We were able to venture out from Ljubljana for some amazing day trips.

Blejsko Jezero

Our first was to Blejsko jezero (Lake Bled), a glacial lake in the Julian Alps. There is an approx 4 mi trail that goes around the whole lake so we started out along the trail and enjoyed the lovely views. We decided to do a side quest to a view point, Mala Osojnica. I’d read that it existed, but I didn’t read closely enough to realize it was quite the adventure trail with sections requiring ropes to hang onto while you skirted along the edge of a cliff and this fun ladder/staircase.

The views were incredible!

We completed the loop and saw the castle on a hill and church on a island.

           

After some good walking/hiking, we relaxed and enjoyed a slice of the famous blejska kremšnita (Bled Cream Cake), yum!

Postojna Cave and Predjama Castle

On another outing, we took a bus to Postojna and enjoyed coffee at the only cafe open in town before walking over to the cave area. We were still too early for the tour we booked so we checked out the souvenirs which were heavy on the “baby dragons” which are really olms, a cave dwelling salamander.

You are required to take a tour to control the flow of people through the cave, and while I hate tours, that made a lot of sense and made the visit much more pleasant than if it was a free for all. The coolest part of the visit is that you take a train into and out of the cave. Yes, the cave is big enough for a little train to run a good distance into it.

We got the most use out of our warm clothes since the cave was brrr. There were lots of cool formations.

 

From the Postojna Cave, we took a bus over to Predjama Castle. It is a tourist shuttle that says it will take 20 minutes to go 9 km (~5.6 mi) which sounded impossible, but proved correct given some crazy narrow winding roads in a full sized bus.

We wandered around outside the castle which is indeed built into a cave. We toured around the inside of the castle which included a lovely torture room not far from the family quarters, the good ol’ days.

The view from inside the castle and some random llamas grazing near the castle

The Soča Valley

After a lot of research, we managed to figure out how to rent a car for a day and head out into the Soča Valley. We decided on a route that took us from Ljubljana to Kranska Gora and up into the Julian Alps. We set out super early so that we our drive up the narrow road with 50 labeled hairpin turns (I think there were more, but they weren’t officially labeled) with the least amount of other traffic. The cows that were milling about by a few of the first turns did not get the memo, luckily we were going so slowly it didn’t matter.

A new official parking lot was supposed to be open at the highest point, Vrsic Pass, but it was still very much under construction. That ended up being good for us as there was enough completed for plenty of parking, but no fee to park yet.

 

The Soča River runs through the valley in various gorgeous shades of green and blue. There is a “small Soča gorge” and the “Great Soča Gorge” that were both amazing and mesmerizing to see.

Small Soča Gorge

 

Great Soča Gorge

 

We were ahead of schedule so I looked up a spot to stop for coffee and it ended up being a magical little nook for camping along the river. A hot spot for people doing adventure tours in the area, biking, whitewater rafting, etc., which seemed to be the main draw. There was little to no major infrastructure such as hotels and resorts.

With our coffee needs met, our next stop checked the beer box. We found Thirsty River Brewing in Bovec,  a small town on our route, and had a sampler of all their IPAs. Sadly, it was just before noon and they didn’t start making their main menu draw, smash burgers until noon. We made due and ordered croissant sandwiches which ended up being delicious, a happy accident.

We wandered around town after lunch and then drove on to see the Boka Slap (waterfall)

and then onto Kozjak Falls. Where we did a short hike to a very different waterfall than those that came before tucked away in a cave-crevasse.

 

We managed to hit all the spots we’d planned on hitting and more with plenty of time for the drive back via all new scenery thanks to it being a loop trip. The scenery was beautiful and we enjoyed a relaxing trip until we needed gas at the end. I looked up gas stations on google maps and noticed they included electric charging stations as gas stations so I tried to avoid those, but somehow ended up navigating us right to one. Argh. Fortunately, there was an actual gas station just up the road so just a minor inconvenience at the end of a long amazing day.

Before we learned to pronounce Ljubljana, we had to learn how to spell it so to me and Jon, Loo-blee-aa-nuh is still referred to as L-jub l-jana more often than not. We traveled via train from Zagreb to Ljubljana on a rare rainy day, arriving to better weather.

I started marveling at the beauty and postcard-perfect nature of Slovenia from the moment the train crossed the border. Each town we passed looked like an artists rendition of a charming town outfitted with a perfectly uniformed train station attendant standing out at each station as we passed through. Arriving at the under-construction train station in Ljubljana didn’t even break the spell.

We stayed in an airbnb right in the old town area just a block from the river. Our living room window overlooked one of the main pedestrian thoroughfares for some good people watching.

We spent a lot of time wandering the streets of the old town and the banks of the river enjoying the delightful late August weather.

 

There is a castle on a hill, a common enough site in small towns in the countryside of Slovenia, but a bit more distinctive in a midst of an actual modern(ish) city. We discovered a comedy festival was taking place at the castle on our first visit so we got tickets to the English show the following night and made our way up again for a hilarious evening.

I am not sure if I just started noticing fountains more or if Ljubljana really has more fountains that most cities, but here are just a few of the ones that caught my eye as we roamed the streets.

The last fountain was one of many in Tivoli park, a massive park a short walk from the old town.

There are a lot of bridges that cross the Ljubljanica River each with a theme. The Dragon Bridge was the closest to where we stayed and obviously the best. 99% of the tourist merch agreed, featuring dragons aplenty.

 

Thanks to consistently gorgeous weather, we enjoyed dining outside. Some of the traditional food overlapped with Croatia, they had their own version of the dumpling štruklji  we tried in Zagreb, and lots and lots of sausage.

More to come on our day trip adventures from Ljubjana.