We crossed the border into Slovenia and are back in the EU again. We firstly found our campground before driving into town to buy an oil heater and then back to the campground to set up and crank the heater. It was great to have a warm van and we stayed inside watching movies to really enjoy the heat before exploring why Terme Catez campground was voted Europe’s top campground in 2012. The complex was massive. Not only did it have a beautiful campsite beside a lake, it also had a hotel, Indian Tepee’s and Pirate cabins you could stay in. It had a shopping complex, a mini casino and a huge swimming complex, both summer and winter one’s. And the best part was that for 39 euro, James and I got the campsite and a three hour pass on the day of check in and on check out to the indoor heated swimming complex. It was great. We tested out all pools, including the hydro slides, wave pool, artificial wave (well James did!) and the spas that evening and again the next morning. It was great value and also great fun.
The next day, after check out we drove onto Lake Bled, driving around the lake and working out a parking location for tomorrow when we planned on walking it. Then onto the campsite 15km away, right on the NW edge of Slovenia and right beside the Austrian border. The lovely campground lady gave us directions on where we can fill up our gas bottles too which we were pleased about (being halfway through our last bottle of gas now) and we agreed to check it out the next day.
Unfortunately the gas bottle store was closed for stock take, so feeling frustrated we drove onto Lake Bled and walked the 6km around the lake. It was a fresh but clear morning and we managed to take some great photos of the church and castle on Lake Bled on our walk, stopping in Bled for lunch at a cafe. The café was cool as it backed onto an ice rink and we watched ice hockey and figure skaters while we ate our massive hamburger and pizza. Such big meals we had to doggy bag half the pizza (and also a piece of Slovenia’s version of custard slice). Lake Bled done, we headed off to Ljubljana Resort campsite after two failed attempts at stocking up on food supplies (the supermarkets were shutting by 1pm as it is a public holiday the next day). We planned out the next week’s driving and accommodation locations then settled in to watch a movie on the laptop.
It rained quite heavily in the night and we woke to the same. Braving the elements we caught a bus into town and walked around the Old Town, before dodging the rain by visiting Ljubljana Castle. We watched a movie about the castle’s history over the last 5000 years then moved onto the museum of Slovenian history. We left the castle and headed back to old town for lunch at a place we spotted on the up to the castle. We heard good things about Slovenian food and to delight it fulfilled our expectations. We had soup served in a loaf of bread, Hungarian goulash, Weiner schnitzel, and to finish off a layer cake made from apple, poppy seeds, walnut, and cream cheese. The only downside of lunch was that we didn’t have enough room to fit in a horse burger which the locals go crazy for, (damn it!).The rain had pretty much stopped by now but it was quite cold so we spent an hour walking the old town admiring the colourful old buildings and other quirky little things seen along the way. It was a shame about the rain (but we can’t complain because of the great weather we have had over the last 4 months), but Ljubljana had a very nice feel to it and was a very pretty looking city, it was a shame we couldn’t stay a little longer.
The next day was my birthday so we spent the morning shopping at BTC City, a massively spread out mall in Ljubljana. I managed to pick up a couple of winter coats and some ankle boots so I was pretty stoked. James also picked up a sweater and some shoes (one of the bonuses about nearing the end of the trip is we can now load up the van!). We then drove around the city hoping to find a mechanic who could do an oil change on Dusty, but after three failed attempts we gave up. We did manage to find a place to top up our gas bottle however, so we will now have enough to last the rest of the trip which is good. Although we planned on driving out of the city that day, by this time we decided our best move was to stay another night, so we checked back into the Ljubljana Campground and James took me out for dinner. We went back to the same place we had lunch yesterday, Sokol and had a nice fish plate (trout, langoustine, mussels and squid). We later found a café and bought a couple of tasty slices of cake, mine with chocolate and raspberries and James’ with chocolate and pistachio. I had a lovely birthday and was thoroughly spoilt.
Predjama castle was the first stop of the day, which we admired from the outside before driving onto Skocjan caves where we did a tour. The tour itself was packed with people, thankfully they separated us out into two groups; the Italian’s (they were the bulk of the group and who went in before us) and the rest of us (Slovenes and everyone else who spoke English). We weren’t allowed to take any pictures, flash or no flash, which was a shame as it was so stunning. We saw loads of stalagmites and stalactites as we walked through 3km of cave. The best part was a bridge crossing 45m above a raging river. It was so impressive and a little daunting all at once. Afterwards, we drove onto Adria Resort in Koper, setting up camp right beside the Adriatic Sea once more. We watched the sunset then had dinner and jumped into bed.
The next day we were supposed to head into a small town called Piran, which is a Slovenian resort town on the Adriatic that is quite picturesque. After reading about it the night before it didn’t really excite us so we decided to flag it a head toward Italy, which only happened to be 2 km down the road. We decided to head to Bologna which was 300km SW so it was a big drive. Just before we crossed the border into Italy we snuck into a gas station and got the last cheap gas we would see for awhile. It poured with rain the whole time we drove and just as we reached Bologna it stopped which was great. We parked the van at the campground a ran to catch a bus into the town centre for some exploring. We cruised around Bologna with the intention of not doing much. We strolled through some markets and made our way to the main Piazza. We were surprised how busy it was for Sunday because usually everything in Europe is dead on a Sunday. After about 3 hrs we headed back to the campground and got set for an early start towards Florence the next day.
