Over Easter weekend, Jon and I embarked on our final new-country experience in Europe. At 35 weeks, this was my last opportunity to fly, so we opted to visit Slovenia, one of the remaining countries in Europe we had yet to visit. At the crossroads of Eastern and Western Europe, Slovenia is sandwiched between Italy, Croatia and Austria. This tiny country, only half the size of Switzerland, has so much to offer. Though we only had 3 days to see the highlights, luckily, the country is small enough to drive just about anywhere in only a couple hours, making it easy to see a ton. Unfortunately, the weather was not as pleasant as we hoped for, and instead of a spring-like Easter holiday, we experienced Slovenia as a beautiful winter wonderland.
We did manage to experience a day of beautiful sunshine in the port-town of Trieste, Italy, where we flew in. We spent one afternoon and night here to experience the goodness of Italy one last time. Though Trieste is not heavy on the sites, we did enjoy walking around the old town and hiking up to the castle for magnificent views of the bay.
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| Trieste's harbor-front square |
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| View of Trieste Bay from San Giusto castle |
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| San Giusto Castle |
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| Trieste by night |
That evening, we enjoyed a delicious Italian dinner before stumbling upon a brewery, where Jon enjoyed drinking beer with his 'flavor savor.' Although I dread the month of March, Jon gets so excited each year to grow his manly 'stache for 30 whole days to commemorate Mustache March. He was nice enough to trim it for me on this trip, 4 days before the end of the month, so that our pics would be somewhat normal looking.
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| Forst Brewery in Trieste |
The next morning, we drove 45 minutes across the border into Slovenia to the Karst region. Our first stop was at Predjama Castle. Buried into the side of a mountain, this is one of Europe's most scenic castles. The original castle from the 9th century was called "the castle in the cave," while the current castle from the 16th century is "in front of the cave." We decided to skip viewing the unexciting interior, and enjoyed walking around the snowy paths to get great views of this dramatic castle.
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| Predjama Castle |
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| Predjama Castle |
The Karst region is known for several impressive cave systems, some of the most extensive in Europe. The term "karst" is actually used worldwide to refer to an arid limestone plateau. This term comes from the Slovenian word "Kras" - a specific region near the Italian border. Since this limestone terrain is easily dissolved by water, karstic regions are punctuated by remarkable networks of caves and underground rivers. Though we considered touring two of the most popular, we decided to tour one that is a bit more exclusive, only open to 1,000 tourists a year. The four-hour tour only allows 4 people at a time and entry all depends on the water level, which changes daily. The Krizna Jama cave is only tour-able by boat as it connects 13 underground lakes.
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| Krizna Jama Cave |
Outfitted in red jumpsuits, waterproof boots, helmets, headlamps and a Soviet-era battery pack, we entered the cave through a small rocky entrance. Once inside, we walked for half an hour through the dry cave before we reached water and took 3 different boats throughout the remainder of our tour.
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| Jon in all his cave-exploration gear at the entrance of the cave |
It was such a surreal and incredible experience to be paddling underground in a boat with beautiful rock formations surrounding us, only visible with our headlamps.
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| Krizna Jama cave - making our way to the boats |
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| Krizna Jama cave |
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| Krizna Jama cave - pic of our 4-person tour group |
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| Krizna Jama cave |
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| Krizna Jama cave |
After our cave adventure, we drove a quick 45 minutes to the capital city of Ljubljana. Though it is a small city, there is a bustling student population with numerous bars and cafes lining the river and a hilltop castle overlooking the town. Rick Steves dubs this city as the"next, next Prague" (after Krakow). With gorgeous architecture, numerous boutiques, cafes and a few historical sites, I whole-heartedly agree. Though we only had a night and full day here, we enjoyed this city immensely and would definitely return in the summer when the outdoor cafes would be at their prime. Our first night, we enjoyed walking around the beautifully lit city, a delicious dinner, and bar-hopping the night away.
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| The Ljubljana city symbol - the dragon - with the castle in the distance |
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| Ljubljana's Triple Bridge by night |
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| Ljubljana by night |
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| Ljubljana by night |
The next day, we walked around the city visiting churches the bustling daily market, the hilltop castle, and the numerous squares around the city.
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| Town Hall Square |
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| Checking out the flowers at the daily market |
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| Ljubljana Castle |
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| View of the Ljubljana walking down from the castle |
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| Congress Square |
Later that afternoon, we drove an hour to the resort town of Lake Bled. I had imagined visiting this iconic lake with the small island in the center for years, and it usually included lots of green trees, sunshine and blue skies. Unfortunately, this was not the reality we experienced, but we still enjoyed our time in this beautiful town immensely. Our first morning, we decided to walk around the 3.5 mile perimeter of the lake. This allowed us to see great alternating views of the town of Bled, Bled castle, the island and the surrounding scenery. About halfway around, we found a trail that climbed uphill to an "excellent viewpoint." We hiked the steep mile uphill to see less than impressive views, before hiking down and continuing our stroll around the lake. The entire time, we kept commenting how Lake Bled will have to be added to our "return in summer conditions" list for the maximal experience.
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| Boat that carries tourists to the island with Bled castle and St. Martin's church in the distance |
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| Island in center of Lake Bled |
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| Hiking up the steep terrain to the look-out point |
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Hiking up the steep terrain to the look-out point - it was a ton of stairs!
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| View from the look-out point |
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| Lake Bled and island at 35 weeks |
After our stroll/hike around the lake, we treated ourselves to Bled's specialty cream cake dessert. It's a layer of cream and a thick layer of vanilla custard artfully sandwiched between sheets of delicate, crispy crust. We enjoyed it so much, we returned to have it again the following day. When in Bled....
After our dessert break, we hopped in the car and headed towards another nearby lake in Bohinj. From here, we embarked on another hike up a steep snowy path to a waterfall called Slap Savica. Though it snowed/rained on us the entire time, it was worth it to see this beautiful mountain setting and stream running alongside the trail. The waterfall was gorgeous, cascading into a remarkably pure pool of aquamarine snowmelt. Once again, we could only imagine how impressive it looks in summertime.
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| Slap Savica waterfall |
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| Slap Savica waterfall |
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| Mountain stream alongside our hiking path |
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| Lake Bohinj |
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| Lake Bohinj |
On Easter Sunday, I was awakened once again by water splashed on me. I don't know why this continues to surprise me, considering this is our third Easter in Eastern Europe, which is a tradition in these countries that Jon finds so amusing. After overcoming my initial shock, we began our morning by touring Bled Castle. We managed to get there just in time to see some Slovenian folk dancers perform. The interior of the castle was nothing special, but the views of Lake Bled were incredible.
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| Bled Castle |
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| Island of Lake Bled |
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| Bled Castle chapel |
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| View of Lake Bled from Bled Castle |
The castle is also home to a pair of interesting old-fashioned shops. We visited both the working replica of a printing shop and the wine cellar, where you can bottle and cork your own wine. Jon enjoyed filling the bottle, corking it, sealing it and signing the label of our souvenir wine.
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| Bottling our Bled Castle wine |
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| So proud of the finished product |
After touring the castle and enjoying another delicious Bled dessert, we hopped on a boat to visit Bled's island - capped by a super cute church. This island and church is a popular destination for Slovene weddings. Ninety-eight steps lead from the boat dock to the church and it is tradition for the groom to carry his bride the entire way to prove his worthiness for marriage. I was not about to make Jon carry his 8.5 month pregnant wife up all these steps, but he was a great sport to hold me for the duration of this picture.
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| Almost at the top of the 98 steps! |
We spent 30 minutes on this tiny island visiting the Church of the Assumption and walking around the small perimeter before our boat returned to Bled town.
That evening, on our way back to the airport in Trieste, we stopped in Radovljica where we toured the Agricultural Museum with interesting displays on Slovenia's long beekeeping heritage, and a delicious traditional Slovene dinner at Lectar. Despite the uncooperative weather, we enjoyed our time in this beautiful country, abounding in activities for nature-lovers. In four days time, we managed to experience 3 castles, an awe-inspiring cave, hikes through the pristine countryside, a hip and bustling capital city, and numerous delicious meals. It was yet another successful Easter in Eastern Europe for the Cloughs!
