Mountains and Seashores in Slovenia

Slovenia, October 5 - 8:

Train from Hungary - just after the bus part of the train journey. A little tricky with bikes!

Our hostel in Ljubljana - believe it or not, a jail developed by artists!

Farm in foothills of the Alps.

Bled, a popular tourist spot -- see why?

Rail trail along the coast heading to Croatia.

The warm Mediterranean! Great trail too!

Enchanting medieval town of Piran, close to Croatia.

View over Izola, with Italy in the background.

We had a warm reception at the Celica Hostel in Ljubljana at 2 in the morning, with their all- night staff ready to show us to our prison cell. Really! The hostel is a former prison and an artist's co-operative gave the about-to-be-demolished prison building new life by turning it into a great hostel with helpful staff. It had a sun room for breakfast, an area for gatherings and jam sessions (including an intriguing concert one evening), plus a small art gallery used as a vocal harmony practice venue! Each bedroom is different, with even the furniture arranged by different artists in each room. Unforturnately, our artist liked the idea of sleeping closer to the sky, so our individual beds were almost 2 metres up in the air. It was a bit of work to get up there at 2 in the morning. Luckily the wine from the train ride had long worn off!

We toured modest-sized Ljubjana, capital of small Slovenia, enjoying their market and artisan food shops, and their historic and reinvigorated castle overlooking the city, all the while dodging rain drops. Tempted by the photos of the mountains and trails in the Bled area to the north, we took a bus to Bled and Bosinj the following day and hiked from a mountain lake up to some waterfalls. The mountain river roared down a cleft in the cliff, then tumbled down a picturesque gorge over boulders and through just-turned gold and russet deciduous woods. Late in the day, we saw a bit of the town of Bled as well, from a scenic path around its mountain lake, although the vistas were largely hidden in the clouds and 'mist'. Our final leg in this former part of Yugolavia took us by train to the Adriatic Sea coast at the ancient seaport of Koper. Here, we encountered summer again. It felt so good to strip off some layers and feel the warmth of the sun. We biked along the coast, within sight of the Croatian border where the terrain was rolling and beautiful! In the evening, we visited a popular medieval town, enjoyed the seaside atmosphere (and seafood, of course!) and spotted the lights of Italy's Trieste and Venice in the distance. We felt that we had barely scratched the surface of the scenic splendours and the warm, creative people of Slovenia, but were glad that we had lingered longer to at least sample a bit!

There is a distinct pattern to our camping now. We are the only ones tenting and there are not a lot of other campers around at all, mostly empty trailers. It seems as though we may be pushing the season a wee bit! Even here, on the Mediterranean, the nights have become quite cold at times. Accordingly, we decided to push on to Italy and further south into Tuscany.