Ljubljana was great and it’s safe to say we enjoyed every minute as things worked out so well with great accommodation and fine weather even though it was, at times, a little drizzly and a high of 12 degrees. Gotta remember four out of five of us are Newfoundlanders and we all know you never go to Nfld. for the weather and so far you don’t go to Slovenia for the weather either. But it wasn’t bad and it would have to be terrible to keep us inside………so off we go on Thursday morning to our next air bnb in Bled which, if you took the highway, was less than an hour away.   Jim, however, has an aversion to highways and loves secondary roads so he found us a neat route which would take about two hours and we all thought “that’s great as we’ll get to see the countryside”.   And the countryside was beautiful even though the ipad gps wasn’t cooperating and our excellent road map of Slovenia wasn’t working too well………which meant I was a little stressed as the driver, ie. Jim, couldn’t depend on his assistant to lead the way.   Soooooo we wandered around missing a few turns, stopping for a coffee and a pee break…..and asking for help! The Slovenian people thus far have been wonderful!   On this part of our journey when we told them where we were going, they would just say to themselves “really why didn’t you just take the highway?” but were too polite to say it out loud but of course I knew what they were thinking……..because that’s what I was thinking as well! Anyway after four hours of travelling beautiful countryside with extremely winding roads and me praying that Georgina wouldn’t throw up in the back seat(she refused to sit in the front because of navigation responsibilities) we arrived in Bled and eventually to our air bnb overlooking Lake Bled. Of course we’d been spoiled by the accommodation in Ljubljana but agreed this was fine, just not as neat!  So after check in went off for groceries, a brief walk in the rain followed by a nap for a few and then planned supper and the day ahead where all forecasts were showing sunshine and a high of 12 degrees………not hot but perfect for hiking around Lake Bled and whereever else we want to go………as long as we don’t have to move the car!

We woke up to a cloudy day with intermittent showers and thought it was best to move the car and drive to Lake Bohinj in Triglav National Park, a 40 minute drive away.  Our first hiking trail was Slap Savica which basically means Savica waterfall and it’s surrounded by extremely high cliffs……..and nobody had mentioned that you walked a little, climbed steps a little, walked a little, climbed steps a lot and again and again…….until you were basically out of breath and had climbed  over 550 steps……555 to be exact!    Of course it was worth it especially when you met children who were thrilled to see that grey-haired people were doing it as well and were still upright……although Gerry M kept wondering if there was a defibrillator at the top.   Going down was easier but there were stil those 555 steps coming down but fortunately at the bottom they gave you a lovely cup of tea which we all enjoyed.    And then we moved on………quite proud of ourselves for having completed the journey in less time than was listed in the tourist guide.

Next stop was a brief visit to Lake Bled followed by another hike from Stara Fuzina, one of the best-preserved traditional villages in western Slovenia.   The hike into the gorge was about 90 minutes and was absolutely beautiful and breathtaking and along the way we met a young family from Holland who were a little confused about the exit.   Anyway we walked with them a little while and their 10 year old daughter commented on my good English to her mother who just laughed and said “she didn’t know you spoke English in Canada, she thought it was just French”. The seven year old son then asked where in Canada was I from and when I said NS he said ” yes I see that on my risk game!”   Once that was over we decided to head back to Bled and plan our next day because rumour has it the sun is going to shine……..and we’re excited!

SlapSavica

Lake Bled

.??? Gorge, forgot already and lost my notes!