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Saturday 3 rd May 2014

Breakfast at hotel fine and afterwards it’s off to Onyx Car Rental to pick up a vehicle to travel to the Plitvice Lakes.

Plan had been for me to walk to the Onyx office, collect the car and then pick Gail up from the Sheraton. This was thwarted by the teeming rain so we take a cab to collect our Opel Astra and start towards the southwest and the iconic lakes. Lunchtime stop at Slunj which is located on a hilltop on the old Zagreb to Split road,above the Korana Gorge with its series of small waterfalls and rapids. Very tasty lunch at Rastoke, an old water milling settlement in a very picturesque location.

On arrival at Plitvice we check out the two entrances to this Unesco-listed area and obtain ticket details at Entrance 1 for the next day.

Eventually arrive at our B&B in Rastovac, to be greeted by the owner Ana who claims to speak 3 other languages in addition to Croatian, namely German, English and Italian, listed in order of proficiency. She , in fact , speaks a mixture of all three and at the same time but we manage to get by one way or another. 

We meet up with a lovely couple from Hobart, John and Sue and compare notes on our respective trips to date.

They have had a late lunch so we drive to a restaurant nearby recommended by Ana for a pizza.  

Finish what has been a filthy day weather-wise by bringing the blog up-to-date and Gail sorting out various matters on the computer. The two of us also select photos for the website which will be coming your way soon, folks.

Cheers

The Obese Ferret

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2nd May 2014.

I hope that you picked up my April Fool’s Day joke  when I wrote April 1st rather than May 1st!

Check out of the very fine Cubo Hotel with their excellent reception staff Luka and Sacha and head off for last quick walk along the Ljubljana River and Old Town. Calorie time again when we finally get to enjoy ice creams from the Cameo Cafe which we had admired a few times during our strolls around the city.

The weather for once is glorious and shows off this great city at its best.

The 2.45 train to Zagreb leaves almost 30 minutes late although it does make up some time along the way during the 2 1/2 hour journey.

A bit of a novelty when we have our passports stamped on leaving Slovenia and entering Croatia. This is an all-to -rare occurrence these days with border controls often non-existant, especially in Europe.

The weather returns to normal and by the time we get to Zagreb the skies are looking very threatening.

Sheraton Hotel not on a par with Cubo and a typical large chain hotel. However, the girl at reception, Nev, is very helpful and suggests a small restaurant in the Old Town, Ribice i Tri Tockice, which really lives up to her praise, offering some quality seafood at very reasonable prices.

Although the various guidebooks had hardly offered glowing endorsements of Zagreb G and I decide to talk a short walk towards the Old Town and the superb gothic cathedral area. As it turns out we are pleasantly surprised because , whilst it doesn’t immediately impress in the same way as Budapest and Ljubljana, it has a great atmosphere in the evening with so many alfresco dining establishments and some lovely open large squares.

All in all a fairly routine day but look forward to next day’s visit to the Plitvice Lakes which are Croatia’s greatest tourist attraction .

Cheers

The Obese Ferret.

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Thursday 1st April

Breakfast at hotel superb, although a little too calorie-laden for our own good.

City blanketed in fog but with the prospect of a sunny day.

If I come across Murphy I’ll kill him as we have arrived in Ljubljana on a National Holiday and many museums and most shops are closed.

Fortunately, the City Museum( apparently the best one for Slovenian history) and the Castle are open so after a quick visit to Preseren Square before the crowds arrive we head off to the City Museum. This brilliantly showcases the Ljubljana in all its good and bad colours throughout history. Probably in an effort to avoid offending us the girl at the ticket office offered us Student’s tickets rather than Seniors.

Parliament House Ljubljana

3 bridges Ljubljiana

  one of the ‘3 bridges’ LjubljianaDragon Bridge

With our egos suitably intact we spend about 2 enjoyable and instructive hours before setting off to the river for a 45 minute trip on a river  cruise. On board I meet up with some Italians from Sicily and after I had attuned my ear to their dialect I was able to have a fairly lengthy conversation, good preparation for our Italian stay later on in this trip.

Views from the river cruise

Under very threatening thunder clouds we take a VERY steep funicular up to the Ljubljana Castle, high on a hill above the city.

Missed out on a discounted ticket for the Castle as the obviously short-sighted girl at the ticket office didn’t ask us whether we were seniors.

We start off the tour by a visit to the Outlook Tower but only Gail is brave enough to tackle the 100 cast- iron steps to the viewing platform. Even Gail admits that it certainly was not for me!

Spiral Staircase Ljubljana Castle

After viewing a Virtual Castle video showing the history of the castle we stop off to shelter from the pouring rain and another calorie intake.

Time to book train tickets to Zagreb and book a table at Julia’s restaurant, recommended by Luka at the hotel. Top-class meal in great ambience and return to hotel to prepare for departure for Zagreb the next day.

We would heartily recommend a visit to this delightful city which can best be described as a Slovenian Lucca, full of history, character and small enough to cover easily on foot. Slovenia itself has been a revelation and one can only hope that the Government manages to overcome the current serious economic problems and avoid the same fate as such as Greece. Disturbingly, we heard quite a few comments form locals which suggested that a return to the previous pre-independent days would not be such a bad thing.

We will be sorry to leave Slovenia but hopefully Croatia will be equally welcoming.

Cheers

The Obese Ferret

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Wednesday 30th April

Check out from hotel and say goodbye to the staff, Petra, Dejan, Alexander and Sebastjan who have been fantastic hosts.

Finally manage to convince a very work shy gondolier to take us out to Bled Island in the middle of the lake. We had tried the previous day to make the trip but to no avail. Even today we had to wait about 20 minutes so that he could load up the gondola with 15 passengers. At 12 euros each person it’s not bad money, although with his work ethic he may only make one trip per day!

Take the 1.30 bus from Bled fro the 90 minute trip to Slovenia’ capital, Ljubljana.

Check into Hotel Cubo which is a well-appointed hotel very close to the city centre.

Walk to the Old Town to plan the next day’s itinerary and book dinner at Spajza Restaurant. Superb meal with me winning the award for Messiest Diner when tackling the Scampi dish.

1 of the many fabulous Restaurants we had dinner at in Slovenia

End the evening on an interesting note when we hear a lady at the next table order an Australiano coffee. She turns out to be a polish woman , now living in Australia, who refuses to order an Americano as the coffee is always too insipid. She has a real supporter in my better half.

Short walk along the river in this lovely small city, of which more tomorrow.

Cheers

The Obese Ferret

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Tuesday 29th April

Great breakfast at hotel and then we await the arrival of our rental car booked on the previous day. The brand new VW Golf is duly delivered and we set off to Kranska Gora, apparently Slovenia’s best-equipped and most popular ski resort. It’s an attractive small town reminiscent of Whistler in Canada but it is set against a superb backdrop of some of the highest mountains in Slovenia, including Mount Triglav, at 2864 metres the highest peak in the country.

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However,our main reason for being here is to start off on the famous Russka Cesta across the Vrsic Pass ( 1611 metres ). This miracle of road building was ordered by the Germans during the Second World War, using over 10,000 Russian POWs, working under brutal conditions. 400 of the Russians were killed in an avalanche and this is commemorated at the Russian Chapel on the way up to the top of the pass. The scenery is stunning and the descent to the south and to the town of Bovec requires full concentration from the driver ie yours truly.

Based on advice from the girl in the tourist office in Kranska Gora we had decided to travel back to Bled via a town called Podbrdo.

As she had explained the road actually ends at this town and seemingly to avoid the very high cost of extending it they now offer a car train through a tunnel to Bohinje Bistrica where we pick up the road back to Bled. The 10 minute journey on the VERY old train is quite an experience and a real throwback to a bygone era.

Sitting in trailer on ‘car train’

Before heading back to Bled we visit the Bohinje Lake and the Slap Savica. A steep hike up to this spectacular Waterfall is well worth the effort. Bohinje Lake is a real Mecca for hikers but high season must be a bit of a nightmare, judging by the tourist numbers even at this early stage..

Slap Savica

Usual superb dinner at Vila Preseren and early night.

Cheers

The Obese Ferret

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Monday 28th April.

It’s difficult to find enough superlatives to do justice to this magnificent lake and the surrounding mountain scenery. With the imposing Bled Castle perched high above the lake and Bled Island set against a backdrop of incomparable beauty it is no wonder that it has become the most popular tourist destination in Slovenia.

Gail and I decide to head off up into the hills above the lake to visit Vintgar Gorge. The walk is fairly taxing but we are spurred on by the prospect of seeing what from the brochures at the hotel appears to be a spectacular location.  Murphy comes into play again as the gorge walkway is closed due to some landfalls along the banks of the river. We have to be satisfied with a few glimpses of the gorge from afar and set off back to Bled.

Beautiful Springtime Lilac

Just before our arrival in town we fins a pleasant surprise in the form of The George Best Pub, complete with numerous photos and an Irish National Team shirt which GB had worn. Apparently, the owner, an Irishman and an avid GBG fan decided to make the pub a bit of a shrine to Georgie but it was certainly the last thing we expected to see in this corner of Slovenia.

Just to give our aching muscles one last test for the day we climb the steps to Bled Castle. The castle itself is not exactly a world-beater but its position above the lake is breathtaking, quite literally for this long-term vertigo sufferer.

Get back to town to organise a car rental for the following day and to finish off our exercise regime for the day we take the 6 kms+ walk around the lake.

Finally, another great dinner at the hotel then turn in to be ready for our long trip the following day.

Cheers

The Obese Ferret

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