons guarding it on either end! (How can you not love a city that welcomes you with dragons!) After a quick lunch and a visit to the Tourist Information center we decided that we would need to come to Ljubljana for the two nights following our stay at Apartments Jansa. And when we learned there was a wine festival happening that Saturday, we decided that it was imperative that we stay in the city.
Our first look at Lovely Ljubljana
All that decided, we continued our drive up to the Lake Bled area. The highways in Slovenia are really well maintained and have great facilities. Even the rest areas were surprisingly nice. They had the usual quickie mart kinds of snacks, but each one also had a little cafe attached that served soups and hot foods and salads. I can honestly say that the salads at the rest area looked nicer than some salads you would see in restaurants. It was refreshing to see those kinds off choices offered instead of just the usual junk.
When we arrived at Apartments Jansa we had our first introduction to Joe, the owner of the place. Joe was a trip! He asked us if we wanted some information on Slovenia and when we said yes, he gave us a landslide of information. Then he sat down with us and started to go over it all. He was very cautious to make sure he wasn't overstaying his welcome, but I know he would have talked for hours if we wanted. And oh my goodness, was he proud of Slovenia! He kept asking Shaun questions about sporting figures from Slovenia who did amazing things and expecting him to know their names, which he never did. Finally, when he would tell us the person's name, he would always end with "He ees from Slovenia!" as though it were surprising.
We also loved Joe's delivery of information when he was pointing out places on the map. For example, he showed us a map of the town of Radovljica where we were staying. He pointed rapid fire at things, saying, "This is the Church, This is the Center, This is This and This, well, This is Nothing". And it wasn't just once. Every time we asked Joe about something he would pull out his maps and give us the same spiel. And with his Slovenian accent it just cracked us up. Ever since our stay, Shaun and I can't help but bust out with our Joe impressions from time to time. "Dees is a castle and dees is a farm and dees is dees, and dees, well dees is nahthing". I must reinforce though, that as much as I'm poking a bit of fun at Joe, he was a wonderful host who gave us lots of great ideas for things to see in Slovenia.
And boy, did we do some sightseeing in Slovenia! Much like Croatia, there's an amazing cross-section of things to do in Slovenia. For our first day, we wanted to make use of the car to see both Lake Bled and the Julian Alps. We started the morning in Lake Bled. We knew that it was off season so the town would be much quieter than it is in the summer, so we planned to spend about half the day there. We began with a nice hearty breakfast at a place in town and then made our way around the lake to start the climb to the Castle. Bled Castle looks down upon the lake from a perch high above the town, but it has nice trails and stairs carved into the hillsides, so the journey is quite lovely. Once we got to the top we thought the admission price was more than a little steep so we opted to walk the trails around the castle instead. It was a beautiful morning and the trees were all changing colors. I felt like we were taking pictures in New England, a feeling that would repeat itself many times over in Slovenia. After some more walking around the lake, we headed out to the Julian Alps. Bled was beautiful but "very commercialization" as our friend Joe put it.
I like to call this one "Breakfast in Bled", Hee Hee
The little church in the middle of Lake Bled
The goal of our drive to the Julian Alps was to drive through the Vrsic Pass, the highest mountain pass in Slovenia. I am seriously questioning my sanity at this point. Shaun had never even heard of the Vrsic Pass, so the only reason we were doing this was at my suggestion. I guess I didn't really think through what a mountain pass would involve. Well let me tell you. In the case of the Vrsic Pass it involves 26 hairpin turns as you climb to 1611 meters on one side of the pass and then 24 more hairpin turns as you descend. The reason you do the Vrsic pass is to experience the views from the top, which were amazing right up until we hit the crazy fog that made it almost impossible to see. Unfortunately I was too busy holding on for dear life to take many pictures at the top.
On the way up the Vrsic Pass you come upon this tiny Russian chapel set back in the woods. It was built in 1917 as a tribute to 100 Russian Prisoners who died in an avalanche while building the roads through this pass during WWI.
This was hairpin turn number 29 which was on the way down. Made even more fun by the thick layer of fog that rolled in!
A gorgeous glacial stream on the way down, near the bottom of the pass.
When we finally finished our descent, we stopped in a small town for a bite too eat. We had planned to do some cave exploring as well that day but when we talked to a nice gentleman at a Tourist Info Center he explained that we were way too far out to get there in time so we decided to head back to Radovljica. When we asked him the fastest way back there he explained that we should just cross into Italy and then back to Slovenia to the North. I mentioned that I was glad we had our passports to show at the border and he laughed. "There's nobody there to show them to!" he said. I had forgotten that Slovenia is an EU country so there's no real "borders" anymore. The drive back was gorgeous, through farmland and hills and forests and teal blue glacial lakes. And just as he said, when we got to the border of Italy and again to Slovenia, there was nothing but old border crossing buildings and a sign welcoming you.
After our second night in Radovljica and a good night's rest, we said goodbye to Joe and hit the road again. We were off to Ljubljana for the wine festival, but Joe had suggested we make a stop at a place called Brdo Castle. Brdo was where Bush and Putin had their historic first summit back in 1991 and the grounds are just beautiful. I could understand why you might choose a spot like this for such a high tension meeting. The trees were all changing colors and there were little streams and waterfalls and it was just so scenic and peaceful. Once again, we had the place practically to ourselves. We only saw one other couple in the hour or two that we walked around so it was extra tranquil! And yet again, it was so reminiscent of New England in the fall. Just beautiful.
One of the paths through the grounds of Brdo Castle
Back in the car, we set off for Ljubljana. When we arrived in the city and got to the B&B we were thrilled with the location! It was right outside the city center, just off the square where they hold the green market and more importantly, minutes from the wine festival! We were able to check in early so we dropped our bags off at the room and headed over to the Saint Martin's Festival in the center of the Old Town.
Saint Martin's Day, legend has it, is the day that all the grapes must officially turn to wine and so it is a celebration of "new wine", kind of like the celebrations that take place in France when the Beaujolais comes out every year. The Ljubljana Wine Route, as the festival was called, didn't limit itself to young wines. They had vintners from all over Slovenia with all types of wines-- Red, Whites, Roses and even Ice Wines. They also had lots of great food vendors serving delicious things we rarely see at home like smoked Venison Sausage and Wild Garlic pesto, to name two of my favorites.
Ham Anyone?
The set up of the festival was just fantastic. These people obviously appreciate good wine because there were no plastic cups here! You give them a ten euro deposit and they give you a really nice wine glass to keep for the afternoon. When you finish your tastings you bring the wine glass back and get your ten euro. You just have to be careful not to break it!! The wine tastings also were free for the most part. Every once in a while we came upon someone who was charging a Euro for a taste, but that seemed to be the exception. Most of them were happy to get the exposure and offered the tastes for free. And the wine prices!! Holy cow. The first place we went to had a sign with the different bottles listed and they each said 4 euro or 3.50 euro so we asked if that was the price for a full glass. Nope, that was the price for the bottle! And they were absolutely wonderful wines! I thought Shaun was going to try to get a work Visa that day so we could come and live there!
Saint Martin's Festival in Ljubljana. Shaun is making friends with the wine vendors.
After a few hours of sampling wines and enjoying the scenery we decided to get some food. The "street food" we got that day was a duck leg with a chestnut and potato mash and braised red cabbage. OMG, it was delicious!! We stood on a bridge by the river, drinking delicious free wine and eating gourmet street food and counting our blessings. What a great day! Of course, after such a long day of tasting we eventually needed a refill on food so at Shaun's request we got their version of a sausage sandwich, which basically had 4 or 5 small sausages between a thick Pita bread with this wonderful paste made from sweet red peppers. We split that as well, thank goodness. But, Oh joy was it good.
First up, duck leg with chestnut and potato mash and braised red cabbage.
Please note the childlike enthusiasm. Love it!
Next up was the Slovenian version of a sausage sandwich. The red pepper paste is called Ajvar and it is a popular condiment. It was yummy!
The next morning we got up early and jumped into the car for a day of sightseeing. Todays agenda was castles and caves. First up was the Skocjan caves. Skocjan caves is a Unesco is an amazing underground world composed of stalagmites, stalactites, natural bridges and passages. It is one of two major cave systems in Slovenia. (The other, Postojna caves, is also close by, but Joe said it was "very commercialization" so we opted to go with his suggestion of Skocjan instead) The cave was created by the flow of the Reka River over millions of years and is still changing and growing every day.
The tour was wonderful. We walked down a woodsy trail for about 10 minutes before coming to the cave entrances. At the entrance, they split us up into groups based on language and we started our descent into the caves. It was a bit eerie at first (I couldn't help thinking about how many earthquakes seem to be happening these days) but I got over it as we descended further and further and saw more and more amazing things. At one point we crossed a bridge 500 meters above the cave floor, where the remains of the river flowed through. It was like a scene from Lord of the Rings. It was scary and amazing and totally cool. We were bummed out that you couldn't take pictures but fortunately these days you can just google Skocjan Caves if you want to see the things we saw!
Shaun outside one of the entrances to the caves
The whole tour took about 90 minutes and walked most of the length of the caves. At the end you ascend to the other side of the cave where you come out into a beautiful forest and walk up through these hills that could have been in Vermont or New Hampshire. Just a perfect morning.
We could have been in New England.
Next up was Predjama Castle. Predjama Castle is unlike any other castle we have seen. The castle was built into a cave in the side of a mountain! The original castle dates back to the 12th or 13th century, but the one that is here now dates back to about 1570, with some updates done in the last century to keep it stable and safe. The castle has one particular inhabitant named Erazan who lived there in the 15th century and got into all sorts of trouble with the local royalty. He spent a year and a day under siege before he was killed while his guard was down...really down. His location was given up by one of his servants while he going to the bathroom! Who knows if its true, but it makes a great story! We spent an hour or so touring the castle before heading back to Ljubljana for one last night.
Predjama Castle was pretty incredible!
The next morning we left lovely Ljubljana and headed back to Croatia for one last night. We were flying from Zagreb to London the next day and we had booked a little place right by Zagreb airport that got fabulous reviews on Trip Advisor and Booking.com. Rooms Pleso was described as walking distance from the airport and everyone raved about the hostess, a woman named Zelijka. For 49.50 Euro including breakfast it would have been a deal regardless, but the reviews were right. The place was lovely; a big spacious room with a king sized bed, a detached breakfast area/lounge where Zelijka kept a warm fire going. We had e-mailed to see if we could drop our bags off in the morning, so we arrived at Rooms Pleso around 10AM, dropped our bags and then dropped off the rental car. Croatia Airlines has a shuttle from Zagreb airport into town for the equivalent of about 5 or 6 dollars that runs every half hour so we jumped on and headed into Zagreb.
We were really exhausted when we got into Zagreb but we ended up being very happy we went there. It was a beautiful city with all the things we've come to know and love about these old European cities- markets and cafes and cathedrals and museums and wonderful people. We wandered the streets all afternoon, doing what we have come to call the "microwave tour". Not enough to really fill you up, but enough to know whether you want to go back and see it all someday. (We do!) When we got back to the Croatia Airlines shuttle that afternoon, the driver remembered us from the trip in. It was so typical of the friendliness we have encountered everywhere.
Shaun in downtown Zagreb
Zagreb was filled with statues, but this crazy one was my favorite. Those are real leaves and flowers growing all over it!
We took the shuttle back to the airport and walked 5 minutes down the road to Rooms Pleso. We showered and changed into what few clean clothes we had left and walked over to a restaurant in the neighborhood recommended by the B&B owners. It looked like someone's house from the outside but inside was a lovely little place. The food was wonderful and the waiter was friendly and the house wine was great. We walked back over to Rooms Pleso talking about what great surprises Slovenia and Croatia were and how we were sad to be leaving.
When we got back to the B&B, we went into the breakfast/lounge area to work on our blogs and have some of the Slovenian wine we had purchased at the wine festival. The room was toasty warm and there was another couple also hanging out, Victor and Ilya from Norway. They had a little girl who was sleeping upstairs so they had the baby monitor on and had just eaten dinner. We asked them if they wanted to join us for some wine but they both said no, they had apparently had a bit too much the night before. After a while Zelijka came in and started chatting with all of us. Shaun and I offered her some wine, which she turned down in favor of giving us some of her Slivovitz, a Croatian plum brandy that was delicious but STRONG! Shaun and I were both pretty pleased that we made it through our glass, but Zelika wasn't done. Above our protests she poured us another glass! Eventually Viktor acquiesced to having some wine but he said no to the Slivovitz- apparently that was what had brought he and his wife down the night before!
A little Slivovitz with Zelijka. Try saying that 10 times fast!
So the next morning we got up and had breakfast all together, Viktor, Ilya, and their baby, plus Shaun, Zelijka and me. The Norwegians were leaving that morning early and Zelijka was bringing them to the airport and she insisted that she would bring us too! It was so close that there was really no need, but she thought our backpacks must be heavy so she wouldn't take no for an answer. So off we went, just down the street to Zagreb airport where we were taking a cheap Croatia Airlines flight to London.
Viktor and Ilya and their daughter
We were off to the land of the Royals and High Tea and Fish and Chips and people speaking English and we were damned excited to be honest. But we were also so thankful for the time we had on the "mainland" and in Croatia and Slovenia in particular! We really had no idea what to expect when we went to those countries and in both cases we just loved the people and the places. I think it has made us both more sure of the second leg of the journey where we will get even more out of our comfort zone in places like Thailand and Vietnam. But I'm getting ahead of myself! We still needed to finish Europe first! So off we went, on a Croatia Airlines flight from Zagreb to London. It would only take about three hours, but it seemed like a world away.
One of the dragons from the Dragon Bridge in Ljubljana, Slovenia. And a full moon to boot!
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