Slovenia

Saturday 11 June

We had a sad start to the day as we had to say goodbye to Daniel, Amanda and Iago (the dog).  It has been wonderful to be able to spend so much time with them and the next time we will see them is on their return to Australia in a couple of years time, except on Skype of course. 

We set our GPS for Bohinj in Slovenia and headed off.  We decided to use the toll roads as that was the quickest way to go but even so, the journey took us about 5 hours.  We stopped at a service station just over the Slovenian border to fill up with petrol and, just as importantly, to buy a toll pass for the car.  The cheapest we could get allowed us to use the toll roads in Slovenia for 7 days at a cost of 15 Euros.  At the border of each country we enter, we will have to buy a new toll road pass.

We made a quick stop at Lake Bled and had a walk around the lake and then carried on to Bohinj. 



Church on island in Lake Bled



Bohinj is only 10kms from Lake Bled but it took us 20 minutes to drive as the road is quite narrow and windy.  The place where we are staying is very nice and we have a view of a lake from our balcony.  We went for a walk beside the lake before dinner and the water is so clear that fish can easily be seen in the shallows. 

Pensione Stare at Bohinj

Lake Bohinj

Lake Bohinj

The area is designated as a national park so while there are a few accommodation places around, the traffic consists of either hikers or bicycle riders.  We are surrounded on 3 sides by tall cliffs which are mostly covered with trees but I would imagine in winter, everything would be covered in snow.

Dinner and breakfast are included as part of our accommodation package and it looks like we are going to be very well fed.  Dinner tonight was four courses with the main being fresh trout caught from the stream that runs into the lake.  Everything was beautifully cooked.

Tomorrow we plan to do some hiking to a nearby waterfall and also we are going to check out a cable car which runs to the top of one of the adjacent hills.

Early to bed again, as we were both pretty tired - not only from the drive but also because the 27 Slovakian cyclists had been partying at one of the bars on the lakeside at  Balaton last night and got back to the guesthouse after midnight and woke everybody up with their shouting and music.  The owner was very apologetic this morning.