I Feel Love - Slovenia

Lake Bled

Castle above Lake Bled

As many of you have seen from my FB photos, we just returned from our vacation in Slovenia.  It's tourist slogan is "I feel SLovenia". And that is just what you feel when you visit Slovenia: Love. James and I first visited this country way back in 1996 and spent about a week there and it still wasn't enough. At the time, it was just such a surprise how beautiful it was and how much it had to offer. Our biggest regret at that time was not spending enough time at Lake Bled. So with Ronan out of school for two weeks and some vacation time to use, we decided to return to Slovenia.

We rented a small holiday apartment through www.airbnb.com at Lake Bled which was just perfect. Simple, clean, central and affordable. Instead of revisiting places we had been before, we spent all of our first day exploring the area of Lake Bled. We rented a row boat and rowed to the romantic island with a beautiful medieval church. We walked the boardwalk of the Vintgar Gorge, a nice long walk along a beautiful river gorge, as well as hiking up to Bled Castle. Our apartment was located in the old part of town that is the preferred area of backpackers and youth hostelers, more our speed than the fancy hotels and restaurants down by the lake. We enjoyed visiting the George Best Bar down the road from our apartment in the evening. George Best was a legendary football player from Northern Ireland in the 60s and 70s. He is still a household name among football fans in Britain and Ireland. Amazing to find a pub in Slovenia dedicated to his memory.

On our second day we drove out to Lake Bohinj, which is about 25 kms away from Lake Bled. Along the drive you follow the Soca River, renowned for fly fishing. Lake Bohinj is definitely less touristy than Lake Bled, but there is no shortage of things to do. We rented bikes and took a few different trails along the river. Then we drove to the far end of the lake to check out the Savica Waterfalls, a nice walk up 539 stairs. We also just spent some time pottering along the banks of the lake. June is a great time to visit Slovenia because the tourist season hasn't quite begun yet.

On our third day, our goal was to start heading back to Burghausen through Italy, but as we reached the Kranjska Gora ski area, our plans changed. We took the recommendation from our Rick Steves tour book to drive the Vrisic Pass, which takes you from the ski area up the mountain over the pass and down toward a town called Bovec and into Italy or you can head from there toward Ljubiana and back toward Lake Bled. Well we drove the pass and I have to take my hat off to all the amazing cyclists I saw riding up this pass. I'm planning on intensifying my training and coming back here with my bike - 1600 m. Instead of continuing through the pass, we drove back down to enjoy a bit of time along the banks of the river and lakes around this area. After picniking for about an hour and looking at the time, we decided to stay in this area another night and proceeded to find a very affordable room at the Penzion Blenkus, EUR 50 for three including breakfast. We had a lovely view of the mountains from our balcony and there was a friendly and inviting pub just downstairs.

The interesting thing about Slovenia is that you think you've found the most perfect beautiful place ever, but then you go somewhere else and it is even better than the place you've just been. I can't wait to go back and explore it some more. Next time we want to go further east and check out Maribor and the border with Hungary and them more remote mountain areas and river valleys. And I want to bring my bike! The Julian Alps of Slovenia are about a 3 hour drive from Burghausen and will become the Methow Valley (our favorite vacation place in WA) of Europe for us. Can't wait to go back.