Slovenia is a beautiful country filled with friendly people and amazing scenery and places to visit…
As we drove towards Ljubljana the capital of Slovenia, huge snow-capped mountains appeared in the distance and looked spectacular with the sunshine glistening on them. The cobbled streets of the Old Town of Ljubljana are nestled around the Ljubljanica River. Lots of bridges cross the river including the famous Dragon Bridge and the Triple Bridge. We walked up to the medieval Ljubljana Castle that sits on a hill high above the town and offers fabulous views of the mountains and Ljbuljana.
Bohinj is an alpine valley at the base of the Julian Alps. We visited both Lake Bohinj and Savica Waterfall. Lake Bohinj is the largest permanent lake in Slovenia. The snow was thawing after winter and the river that flows into the lake was flowing rapidly with water from the melting snow. We walked 553 steps to reach the Savica Waterfall and it was worth the effort! It is a double waterfall in the shape of the letter A and at the base of the waterfall it is an incredible green colour!
Lake Bled is a glacial lake in the Julian Alps. It is a popular place with tourists who enjoy hiking and for people who want to visit Bled Island in the middle of the lake where you will find the Church of the Assumption. A man rowed us over to Bled Island in a wooden boat. Bled Castle is a medieval castle that sits on a high cliff overlooking the lake and we walked 280 steps to see the fabulous view of Lake Bled and the Alps from the top.
Next stop was Postonja to visit the Postonja Cave where we went 150 metres underground on a little train and walked for about one kilometre. It was like being in another world! The cave is about 21 km long, but we only saw about 5 km of it. It was created millions of years ago by the Pivka River. The cave was filled with stalactites and stalagmites of many different shapes and sizes that grow about 1 cm every hundred years. If you used your imagination you could see lots of interesting things when you looked at them! Next we visited the Predjama Castle. It is a huge castle built into the opening of a 123 metre high cave. It was a very clever idea and made the castle into a fortress, complete with a secret exit. It would have been very cold to live in the parts where the cave was part of the castle.
Our final place to visit in Slovenia was the coastal town of Piran on the Adriatic Sea. The main square called Tartini Square was filled with lots of little stalls of local produce to celebrate their Salt Festival. As we wandered around the port looking at the boats we were actually interviewed and filmed by some people who must have heard our Australian accents and asked us what we thought about Piran! I loved following the winding streets of Piran and seeing houses so different to ours (and washing lines with clothes above my head!). My favourite by far was the view from St Francis’ church over the town of Piran and the ocean.
These are some photos of the places I’ve written about…
