We made it to the Slovenian Capital of Ljubljana, and if you can say it three times fast you deserve a medal because it's pronounced lyoob-lyee-A-nah. If Prague, Vienna, and Venice could have a baby, it would be Ljubljana, and being the midpoint between the Slavic, Germanic and Italian worlds gives Ljubljana a special spice.
Ljubljana reminds me a bit of Amsterdam and Copenhagen, with the houses situated along the main canal. Anyone else agree?!?
I would love a corner unit here!
This town is all about its ambience, cute little cafes to enjoy a drink, and upscale trinket shops.
We came across some nice music, I wonder who was singing:)
Seriously darling shops!
Greg and Jordan got carried away at a little outside shop trying to break apart the wooden puzzle. They did it, but had a bit of trouble putting it back together again.
The heart of Ljubljana is lively Peršeren Square, always bustling with people. We saw lots of people eating ice cream, so were going to have to get to the ice cream later in the post...
In the square there is a statue of Peršeren, a very important Slovenian nationalist poet and architect. He is portrayed as being inspired from above by a Muse. The statue provoked a scandal and outraged the bishop when it went up a century ago-a naked women sharing the square with a church-OH MY! For the first few years that the statue was up citizens covered the scandalous statue with a tarp at night.
From the town square we went and checked out the triple bridge, three bridges are necessary to funnel the traffic from 6 streets they think, maybe we should do this on some freeways in LA.
There are lots of bridges, here is the view from Butchers' Bridge:
We walked along the river colonnade, which is a great place to shop for souvenirs. We also saw the local farmers market and market hall.
Okay last bridge I promise. We went to the Dragon Bridge because the dragon has been the symbol of Ljubljana for centuries, ever since they slew one in a nearby swamp.
From the bridge there is a little hike you can take up to the Ljubljana castle. It was steep, but worth it; up we go!
The view from the top:
We didn't go inside, but the grounds were cool:
After the castle we rented bikes and took a leisurely ride around the city. We went through beautiful parks, a botanical garden, and through a really interesting graffitied part of town.
Laidback Ljubljana is the kind of place where graffiti and crumbling buildings seem elegantly atmospheric.
My favorite building:
My favorite guy:
We're all about the street food, and the notable things we had in Ljubljana were pipping hot off the street. We tried Bureks from the famous stand Slaščičarna Olimpija stand, which is open 24 hours. It is a popular, cheap fast food-phyllo dough filled with meat, cheese, spinach, or apples. The burek rivals pizza-by-the-slice as the most popular take-away snack food in the former Yugoslavia. We tried the pizza one and it was good and greasy!
We had to wash it down with some delicious ice cream that was so creamy it pretty much melted the minute it was out of the freezer, but so good!
We had such a great trip with Florence and Greg! We wish it was longer, and while goodbyes are always hard to do, we are looking forward to traveling with them again soon. We are so grateful we got to visit with them and adventure through one of Europe's most unexpectedly charming destinations together.
Lake Bohinj is a great place to visit if you like to be active and love nature.
Walking down into the little town by the lake is so beautiful, check it out:
Only about 20 minutes away from Lake Bled is where you can find Lake Bohinj. It is bigger, quieter, and most importantly, more authentic and less touristy than Bled. We stayed in the Lake Bohinj area when we visited Lake Bled with Florence and Greg. We found a great hotel, Hotel Gasperin, with a swinging deal of breakfast included!
Our nice little room for around $75.00 a night:
One of the really great benefits of the hotel was that they provided us with FREE bike rentals. We took the bikes out on an 12 mile ride.
It was beautiful, we had a great time biking through little villages and seeing the beautiful countryside. We saw lots of roofed hayracks (enojni); they were everywhere. It seems a little old fashioned to hang hay to dry, but because of the frequent rainfall they seem to come in handy!
They are pretty tall, considering Greg is 6'3.
The scenery is so beautiful, green, and peaceful. Here is Jordan and his ladies:
We rode by houses with amazing flower boxes:
...and there were amazing flower gardens too!
We really liked this idea of skies on the roof... I spy another hayrack
I took this selfie on Greg's phone when I was supposed to be taking a picture of the family, I wondered if he noticed it...hehe
We came across a few beehives. They are typical to Slovenia and are creatively decorated with paintings that the beekeepers think makes it easier for the bees to find their way home.
At the end of our ride we were at the pearl of the Julian Alps: Lake Bohinj. We were surrounded by towering mountain ranges, and had beautiful water to swim in-we went back the next day, but I didn't have a camera for photos.
There were little platforms to swim out to, and people rafting and kayaking in the lake. It was a great way to cool off from biking, and refreshing!
If you're unsure where on a map we are in this post, Lake Bohinj is about 30 miles from Italy, so of course I would hope they have good Italian food. A seafood pizza, my favorite!
We also went to a local favorite, Strud'l where we sampled a meat and potato plate:
It was quite good but their apple strud'l was even better!
Before heading onto Ljubljana we went on a nice mile and a half nature walk through the Vintgar Gorge. CAUTION:When visiting the park there is no butterfly catching or car washing allowed.
The fresh bright blue water sure was rushing:
Jordan and Florence enjoying the trail:
Say Cheese!
We had a wonderful time in seeing all that nature has to offer. Keep traveling with us to Ljublana in our next post!
We love when family comes to town, and it's great when we get to travel together. Jordan's parents took a trip across the big pond to visit us. They went hiking in Slovenia in the Triglav national park for a few days, before meeting up with us for an adventure. I never imagined Slovenia to be such a beautiful country, in fact I always overlooked it, but it sure did impress. There is lots to see and do; in this post we cover the Lake, a castle, an apiary and some good food. Overall, the Lake Bled region is a great place to go be if you like the beautiful outdoors. Here's to our great trip with family:
I never would have guessed that Slovenia was part of Yugoslavia. Both in the personality of its people, and in its landscape; Slovenia feels more like Austria to me.
We spent lots of our trip enjoying nature. Our first stop was around Lake Bled, which is every bit as lovely in real life as it is on Pinterest. The emerald-green waters truly capture the heart.
What a cute couple!
:::cheese:::
We walked around and found a beach for swimming. Greg, Jordan and Florence swam out to the church in the center of the lake. In the 8th century the church was a Slavic pagan temple dedicated to the goddess of love and fertility, but it is currently a Baroque style church. I wish I had swam, but I dozed at the beachfront.
The only other way to the church is by Plenta Boat. The Plenta Boats are a symbol of Lake Bled. People take then across the lake to the church, and they are still hand-built according to that same centuries-old design. There's no keel or motor, so it takes a skilled oarsmen's hard work to steer the flat-bottomed boat across the lake.
Jordan, Florence and I took the 3.5 mile trail around the lake while Greg took a little snooze in the shade. It was enjoyable and scenic. We saw a beautiful villa, watched part of a triathlon, and of course, took some photos:
We walked to Bleds cliff-hanging castle: Blejski Grad. It has a little history (it was the Austrian Bishop of Brixens in the Middle Ages) and lots of big views:
Florence and Greg lookin' good
Showing off our USC pride on game day!
A selfie:
The exterior of the castle has been rebuilt numerous times. We walked along the ramparts and got a good view of the land. Such a gorgeous view:
The inside of the old castle's 16th century church is beautiful too:
We went into the museum which talks about the story of Bled, the castle, and the surrounding region. I really enjoyed the video where it showed the castle structure throughout the ages, and they had some cool exhibits.
This is a rock from the early ages of the castle, we think it looks more like a rice-crispy with chocolate chips and chocolate covered raisins on the side:
There were plently of shops for us to check out
We went into the welders shop. They had lots of trinkets for people who are interested in decorating their homes like medieval times. No purchases made, but cool to look at.
We also went into the wine cellar. Since winemaking was a monastic responsibility in the Middle Ages the wine dealer was dressed as a Monk. We had a good look inside, but again no purchases (they didn't have any grape juice).
While it may have seemed like a tourist gimmick, the printing press had lots of history because the printing press was a critical tool in the evolution of the Slovenian's culture. Primož Trubar, a Slovenian cross between martin Luther and Johannes Gutenberg, was the first to print the once illegal "Slovene" language. Although he printed it in Germany, be brought back not only his printing skills, but books too: The Alphabet, and the New Testament. I thought it was pretty tricky that he hid the books in a barrel of playing cards. We watched how the printers made prints, and if you want, you can get a souvenir there.
While we ate Kebab's for lunch, our desserts were very memorable: the town's specialty of a vanilla-custard and cream cake called kremna rezina, a.k.a. kremšnita. Slovenes travel from all over the country to try this dessert, and Americans travel from across the world for it. We found the world renowned one at Park Hotel.
Looking at this picture makes me want another piece. The flakey pastry crust was buttery, and the filling tasted so fluffy.
We had to try this version at Park too...I mean, if there is chocolate being served, we need a slice!
We had a really fun time going with 3glav on a canyoneering adventure. I faced my fears of jumping off high rocks, and it was SO fun!
After putting on wetsuits we hiked up to the top of a canyon where we started our half-day trip canyoneering back down.
We had such a great time! It's just like a natural water park, where you have lots of slides, jumps and abseiling (which is like repelling). The water felt great, and it was thrilling. We felt comfortable, safe, and our guides were very professional. Our biggest jump was about 20 feet and I would do it again in a heart beat. We would recommend their trips, as long as your ready to have a good time!
Here we are at the end of the canyoning, we are all alive!
We are never not exploring. I wanted to see more of nature, but on a smaller scale. Since starting a garden I have found a whole new love for nature, and it's little creatures. My garden could not have flourished the way it did throughout the help of bees. I see bees in my squash blossoms all the time, and so when I found out Slovenia is known for its beekeeping I wanted to learn more. We visited Kralov Med, a local apiary to learn about apicultural arts. I LOVED IT! We met the local beekeeper, Blaž Ambrožič, and got to visit his apiaries, which are freestanding house s of beehives.
Hatch women and the Hives
When we got to the apiary a bee landed on Jordan. Blaž's wife told Jordan, "just act normal, don't make any sudden moves and the bee wont sting you. It is just sensing your warmth". It was a friendly bee, no stings, and no bee, I am not willing to share my husband.
We got to try some of the honey products from the apiary. The taste of the honey is determined by the flowers that are in bloom that the bee's use-it was delicious. I liked the flower honey, and spruce honey.
Blaž taught us all about his bees. He successfully convinced us that they are nice bees, and even stuck his hand into one of his hives, without any protection on, and didn't get stung.
While it wasn't too anxiety provoking watching Blaž with the bee's (since he has been doing this since he was a boy) he gave us all head protection and said, "here, you hold part of a hive and see for yourself, they wont sting you". It was really cool getting to hold a cell of the hive, and it was true we didn't get stung.
Nope I'm not scared at all about getting stung by 1,000+ bees.
I liked our beehive outfits
We went into the back side of an apiary and learned all about how honey is made: I found it fascinating how the bees work, and the various hive duties.
We learned all about the queen bee, her worker bees, and the drones. Learning about this has inspried me to read a book on bees, and this may be a future hobby. Here are a few interesting facts: The average worker bee produces about 1/12th teaspoon of honey in her lifetime. Secondly, a hive of bees will fly 90,000 miles, to collect 1 kg of honey.
I was laying along the side of the hive, and look what I saw:
Busy Carniolan worker bees!
It was a great time learning about bees, and I loved the colors of the different hives: the bees are so smart and can tell which hive is theirs by the scent of the queen inside.
Before leaving Lake Bled, for its neighboring lake we went to Slaščičarna Zima for one last dessert. Not only did we try their version on cream cake, but also the slightly less renowned, but just as tasty, grmada (bonfire). This dessert was developed by lakeside Hotel Jelovice as a way to get rid of their day-old leftovers. They take yesterday's cake, add, milk, custard, and raisins, and top it off with whipped cream and chocolate syrup. It's the perfect end to a perfectly relaxing day.
We had a wonderful time in Bled, and we continue on to great times with Florence and Greg. Before we continue on, would you look at that view!
