mybigadventures.com

We decided to visit Slovenia again, having not been since our Big Europe Adventure in 2007. We had really enjoyed our time in Ljubljana so we made our way there first, to spend a few days there, and then go onto Lake Bled, which we'd heard a lot about but hadn't got as far as visiting. 

It was a little dreary when we arrived, with drizzly rain. But it soon stopped and the sun came out. It was lovely to re-visit places that we distantly remembered - we spent our first day moseying around the old town centre, wandering around the streets and even locating the hostel that we stayed in when we first came. We looked up at the castle, saw the dragon bridge, walked back and forth over the three bridges, and just generally wandered. On another day, we visited the zoo, quite an impressive collection of animals and with only about a handful of other visitors, so very quiet! A real treat was seeing some baby marmosets, clinging onto their parents, and also a gorgeous red panda, who seemed quite camera shy and kept to the back branches of his enclosure. But not out of reach of the Ben's zoom lense!

On another day we went on an adventure a bit further afield. We hired a car and went to see Postojna caves and Prejama castle, about 45 minutes outside of Ljubljana. It was possible to see both on the same day but only if you hired a car - seemingly, out of season, public transport doesn't function and you can't get between the two sites and it's just too far to walk. So the car worked out a treat! We went to the castle first, as the cave tours were full for the earlier part of the day. The castle is veyr impressive, built into the cave wall and involving a cave system of its own. It has survived many a siege, and due to secret passageways between it and the local village, managed to sustain forces for months way back many centuries ago. There wasn't a lot of original fixtures and fittings to look at, although there were a few recreations to look at. But there was a detailed audio guide that explained all about the construction of the different sections and what it was used for. From there, we went to the caves. The tour was about an hour long and it started on a little train, that went along through several kilometres of caves. It was huge down there! And enormous stalagnites and stalagtites that were centuries old. All in all, we were told that we had traversed about 10 kilometres deep underground. Once back up on the surface, we spent quite a while trying to take photos of some swallows that were diving for insects above the weir outside; we did get a few quite good pictures, but the were so fast!

And from one castle, to another - we also revisited Ljuljana castle. It has had a lot of work done to it since 2007 - a lot of it has been re-roofed and rebuilt and it looks considerably more solid now. It has also become a bit more of an 'event' location, focusing a little too much on weddings and other events, rather than catering for tourists. Food options were quite limited and pricey, so our plans of having lunch up there fell by the wayside. Instead, we ended up getting an ice cream from a lovely ice cream palour we've discovered, called Vigo. We've been there a few times - Ben always has chocolate, but I like to try various things. It's delicious!

From Ljubljana, we headed to Lake Bled. We got the bus, as it's the most direct route and only takes about 90 minutes. It was a very scenic journey and avery busy bus, with people having to stand for part of the journey as it was so full. It was straightforward with only a minor hold up and we made it to Bled early afternoon. We checked into out hotel - quite an expensive place but when we got up to our suite (!) and saw the view from our balcony, it was completely worth it! It was glorious. We spent the rest of the afternoon just sitting and looking out over the lake - something which became something of a habit throughout our stay. When we did tear ourselves away from the view, we visited Bled castle, perched high above the lake on a rocky outcrop - a bit of a climb, but a lovely place to visit and great views. We also spent time walking around the lake, seeing a pair of kestrals nesting in the rock face and some very recent ducklings. And we couldn't be so close to the lake without rowing on it! We went twice, to mess about on the lake! Lovely sunshine and relaxing activities - an excellent holiday!