Astoria Bled

... Poet's Stuff , it was a very fine pizza stop. And an eclectic one -- when you order a pizza with olives on it it comes with two olives -- whole, with the pits, in the middle, like a garnish. And the prosciutto is stiff and dry from the seasonal winds. The guidebook says there are different schools of prosciutto thought. I'm waiting for the moist and fatty school of thought to arrive.

Tonight a different farm that is chockful of the neighboring town ...

... Saturday nights.

We hiked to the Vintgar gorge, in the Triglav national park (one of the first in Europe), and followed a two-kilometre trail along the river. This took us through a tight ravine carved out over many millennia, where we were astounded by the natural beauty. Quite rightly, the local Slovenian’s revere this area and believe it to have powerful healing qualities.

Lake Bled also offers an ...

What does one do at 2am when you just arrived in Ljubljana, have no place to stay and a departing train in a few hours? Well, you walk around town and try to get some nighttime photos! That's what I did - probably not the wisest of things but - and had a good time doing it. I know you all think I'm crazy, but here are a few of the shots I took. Nighttime really puts a different perspective on the things you see during the day. My ...

... holiday and has managed to chill out more than he may have expected... that's what you get when on holiday with Mars and me, we do things in our own time. Back to London for a week tomorrow and its homeward bound via Thailand. I can't believe its practically over. Highlight: I don't think I can pick just one thing, almost everything has been wonderful Low point: definitely the pain from our first bike ride, I should have worn proper protective clothing

... beautiful! Another reason for us going to Bled was to do some water sports, as all four of us wanted to do Canyoning (well with a little persuasion!) & Rafting - it's a good place to do this sort of thing as they do lots of adventure sports & in the winter there is skiing nearby! Another thing that was top priority whilst in Bled was to get a key cut for our Madge (i.e. Madonna - our new name for the bike as she's so temperamental & caused us so ...

... his name. And to match it Robin called his bike Pivo after the word for beer! Robin's broken hub and warped wheel had to cycle on for an extra 300km all the way to Logatec in Slovenia to find a replacement wheel. We really lucked out at this bike shop. Excellent mechanic, fair prices, free T shirts (much needed), no labour charges and a 20% tourist DISKONT! How often does that happen?!? Really great shop. It was called Vizija ...

... a Venetian protectorate so it has a very distinctly Italian feel to it. Unfortunately, we took so many photos up around Skocja that the battery on our camera had died so we've no images of Piran to share either... We spent today in Maribor and met another Internet "pen-pal" that we found in the planning of the trip over the last several months. His name is Michael Manske and he publishes a great blog called The Glory of Carniola at http://www.carniola.org/. Michael turned ...

La capital es muy tranquila. La vida gira alrededor del rio y abundan las cafeterias y terracitas. El tiempo no acompano mucho, quizas por eso nos tomamos esta parada como un descanso. Andy tuvo tiempo hasta de cortarse el pelo en una peluqueria regentada por dos lunaticos cuya amplia gama de revistas incluia un Playboy.

... the clouds. We walked up to the main square, Preseren Square, and the Franciscan Church of the Annunciation and this is where there are some unusual art exhibits that are comprised of things hanging from wires above the square. Today they were hanging some naked mannequins - not sure exactly what that is about. There is also a very nice bronze replica of the city - 3D - and this morning after the rain, there was actually water in the ...

... towards the Plitvice Lakes...well we are glad we did not try and drive this road in the dark as it was very like a ghost town but also fascinating to drive through during the day... this area is about 30 km from the Bosnian border and it is here that you can really see the damage from the war... all the houses/villages in this area have been abandoned and are either bombed out or covered in bullet holes... the surrounding fields have big signs that say no entry as there are still ...