The rain persisted for most of the day today. In a way I’m glad we were on the bus for a good part of the day.
After getting off the ferry we headed north on the coastal road. Ther was beautiful scenery even in the rain, but lots of twists and turns. We got to the Slovenian border at around noon and crossed in record time. I think this was the fastest border crossing we had so far. We continued on for about 45 minutes to get to our lunch spot. We had a picnic lunch provided by Ben and Etelka in a covered area at the Škocjan Caves in the Karst region of Slovenia. We did not go into the caves but did take a little walk around and the area is truly spectacular. Luckily for us, the rain had stopped just in time for our picnic.
Ben and Etelka did a great job with the picnic lunch. There was lots of cheese, proscuitto, and delicious bread, tomatoes, and spinach and cheese burek. Speaking of burek, CL and I had this tasty treat for lunch yesterday. It is a big Croatian dish. It’s lots of greasy phyllo dough layered with cheese, and spinach (or it can also have meat), it’s kind of like a pie and they cut off wedges of it. We found it in a bakery (of course we were in a bakery…what bakery didn’t we go into?). It makes a great lunch.
After all the picnic bits and pieces were packed up and securely stored back in the bus we were off to Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia. But as we drove on the rain was coming down in buckets!
On the way to Ljubljana we stopped at the Lipica Stud Farm (http://www.lipica.org/), this is the training farm for the famous Lipizzaner stallions. There are performances throughout the day and what better way to spend a couple hours then watching these beautiful horses. Now for most people this is a big treat and I also enjoy watching the horses perform, I’ve even seen them when I was in Vienna many years ago. However, I am very allergic to horses (or pretty much anything to do with them…hay, stable, horse hair…you get the picture). But I thought since the performance was only 40 minutes I could “man up” and tough it out. I should have remember my experience in Vienna watching these horses when I had to get up and leave half way through the performance, but I was being obstinate. I did make it through this performance with only one sneeze, however on the walk from the show ring back to the bus; CL could tell my breathing wasn’t normal. It was just some coughing and weezing and I was ok after about half an hour, but I should have learned my lesson, stay far away from horses, or bring some kind of allergy medicine!
We left the farm at about 4pm and were on the road towards the Julian Alps and you guessed it, more rain and it was another torrential downpour the whole way to Ljubljana.
When we arrived in Ljubljana, since it was Sunday most all of the shops were closed. Usually we would have spent 4 hours exploring the city and having dinner. But the majority of us, including me, just wanted a quick driving tour around the city and then head for Bled, our final stop and we could have dinner there, and this is what we did. Ljubljana looked like a pretty little city, from the windows of the bus, but because of the rain I just wasn’t up for walking around getting all soggy.
We arrived in Bled at about 6pm and Bojan took us around the lake in the bus to get a quick overall view of the town before checking into the hotel. We stayed at the Hotel Lovec at Ljubljanska Cesta 6 (http://www.lovechotel.com/). The hotel is part of the Best Western chain and although that may be a turn off to some people, it was nice hotel in a good central location.
After saying our goodbyes to Bojan since we wouldn’t need the bus any longer we got situated in our room and then ventured out to find any ATM. With money in hand we braved the rain to find a restaurant for dinner. We were trying to find a place that was highly recommended in our guide book, but quickly gave that up because the rain was pouring down and it was very dark and I forgot to bring a map, so we ended up going to the first place that looked good to us.
And that place was packed with locals, which I love because that tells me a place is usually good if it’s crammed with locals. There were no tables available inside and the owner said we could wait and we said ok. Then we noticed a couple people sitting at the outside tables that were on a covered patio/porch area. Even though it was a little chilly we decided to sit outside and it wasn’t too bad once we started eating!
Maybe it was because I was hungry, or because the waiter was so darn nice (and cute!) but I really liked the food at this restaurant. The name of the restaurant is Oštarija Peglez’n at Cesta svobode 19a in Bled. We started with the cauliflower soup, which wasn’t too great, but it was hot and warmed us up. Then we split a steak with fries and the most delectable mushrooms(of course soaked in garlic and butter…how can that be bad!) and a tagliatele seafood pasta, it was all great! The waiter suggested a dessert sample plate with chocolate mousse (was the best!), tiramisu, and charlotte cake with fruit…how could we pass all that up! This was one of the best meals on the trip so far. The bill for all this food and great service was $40 total…not too bad!
A great meal for the end or a rainy, long bus day in a gem of a country!
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