Slovenia

We spent the last part of our trip in Slovenia.  Most of the people Micah and I drug along on this trip had no idea what to expect of Croatia but honestly, I think they had even less idea about Slovenia.  My Dad even told me that he new Croatia had beautiful coast line but he had no idea why we'd go to Slovenia!  However, by the end of our time in Slovenia I think it was the majorities favorite country on our trip.

Our stay in Slovenia started with a couple nights at a Tourist Farm.  This type of accommodation is popular in Slovenia.  Essentially, old farms turn themselves into B&B's to help make some more money. The first one we stayed at though was a little more B&B and I'm not sure how much farm.  However, they did have their own beehives, donkey's, and lots of space to play.  Tourist Farm Hudicevec was Jacob's favorite place because they had a great playground!

We made the most of our first full day in Slovenia with a 2 mile hike through the Skocjan caves. I've been in a few caves in my life so I thought I had an idea of what to expect.  However, what we hiked through was more spectacular than I could have imagined.  The first part of the hike was through the "Silent Cave".  It had beautiful large formations everywhere.   The second part of the hike was through the spectacular "Murmuring Cave".  This cave has the Reka River thundering through it and is one of the largest known underground caves in the world.  Hiking through this part of the cave truly felt like a movie scene from Lord of the Rings.  Sadly, we weren't allowed to take any pictures inside :(  However, Micah was able to go back and get pictures from the outside where the river goes over a waterfall and then descends into the caves.

After our hike, we headed out to the Lipica Stud Farm to see where they breed and train Lipizzaner horses.  We had all seen the Lipizzaner show in Vienna so it was exciting to see more of the horses up close and learn more about their history. At the end of our stables tour we were able to watch a performance.  This performance wasn't nearly as grand or impressive as the one in Vienna but it was still fun.

Even after the cave and the stables we still had some day light to kill so we drove up to the Predjama Castle.  This castle is built into the side of a mountain with a beautiful setting.  We read that the inside wasn't much to tour so we didn't bother going inside but we enjoyed the views.  Jacob fell asleep on the way to the castle so we took turns staying in the car with him to go take pictures.

The next day we drove on to Kobarid and stopped at some WWI sights and a museum. But first, before the indoor museums we had to do a short hike up to a waterfall.  After Plitvice park we were a little concerned that any waterfall hike would seem sad in comparison.  However, the hike and the fall did not disappoint.  The hike was along the Scoja River where we could watch brave people kayaking.  At one point I remember wondering if the water levels were too low in the creek for the falls but we kept going to see what happened.  The end of the trail became a little more difficult to navigate with board walks hugging the side of the mountain and a nice wire to help hang on.  But all of a sudden, around the corner was a beautiful waterfall!

Once we finished our hike, we drove on to the Italian Mausoleum WWI memorial.  We didn't stop there long since the inside was locked and rain started to make its way to us.  After the Mausoleum we stopped for a quick lunch and then headed to the WWI museum.  Although I can say I enjoyed both sights, these were definitely not highlights of the trip.

The farm I had booked us for the evening was actually part of the days sightseeing adventures.  I was kinda excited about this place because it was literally in the middle of nowhere up in the mountains.  The setting was beautiful.  The farm had goats and horses and even a place to build a camp fire.  It was also close to the river so Micah and I hiked down to take some pictures by the river and have a little adventure out on our own.

The next morning we left bright and early for a "driving tour" day.  We decided to make a little detour in the beginning so that we could drive into Italy basically just to say that we did.  We stopped at Lake Predel, took a few pictures, and then headed back into Slovenia.

Our route took us high into the Julian Alps with a few stops along the way mostly for WWI sights.  We went through old churches with WWI burial grounds, passed old outlook points, old guard stations, and lots of battlegrounds. This was the Soca Front of WWI.

After visiting sights in the river valley, our drive took us high up 50 numbered switchbacks.  The views were spectacular.

The final stop on our drive before reaching our destination of Lake Bled was the "biggest ski jump in the world".   It was hard to tell the true heights since most of the area was under construction and it was raining so only the Dad's were brave enough to get out and take pictures. 

We finally made it to Bled, checked into our hotel and then set off to find some dinner.  We let Jake play on a playground we found to help him burn off some energy.  After dinner we took Jacob to the hotel pool to give him some fun play time.  Something he doesn't get a lot of on this type of trip.

The next morning we had the whole day to explore the area without having to change hotels. We started our morning with a trip out to Lake Bohinj.  A mountain near the lake is a ski resort with a Gondola up to the top.  We took the trip up to get some great views of the area.

When we finished our time at Lake Bohinj we drove back to Lake Bled.  Bled is a beautiful town on a beautiful lake with a little island in the middle that holds a church.  They don't allow any motorized vehicles on the the lake so you have to take one of the row boats out. However, they only like to go out to the island if they have 10 passengers so we sat and waited, and waited, and waited before finally giving up.  We did end up making it out to the island later.  Since we were tired of waiting we decided to go over to the mountain luge ride.  We were all very excited to have some fun riding down the mountain.  To our great disappointment it was closed.  That's the one downside of not traveling in peak season.

As I mentioned, we did eventually make it to the island with the church. We read that it is tradition that if you can get the bell to ring 3 times with one pull then your dreams will come true.  So of course we all had to try our luck.

Once we made it back to the mainland we had some time to kill before dinner.  So we decided to split up and do our own thing.  I decided I wanted to take Jacob for some playtime and to feed the ducks.  Then we met up for dinner and after dinner headed back to the hotel pool for more playtime with Jacob.

The next day we packed up and headed off to Ljubljana.  However, we had a a rugged driving tour to take in order to get us there.  The route I chose took us high into the mountains again and through Austria.  Unfortunately, it was so rainy and cloudy in Austria that we basically couldn't see anything. It was only a brief drive through and then we were back into Slovenia.

The first stop was the Logarska Dolina Valley that was supposed to have magnificent views but the weather was not cooperating.  So we drove through the valley to the end where we did a short hike to a waterfall.  When we first made it to the waterfall it was very foggy and misty but as we hung out and took pictures it slowly cleared up some.

Next we drove up the panoramic road which only occasionally was actually a paved road.  Again, we should have had some fantastic views but the weather did not cooperate.  We did stop for a short picnic and get out at a church to take some pictures.  Our fun picnic was cut short by rain.

At last we headed on to Ljubljana.  We dropped our rental car off at the airport and hopped in our reserved transport so that we wouldn't have to worry about parking the car in the city or dropping a rental car off at 5am for our departure flight.  When we made it into town, we dropped our stuff and headed off for the Ljubljana castle.  We did a tour of the castle and then had dinner at one of the restaurants inside the castle walls. The top of the castle walls provided some great views of the city.

 The final day of our trip was spent exploring the city.   Final days are always difficult to plan because everyone is tired, we've already seen so much and it's difficult to decide what to do.  We started the morning out with a visit to the local market. It was fun to get to shop with the locals.  I wished I could buy my fruits and veggies that way every week.  We walked the city, learned some history, took lots of pictures, shopped, and just generally enjoyed ourselves.

After lunch Micah and his Dad went back to the hotel while Mom, Marvetta and I continued shopping with my Dad as our body guard.  We had fun wandering the streets looking for anything interesting to buy.  Our trip didn't have a lot of shopping time built in so my Mom was having some withdrawals. 

We were all very sad to see our vacation end but at last it was time to head home.  Well everyone headed home except for Shelly and Marvetta who came home with us to Doha!  We had a wonderful trip and made lots of great memories together.