Slovenia - Stunning!

We are loving Slovenia - the most stunning place yet - also everywhere is so cheap and has free Wifi!

We crossed the border into Slovenia and straight away there were mountains and LOADS of trees and forests

Mogs is now navigating with our Bord Atlas German book that has free camper parks and cheap places to stay in restaurant/hotel car parks etc - in Europe and not just Germany - only problem is it is all in German so the navigating is getting worse by the minute....

After driving past 3 times we found the entrance to a small health centre place that lets you park in their grounds - we have gone from a site with LOADS of people and packed beaches to a field next door with 3 sheep and a goat!

this is what we had (or near enough!)

 this is what we have now

But it had a little bar and very friendly staff and wine was 1 euro for a large one and 1.5 euros for a rum :) Dave the Rum King came out.....

We stayed just the one night and found out there was a local festival going on the next day in the town up the road - it was a bit like Bude Farmers Market but with sheepskin stuff and Russian hats and some weird guy selling wooden sex games....so we bought some garlic spread and very expensive cheese!

festival procession

It was great to see the local fair and the procession in their traditional dress and it was also right by their main tourist attraction - the Postojna caves

Postojna Caves

http://www.slovenia.info/?naravne_znamenitosti_jame=450

Awesone caves and well worth a visit - like going to Jules Verne 'Journey to the Centre of the Earth' - they went on for miles with HUGE stalactites and stalagmites - big words for this stage of the tour!!!We had a train ride into the caves which took half an hour to get just to the main caves - Dave says we must watch the 'Cave' film now - well scary!!  We have both never been in such a big cave - one part was all white and like being in Santa land!! 

Going in!!

A few miles up the road was Predjama Castle built into the cliffs with caves and underground tunnels beneath it - we stopped for a quick photo shot as had read on TripAdvisor that the outside view was better than paying to go in - it was an amazing building and we thought worth a mention. The caves inside were 3 miles deep.

Time to find another of Mog's stopovers from her German book - missed a turning, tried another one and by some miracle (or very good navigation skills says M) we were 100 metres from the place we were trying to find!  A Slovenian Fawlty Towers Hotel that allowed you to park in their car park and use the loos/showers - but no-one was staying in the hotel!! Quite a few campervans tho and again free wifi in Reception area.  We were the only ones logging on with some very odd evening staff in the hotel - thought Basil Fawlty may appear anytime!! But it was very cheap and not just a layby and fine for the night and D played guitar and we chilled.

Morning run with D biking and we went through various Slovenian villages - we noticed they all have at least 2 chapels with lovely spires and religious monuments everywhere. The houses are all very well kept and some are pretty big, with flowers and no rubbish anywhere. Also D noticed the farming here is going back about 30 years - hanging the hay out to dry and really old tractors. It's all very rural and peaceful, unlike the busy part of Italy we have just been staying in.

 Morning run through the Slovenian villages

Bled - Stunning Spot!

Arrived at Lake Bled and Mogs decided it was her favourite spot so far - stunning lake with an island in the centre and a cycle/running path round the lake which was about 4 miles long.

Our neighbours on the site we stayed at came rushing out admiring our van as they had a very similar V8 GMC American van too - we became friends very quickly and Dave and Reiner were forever chatting and exchanging van ideas. Reiner is also a firefighter and Jutta is a police officer with a 9mm - Dave was impressed!! They were very sporty and we couldn't really keep up with them but we did manage a run/bike round the lake and swam to the island in the centre.

The swim was a lot further than we thought - it was about 3/4 mile each way - half way there Dave said 'are we nearly there yet?!' But we made it and earned our beer that evening - only to go back to the site and find Jutta having a thai boxing lesson after their badminton session. Jutta didn't really understand why she needed to thai box as she has a 9mm pistol!

Reiner and Jutta + very nice van!

We swam to the island in the centre of the lake one day
 

Vintgar Gorge

When we left Lake Bled we decided to stop at a Gorge Reiner and Jutta had told us about where you can do a 2 mile walk up and down the Gorge - it lived up to expectations! Great walk with clear clear waters full of trout and a waterfall at the end - D was impressed with the ice cream shop at the end too!

We were thinking of heading to Bovec and the River Soca where Reiner and Jutta were going to do some white water rafting but after our Vintgar walk we decided Bovec would be too much of a detour as going back into Slovenia and on a VERY windy road that we weren't sure Vannie would cope with due to the new brake things put on the tyres. So we decided to head for the Austrian border - we were sorry to not see Reiner and Jutta again as it would have been great to raft with them - Reiner had said 'we will be in the same raft - firefighters stick together!' We hope we will catch up with them again in Germany or the UK.

It's been quite an active time in Slovenia - running, cycling, swimming, walks and lots of driving for Dave so we are looking forward to maybe finding somewhere to chill out for a bit at the next stop in Austria..........yeah right!