Mountains, waterfalls and cartrains

We went out to see Mt Triglav (apparently nearly every Slovene climbs it as a right of passage - we were lazy and drove round it) and the National Park.  After winding our way up to the highest point of 1611m, and down the other side we kept going assuming that the road would take us in a loop back to Bled.  After another hour of seeing no helpful road signs, we stopped in to a "tourist agency" and were told that the road back went through the Julian Alps and was crap.  


But... there was a car train not too far away that literally went through the Alps and in a quarter of the time it would take to drive.  We went for option B and went through tunnel after tunnel through the Alps.

Monkey see monkey do

Mountain range shot, Julian Alps

Sheep with bells

"The watch photo" as requested mum (from kat)

Children playing 

Sava river crystal clear

Idyllic rural scenes

Beehives!

Gollum on stairs to Rozjak Slap (kat made me write that)

Rozjak Slap waterfall - stunning

Little bridges and steps to the waterfall

Bridge

Car train

Geeking it up using the tomtom to see where we were on the train line, pouring with rain

Tranquil Bled camp site 

Bled

Bled is a small town by a glacial turquoise green lake.  The lake has a tiny island in the middle big enough only for a church, and a castle on a cliff overlooking the lake - its not hard to see why Lonely Planet describes Bled as being created by some god of tourism.  It has to be one of the most picturesque places we have been yet.


But it gets better, our campground is in a gully at the far edge of the lake, surrounded by huge cliffs and full of leafy green trees - nearly as picturesque as the lake itself.   We visited Bled Castle, hired kayaks and went round the lake (and the island in the middle of the lake), and spent a good hour trawling the town for its famous Kremsnita or "Cream Cake" (which although delicious, was really just a custard square with a cream layer instead of icing).

Drive down to lake Bled

Spring time ducklings

Church of the assumption on an island in lake Bled

View from Bled Castle

Inside the castle

View overlooking the lake

Inside the castle

In the castle museum with a Bled local

On the way down

Castle on the cliff edge

Lunch time with the Kayak

Out on the lake

Below the Castle

  

Ljubljana capital city of Slovenia

From Croatia we headed north into Slovenia.  The capital city of Ljubljana (say it like, lub-yan-ya) was a mere 2 hours from the border and is in the centre of Slovenia. As we crossed into Slovenia the landscape suddenly became very green and vegetated much like parts of the south island of NZ.  The design  of housing had changed with steep gable roofs to prevent snow building up in winter.

We stayed in a hostel on the edge of the city centre. The centre is so compact that it was easy to make our way around.  The city had a river flowing through the centre which was lined with restaurants, cafes and bars.  Lots of good shopping, street art and a good vibe with locals going out for Saturday brunch in the sun. 

One day we hired bikes for a few hours.  The city is very bicycle friendly and flat with dedicated bike lanes.

Ricet (barley soup, with beans and pork), cheese dumplings and pork.

Houses  of similar styles painted in different colours

Backstreets of Ljubljana

Street art

The Ljubljanica river

Irony

Pedal power 

Checking out the local park on bikes

Photos of the city, this one of the Dragon Bridge, Dragon

Dragon statue

"cuba streetish place" where the bars and clubs are

Art

Mouse-foot

Guru

Triple bridge

River 

Krk Island - last stop in Croatia!

From Zadar we took the motorway to Krk Island.  Krk is Croatia's largest island, with a massive bridge joining it to the mainland. (Our Tom-tom didn't realise this and tried to make us drive there without taking the bridge).  We camped in a little village called Punat, just out of the main Krk Town.


A very barren island of scrub and rock, it seemed to survive on tourism alone.  Thinking this would mean good beaches, we were surprised to find the beaches had been concreted over, no sand, pebbles or even grass in sight.  

Pizza in Punat

Krk Town

Krk Town waterfront

A few observations we had on Croatia:

1. The roads are outstanding, they have made a massive investment in motorways and at 130kph it made short work of any drive
2. Lots of bakeries with fresh breads
3. Delicious strawberries
4. Bum bags are still in here (maybe that was the other tourists)
5. Following on from the last bullet point, the camp grounds were dominated by retired Germans in huge campervans
6. A number of the town beaches were fully concreted up to the water
7. Lots of cheese and honey stalls were scattered along the sides of the road

In summary we think Italy ruined us a bit - its a hard follow up act for Croatia. But we spent most of our time on the mainland and its clearly the Croatian Islands which are the jewel in the crown.

On to Slovenia!

Zadar and Ugljan Island

Our next stop up the coast was Zadar, also known as Croatia's "City of Cool".  This was pretty obviously due to the new Sea Organ that had been added to the waterfront.  After a walk round the Old Town, we packed up a picnic lunch from the local bakery and fruit market and got a ferry across to the nearest island (Ugljan).  Turns out Ugljan is only 2kms off the mainland so it was a quick 20min ferry ride. 


Walking round to the main port we came across a couple getting a taxi boat from the island to a tiny island offshore.  Purely so that we could say we had been to an island on an island we jumped in too and got rowed a massive 50m to Galevac Island the home of the Franciscan Monastery where 3 monks live and teach the Croatian language to immigrant children.  Since it was a monastery, this meant no walking round the island in your togs or swimming on the island - which was ok by us as the water was freezing!

Morning markets in the Old Town (Croatia has fantastic strawberries!)

The Sea Organ (the power of the waves pushes air up through holes on the steps making cool sounds)

The monks vege garden 

Walking round Galevac Island (took about 5 mins)

View from Galevac Island to Ugljan Island

Taxi boat ride