Day 94, 10th September, Plitvice Croatia to Izola
Trip Start
Jun 07, 2006
1
33
70
Trip End
Ongoing
Izola, Bled, Bohinj, Ljubljana,
Slovenia
Sunday, September 10, 2006
A bit of a nothing day today. We drove from Plitvice across the mountains to the Croatian coast, then up to Izola on the small strip of Slovenian coast near Trieste. We arrived in the early evening to an awful campsite, had some dinner and went to sleep early.
Day 95, 11th September, Piran and Bled, Slovenia
After a morning jog along the coast line, we drove about 10km to the small port of Piran for a quick look around. Piran is a nice little town, with cramped, winding streets and Venetian-inspired buildings. We walked along the seafront, then up the hill and climbed the old city walls for a great view over the town. After buying some fresh veggies from the street market, we jumped back in the van and headed inland, with the intention of visiting the Postojna Caves on the way to Bled
01 Piran 1
.Driving up the motorway (a luxury indeed), we approached the exit for Postojna and decided at the last moment that the 12 euro entrance price was too much for us, so we kept on going all the way to Bled, in the Julian Alps.
Bled is a small town on a gorgeous lake, with a small island with a chapel in the middle and a castle towering on the sheer cliff behind and mountains rising sharply all around. It really is very pretty. After settling in to our campsite, we walked along the lake into Bled town, getting great moonlit views along the way. We treated ourselves to a glass of wine each and shared one of the fabulous ice cream cups that seem to be so popular in this part of the world.
Day 96, 12th September, Bled, Slovenia
A super day today. We had quite a lazy start to the day to recover from the Bateman Body Blaster (a series of resistance exercises developed exclusively by Himself to promote maximum muscular definition and peak physical fitness).
The weather was beautiful, clear skies and warm sun, so we hired a kitsch swan-shaped rowboat and rowed out to the island in the middle of the lake. We had a quick look inside the chapel and rang the Bell of Wishes, which was quite exciting, then had a coffee at the little café on the island. We then rowed back to shore and strolled around the other side of the lake to Bled, fed some fish for a while, then got the tourist "train" back to the campsite, where Marnie cut Andrew's hair before some more tournament-quality badminton
02 Piran 2
. After dinner we went down to the lake to take some photos of the reflections of the island and castle on the lake, but they didn't really turn out.
Day 97 - 99, 13th - 15th September, Bohinj, Slovenia
We started the day in Bled, taking an hour's hike up on of the mountains to catch the fabulous views of the lake and mountains, then jumped in the van for the short drive to Bohinj to check out the lake.
While stopping to take a photo of the gorgeous, large lake, with steep cliffs and mountains rising precariously from its shores, we spied a campsite at the far end of the lake. Further inspection showed the campsite to be sitting right on the edge of the lake, with spectacular views, so we thought it too good an opportunity to miss and checked in.
It was another glorious mountain day, so we hired a canoe and spent a few very pleasant hours paddling along the crystal clear water. It was especially nice near the shores, so we hugged the edges on the way to town, about 3km away. After picking up some supplies, we paddled back, stopping at one of the nice little beaches for a beer and a swim. The water was lovely, if a little cold.
We headed home and sat on the beach next to the camping until the sun went down, then played some, you guessed it, semi-professional badminton before dinner
03 Marnie rowing
.We awoke the next to find the lake covered in early-morning mist, making for some great photo opportunities. We caught the 10:30am cable car from across the road, straight up to 1536m to start a day's hike. The cable car services a ski area, so we followed some of the ski runs up the hill, heading for the summit of Mt. Volga at 1922m. As usual in the mountains, the scenery was spectacular, with peaks as far as the eye could see. Unfortunately the clouds started coming over as we approached the top, somewhat limiting our views, but it was still gorgeous.
We had made a schoolboy error by not packing enough warm clothes, so by the time we reached the peak of Mt Volga, with the wind whipping over the top, we were quite freezing, although it was quite exhilarating to actually reach the peak of a real mountain.
We hiked back through a nice alpine valley, complete with cows wearing bells and headed home exhausted but happy.
The following day we awoke to the sound of heavy rain on the roof of Big Green, which looked like it had no intention of letting up. We decided that it was probably best to stay put for the day, catching up on our Italian lessons and travel journal.
...entry for Ljubljana and onwards coming real soon
