Tim and Gem's Honeymoon Adventure: Rest and relaxation time, Slovenia November 20

After a stunning and very comfortable train ride from Salzburg, we arrived in Lake Bled in no time and were greeted by cold and rain, which didn’t bother us as it was late, and who doesn’t like going to sleep to the sound of rain.

We arrived at our apartment for the next few days and were greeted by John, a lovely Slovenian man who owned the apartment we were staying in. Smiling and unbelievably friendly, he showed us to our apartment (which he upgraded us to the biggest apartment he had) and sat down and had a chat with us. He asked about us, shared a bit about him and explained a bit about the town and its surrounding areas. He brought up some pear brandy, a clear coloured traditional Slovenian drink complete with a full sized pear inside the bottle. Each mouthful warmed the insides. We shared a few more drinks with John until we eventually called it a night.

The next morning we took advantage of the sound of rain and the comfortable bed and slept in. We eventually rose from our slumber and decided to brave the cold and rain and go for a wander around the beautiful little town, and check out the lake that Lake Bled is famous for. And that’s exactly how we spent the day, walking around the lakeside, constantly in awe of the beautiful scenery; the small island complete with church in the middle of the lake, the impressive castle perched high on the hillside overlooking the Lake and the huge, snowy peaks of the surrounding mountains. It was easy to see why people loved this place.

We spent hours just walking around the lake and the town, made a quick stop at the supermarket and decided to do a cook up, something we haven’t been able to do for a long time.

On the morning of our third day (second full day), we awoke to a dusting of fresh snow outside. The previous day we had decided to hire a car and go for a drive to some of the surrounding areas we had heard so much about, but getting a car was harder then expected. There was no shortage of car hire places, 6 different ones to be exact, but they either weren’t open, or had no cars (it was low season). We had nearly given up hope, but we thought maybe asks one of the tourist information centers and see if they can find one, and in about 20 minutes and several phone calls, the man had worked his magic and we had a car to explore with, a little white Skodia Fabian. An extremely masculine 1.2lt beast of a machine was unfortunately a bit of a step down from our beautiful little Mercedes A-Class we had in Germany. But, we had a car, and to make things sweeter, we could drive it back to Ljubljana the following day and drop it off there, saving our need to get a bus there.

So we got on the road and started our adventure to the Vintgar Gorge, a gorge only a few kms north of the town. The GPS crapped itself once we hit a maze of streets and alley ways, so luckily there was good signage to lead us the way, and we found it in not time. We arrived and saw only one other car, with a Chinese tourist getting a photo next to a tree, when there was a beautiful crystal clear river just meters in front of them, so we were a little unsure whether we were in the right place. We parked and started walking until we found a little hut, popped our heads in and turns out we were in the right spot, but the gorge was closed, it closes in winter due to the snow and ice making it slippery and dangerous, but the guy said we could go in to the first bridge.

So we went on our way, ducked under the closed gate and followed the glorious blue river downstream until we saw some wooden walkways and then, a bridge. They weren’t lying, the wood got slippery with the thin cover of slushy snow over it.

It didn’t take long at all and we had reached the bridge, and we stood there for a few minutes admiring the view, a thin river, with the cleanest, bluest water raging down it, surrounded by rocky banks and trees. It was lovely, but we hadn’t seen enough, so we decided to venture further downstream, as maybe this wasn’t the first bridge as there was no warning or closed sign telling us not to continue. So we kept going for another 10-15 minutes and the river became bluer, the moss on the trees greener and the rapids were growing stronger and more furious and started to give off a mist that was reaching us on the suspended walkway. We got to a point where water was trickling off the rocky overhang, and the river got substantially wider, so we decided we probably should turn around and head to our next destination.

Our second destination was the Savica waterfalls just on the edge of the town of Lake Bohinj (which was our third destination for the day). The waterfalls were about an hour away, and the drive was one of the most scenic I have driven. Within 20 minutes of leaving Bled, we were driving through completely snow covered scenery and we weaving in between mountains and gullies.

A couple of times along the way, I had to pull over and take some photos. Beautiful lakes, crazy mountains and even an old snow covered railway bridge, I couldn’t drive past them without making a quick stop, so with Gems encouragement (and patience) I made a few stops along the way, which didn’t matter as we reached the path to the waterfall at midday, a fair bit earlier then we had expected.

Like the gorge, there was only one other car (a Slovenian family this time) and the buildings and ticket office were all closed, but you were still able venture up the selection of hiking paths. So we found the path that led to the waterfall, which said one hour, with a line through it with permanent marker and 20 written next to it, so we weren’t sure how long it was going to take, but it didn’t matter, we are on holidays.

We started the ascent up the snowy path, and it wasn’t long before the light cover of snow became a couple of inches thick. There was no one else around, it was just us walking up the path, no animals and no wind, it was so silent and the only sound we could hear was the water flowing over the rocks, and the occasional thud of falling snow from the tree tops. It was so calm, tranquil and beautiful.

It took more then 20 minutes, but not quiet an hour and we had reached the waterfall. A huge mountain stream hammering down 100m of cliff face (half of which disappeared into the low clould) and ran into a small pool (that would be extremely inviting in summer for a swim) and then another small fall down and then a stream began and flowed all the way down the mountain, eventually meeting up with the lake.

We admired the view for a while, caught our breath and stopped sweating, and then started the descent that proved just as tricky as the climb, the slippery ground calling for extra caution. W made it back down without incident and climbed back into our little Skoda beast and headed for the lake.

We drove alongside the lake, made a few quick little photo stops and fell even more in love with this country. When it came time to find some lunch though, the sleepy little lakeside town didn’t have much, well anything actually to offer the hungry explorers. Being low season, we thought there must be something open, but there was nothing, except the supermarket that didn’t really stock any food that would pass as lunch. So we continued on our way back to Bled, and lucky passed an old gas station that had been converted to a drive through bakery. So some tasty bakery treats in our stomachs and we continued on the scenic drive back to Bled.

Gem decided once we were back in Lake Bled to go home and have a relaxing couple of hours before dinner, but I had seen so many picture of Lake Bled from a high vantage point that gave the most stunning view of the Lake, mountains and the town. I wanted to find one of these spots and get my own shots. So a quick google research and I found one that seemed easy enough to find, a short 5 minute drive followed by a 40 minute hike to reach the lookout. It was about 3, so I had just over an hour to get to the spot before daylight finished for the day.

I found the trail pretty easy and started my mini hike, hoping I was going the right way, as I hadn’t seen anyone around, and like mentioned, I didn’t have much daylight left. I was powering along, through a small stream that had replaced the path, then had to wade through ankle deep leaves until I reached the fun, winding, steep uphill path that I could tell would end with a tremendous view of Lake Bled, and it did. There it was, the view I had seen on so many postcards and websites, and the weather had decided to clear a little to reveal the snowy peaks in the distance and brighten the deep blue waters of the lake. I sat there for a while, taking in the view and getting my breathe back after my super speed hike, and then realized I should start my journey down as the sun had already started to hide behind some of the mountains. I made it back no dramas and headed home for another home cooked meal, a drink with John the owner of our apartment, and then packed our bags ready for the drive to Ljubljana the next morning.

We woke up to grey skies and drizzle, which made it easy, and hard to leave this lovely little town, but we had to move on, so we loaded the car and got on the road, and in less then an hour, we were driving around the streets of Ljubljana.

Unfortunately the weather was no better here, which limited our afternoon activities. We had planned to do the sights of Ljubljana in the afternoon so it left the following day open to anything, but unfortunately we didn’t get to see much that afternoon.

We checked into our apartment and went for a walk to the town center and to the food markets that Ljubljana is known for. In the middle of the town square, rows and rows of stalls are set up every Saturday morning selling mostly fresh food. You can find endless amounts of fresh fruit and vegetables, including some fruit we have never heard of or seen before, cheese, home made wine, some glassware, beautiful flowers and of course some tasty street meat and snacks. We brought a few things to make some dinner with, and I tried a tasty bread roll/pizza/pita like thing that was absolutely delicious.

We were a bit wet and a bit cold, so after some lunch, we decided to retire for the day back to our toasty apartment, put on our trackies and slob it for the rest of the afternoon and catch up on some washing and then cook dinner.

The following day we woke up and the weather had cleared, it wasn’t perfect blue bird skies but there was blue skies, and there was no sign of rain, so we could get out and see the city a little, as it was our only full day here. So after a sleep in and some breakfast, we spent the next few hours wandering around the town, checking out the scenery and went to find a mall to buy some shoes, only to find that the mall was completely closed on Sundays.

So we did what we are good at, and wandered around aimlessly for the rest of the day, ate an extremely appetising lunch at a little restaurant and then headed home once the sun went down.

It was another quiet night in with another home cooked meal, some tv series catch up and some bag packing which we have gotten very good at, and then a good nights sleep before our flight up to Denmark for our first taste of Scandinavia.