October 4thToday we were up and on the road by 8:30am to leave Italy for now and head east into Slovenia, on our way to Croatia. We drove north east for a scenic three hour trip to a small place called Bovec, in the north east corner of Slovenia, nestled among the Julian Alps. It is only a small town of a couple of thousand people, and we came for the scenery.
We arrived soon after 1pm after a beautiful final hour of driving through the Alps, although they did not have the grandness the Swiss Alps had. After finding our campground on luck, as our Navman did not recognise the address we had we set up camp, did washing and ate lunch.
Hamish was drooling over the mountains during the drive, and disappointed with the amount of walking he had managed to fit in so he got himself organised and went for a hike up to close to the summit of one of the nearby mountains which he was happy about. Em and I stayed at the van for the afternoon and enjoyed the sun shine.
We planned our next few days in Slovenia to try and make the most of our time here.
After dinner we relaxed in the van, using some of the free internet at the campground before turning in for the night.
October 5th
Today is day 87 on the road. We had a small trip planned heading west from Bovec to a small town called Bohinjska Bistrica. We got away from our campsite at about 8:30am on yet another brilliantly sunny morning. The trip went well, but it was a very slow 93km. The roads were narrow, windy, and mostly over mountain ranges. Yet it did not really matter today, because we had not planned much for the day. We enjoyed the drive, particularly the autumn colours starting to dominate the landscape after seeing flickers of reds and oranges during our past few weeks.
We did not arrive to Bohinjska Bistrica until midday, making it the slowest journey we have had in our entire trip. It sure was slow, and probably the windiest roads we have had. Still we made it. Bohinjska Bistrica is a small town of only about 1000 people. We had lunch here after having a nice walk around the town and spending probably 20 minutes looking in the river, through the amazingly clear water and spotting lots of trout (mainly small ones though).
We found a small restaurant in one of the streets, and had a nice and very large lunch. Em had trout crumbed and fried in the local way, and Hamish and I had pizza. We ordered on each, and they were so enormous, we had to take most of them with us in a doggy bag.
Once we were done here we picked up a few groceries and then discussed whether to drive the 25km further north east to Bled or stay here the night. Well we drove 100m to the campsite, and parked up so here we are. For some reason we all still seem to be pretty tired so have enjoyed yet another quite relaxing day in the beautiful autumn sun that we seemed to be lucky enough the keep on getting.
October 6th
After getting up and away from our campsite in good time we drove 25km north east to Bled. This was a 'tourist' town, but it was well worth the visit. We arrived before 10am, and the tourists had not yet arrived. It was a small town set on a lakeside. In the middle of a lake was a small island with a church on it. On top of one of the nearby cliffs was a castle. All of this with the surrounding forests in their full autumn beauty. The lake water was clear and blue, and we could see lots of decent sized fish in it. It was lovely.
We started off by walking around the lake which was a nice, easy 6km walk. We went up to the castle, more for the view, than to look at the castle itself. Unfortunately the sun was low in the sky and it was quite hazy, so it was not that great a view. We continued around the lake, stopping along the way at a cafe for some morning tea.
When we got back to the town, we had a quick look around before deciding to move on. We thought we had a decent drive ahead, but it turns out that it was only a 35km trip south to a small town on the way to Ljubljana (the capital of Slovenia). We found a camper stop park without problem and set up there for the day. A lovely German lady from the van next door brought us over some home-made marble cake to eat with our coffee, which was delicious. We didn't tell her we actually had beer in our coffee mugs, haha! Hamish and I played frisbee with a plastic plate for a while. We had a nice relaxing evening playing cards after dinner, before turning into bed.
October 7th
We got away early and drove the last 20km to Ljubljana (the 'j's are pronounced as 'y's – we just called it 'Loveliana', it was easier to get our tongues around). We went straight to the campground, arriving at 9:30am. They kindly let us check in, even though we were quite early. After setting up our campsite, we caught the bus into the centre city.
Ljubljana is a small city, with only about 200,000 people. It is the capital city of Slovenia, with settlements dating back to Roman times in this area.
It was a beautiful small city, with a river running through it. It seemed laid back, and we had a nice time exploring the city on a beautiful, hot, autumn day. We started out by walking around for a while, including going up to the castle on the hill to try and take advantage of the view. Unfortunately again it was slightly disappointing. By this stage we had worked up quite a big hunger. Our first choice for lunch had closed down, so we tried our second option. This was a Bosnian restaurant and it was brilliant. Delicious grilled meatballs and freshly made springy bread. It reminded Em and I of Turkish food.
After satisfying our tastebuds we spent the afternoon wandering around the town and exploring the streets, before walking back to the campground.
Back at the campground we started talking to our neighbours - New Zealanders Mark and Briar, who arrived to Ljubljana today as well. It turns out we have been parked next to them before, in Lithuania and also in Poland, but have not yet talked to them. We had a good chat to them, discussing our trips and finding out some good tips for Italy, including how to improve the safety of our van. They are yet another van that was broken into while in Italy.
After that it was dinner time, then we relaxed in the van for the rest of the evening. Hamish stayed for longer chats over some strawberry wine, which was very sweet, but quite tasty.
