THIS PAGE IS UNDER CONSTRUCTION

SLOVENIA

This is a small country in the Balkan area of Europe and it was the first former Yugoslav republic to join the European Union in 2004. Unlike Croatia and Bosnia Herzegovina Slovenia’s independence from Yugoslavia was almost bloodless. Relations with Croatia are still not 100% due to sea and land borders dating back to the break up of the former Yugoslavia. Like so many other European countries we did not spend a lot of time in the area, but it is on our list once we start to explore Europe after we finished our around the world trip.

It had already become dark as we reach the Slovenia border. Instead of crossing we decided to stay on the Zagreb side. At 5.30PM the temp already had dropped to -6 degrees so interesting to see how cold it gets tonight. We entered Slovenia from Croatia. Following days, we woke up once again with ice inside the truck, and our drain had frozen up. As we are now getting further north into Europe the days are getting shorter and shorter. 7AM it gets daylight and by 4.30PM it is dark already. Today we have the Caves of Postoyna on our list, I remember those caves as my mum and dad took me there when I was around 10 years old. The Caves of Postoyna are the most impressive limestone caves in the world. Before we visited the caves we, were going to put up our truck in the local campground as it supposed to be open all year round?   NOT!!  the campsite was closed, and the nearest campsite was in Ljubljana.

The beauty of the Postoyna Caves ranks amongst the most visited attraction in Slovenia.

It has taken millions of years to create this wonderful underground world with 21 Kilometers of passages caverns and great halls, decorated with dripstones, translucent curtains, and pillars of fascinating shapes and colours. We entered by underground train that dropped us of in the heart of the cave system. The area was subtly lit, and it looked like a fairy tale. In reality we saw in one glimpse a million years of creation. We admired the spaghetti-like stalactites, massive pillars and other geological wonders. Since we did not have a shower after we left Istanbul, we decided to drive back to Ljubljana last night after the cave tour. We booked into the campground, so we could do the washing have a shower and visit Ljubljana today as we do need urgently some warmer clothes.

Ljubljana is divided by the Ljubljana River and is the capital city of Slovenia It has a vibrant city centre and with Christmas only a few weeks away all shops and streets are decorated, the old buildings and bridges really add to the atmosphere. Reluctantly did we leave Ljubljana as this was the first city with the real European atmosphere and the feeling that Christmas is not that far away. To top it off we had snow. Today we visited Bled in Northern Slovenia near the Austrian border. Bled is located on the beautiful Lake Bled. It was here that former president Tito (when Slovenia was part of Yugoslavia) had a summer house. Bled is situated on the edge of the Trigav National Park, with its highest peak at 2864 meters. Winter is not that far away and the surrounding mountains all had snow even in the village of Bled lay snow. No doubt once this is all covered in snow it is a fabulous picture.