Gostilna Union Hotel Bled

... set up back to back). <br><br>It is close to sunset as we get to the lake. There is a church on a tiny island in the middle of the lake. Boats take people out there. By the time we get to the lake, boats have pretty much stopped. We grab a bottle of wine and walk to a spot nearby the island to enjoy the sunset.<br><br>We find a fun bar. It is packed with people as they play American songs. The drinking age at the bar is 16 so there is a huge range of ages.

... and iconic church on a single island. It's also a real adventure <br>sports centre (paragliding was sorely tempting but I resisted)<br><br>We're in the Castle Hostel - â&#8218;¬11 each per night. Not too bad once I found a bunk-bed that didn't collapse (no, I haven't put on weight, and no, I wasn't hurt - thanks for asking!) The place is an object lesson in how not to renovate a hostel and use domestic-grade fittings and furniture. A ...

Today we went for a walk, which ended up being around 18km long :) We went searching for a little gorge located just out of Bled which was discovered in 1891; that is, relatively recently (if you consider the age of much of European civilisation). Our walk took us along narrow winding roads in the areas behind the metropolis that is Bled (population: 5,000), seeing cattle complete with cow-bells, goats &amp; sheep (with tails!); many a house with a cottage garden ...

... gear with the wet suit tied around us &amp; hiking boots on - very sexy! The canyoning was actually great fun, &amp; after my initial panic where I really didn't think I could do it, I was loving it along with everyone else! We had a very good instructor &amp; it was better as it was just the four of us doing it! The slides were cool, but I need to trust my harness a bit more when doing the rope ones, as I was too scared to lean back sometimes - whimp!! Great ...

... stayed (Hotel Park) has the recipe for this slice and supplies to local hotels etc. Met up with another Australian and we both walked around the lake (6 kms return) and we were back in plenty of time to shower before being picked up for dinner at a Slovenian restaurant in Radovljica. This was another optional dinner tour. The place where we ate was 500 years old and we had a very interesting 'gingerbread' making demo there before eating our meal.

... is not tacky (wish I could say as much for Soldier Field in Chicago). Have I mentioned how much we like Slovenia? People are way nice and friendly. And Ljubljana is such a pretty little city. Even though it was snowy and cold, it was sunny and bright all day. Definitely our favorite place so far. Tonight we are staying at another hostel. This one was the former British consulate or something ...

... stalagmites and stalactites are different colors depending on the minerals in the soil that the rain water is bringin in. from pure white to greyish black and rusty reds... they take anywhere from 10 to 100 years to grow one mm... pretty wild... there are these little salamander things that live in the darkest areas of the caves... they didn´t need their sight, so their eyelids have grown over their eyes ... they are really cute... another day trip ...

... because Mark thought he'd heard something good about it. It probably wasn't anything good about the parking facilities - we ended up following the world's steepest and narrowest roads. It should've been a sign when we came across a car tring to execute a 3 point turn in a one way street. Five minutes later, Mark was demonstarting to a local Italian cyclist that you can turn a 5 metre van round a 20 degree angle in a 4 metre long space (no kidding). I think the cyclist was ...

... of the border patrol guards and asked him if he could tell him what country he was in. I'm sure the guy wondered what Jim was doing on a train if he didn't know where he was going. So the answer to the question was Slovenia. We had about another 2 hours to go to our final destination and then we arrived....to Ljubljana - pronounced Lou - blee- ahna. A nice train station and a quick taxi ride to our hotel. The hotel is in a great ...

... chambers and collapsed valleys and reportedly the world's largest subterranean canyon... it was awesome. We also met a New Zealand couple with their two young daughters who had been traveling throughout Europe and living in Croatia for 5 months... guess what they also do property renovation so we had a great time chatting!!! We had to catch a funicular train back up to the top but ended up waiting a while as the group that went before us got stuck midway up as the funicular ...