1st July – 9th July 2024
There are a few places in the world that seem to be situated in a sweet spot of location, climate and geography. Where seasons deliver reliable summers and manageable winters, geography delivers beaches on which to enjoy the sunshine and mountains that make the most of the winter snow. Where landscapes of beautiful forests bathe the eyes and where thermal springs warm up alpine lake waters so that one may bathe the body in comfort. Slovenia is this place. It is smaller than Israel in land area and has only a 2.1 million population. It is affluent, the people delightful, and, in short, it is a thoroughly nice place to spend some time. This, of course, given the perils of mass tourism, may also be its ruination in the future.
Yet here we are.
Ljubljana, its capital city, was about 180km from our coastal starting point at Rovinj, in Croatia. The border crossing into Slovenia was the only place so far where there has been an official checking passports. Despite being a member of the EU and Schengen Area since 2004 and borders technically being defunct, the traffic was slowed to single file and we had to wave our passports through the window. Not sure what this achieved, or who they were looking for, but it obviously wasn’t us. We continued our trundling, enjoying the increasing mountain vistas as we approached Ljubljana. Our mission for the day was to see if we could get Nick’s paddleboard repaired before we got to our next lake stop. The only chap in the city who I could find that did repairs was too busy, so we dragged around a few outdoor/watersport type shops to see if we could source some glue. None found. We ended up in a hardware store and purchased some adhesive that looked like it might do the job. The boards are elderly now and it is obvious that they are on a limited lifespan. We just need to coax them through this summer without spending too much money on them. It will be a DIY job.
Our stop in Ljubljana was about 6km out of the city centre in a combination motorhome storage and overnight stay facility. It was basic but cheap and there was a dedicated cycle route from here into the heart of the old town. Suited us fine. The camp was quiet as it transpired that there was only us and one other van over-nighting.
The next day we cruised into the city on the bikes, which was a pleasure. The cycle lanes were well marked and separate from the pedestrians. Traffic lights controlled the flow of cyclists as well as vehicles, everyone was courteous and patient and lots and lots of people were on bikes. This is evidence that ‘build it and they will come’ works when done well. A half arsed attempt to cordon off some bits of road to make cycle lanes that don’t link up or don’t go anywhere useful does not encourage folk out of their cars.
Ljubljana is a very pretty city. It has its fair share of castles, churches, old buildings, a scenic river, handsome bridges, and squares in the old town, but it also has some great modern architecture which dilutes the enevitable communist brutalism building of the Soviet Era. The man responsible for much of the design of Ljublijana is the renowned architect Jose Plecnik (1872-1957). He also designed a lot of buildings in Vienna and Prague and his influence here is comparable to Gaudi in Barcelona. It is also sits at the base of some mountains, offering a handsome backdrop, and handy ski slopes close by for winter fun.
We had our usual day of mooching around the city. We climbed up to the castle on the hill, admired the view, then walked down again. There were lots of bridges that criss-crossed the River Ljubjanica, most noteably Plecnik’s Triple Bridge, as the name suggests, a bridge with three spans. For some reason.
There was a Dragon Bridge. Legend has it that that Jason (of Argonaut fame) was the founder of Ljubljana, and that he and his Argonauts killed a dragon. This is one of the four dragon statues that flank the bridge. According to other local legends, when a virgin crosses the bridge, the dragons will wag their tails. There were several fountains and even a ‘rain machine’, which created a small zone of inclement weather in one of the squares. For some reason.
There was a market, lots of restaurants, icecream shops and winebars. We obviously weren’t the only tourists in town and around every corner was a city tour guide leading a gaggle of disciples, preaching amplified teachings in various languages. One Spanish group engulfed us as we were stopped by a bridge, Nick trying to chat to one of his brothers on the phone. They relentlessly filled the gaps as he tried to distance himself from the group so he could hear himself think. Otherwise it is a very charming and civilised, and an utterly pleasant place to spend a day.
Our Ljubljana warm and fuzzies may have been enhanced by our wine intake on this day. We had a very delicious shared lunch of sardines and chips and mackrel and naughty, buttery potatoes that we washed down with a very drinkable 500ml carafe of house white wine, then for ‘afternoon tea’ (not that long after lunch if I was to be very honest) we stopped to sample some of the famous Slovenian ‘Orange Wine’. In my ignorance I thought this had to do with its flavour, but my learned friend educated me that it is to do with its colour, which yes, is orange. This orange colour is caused by white grape varietals being left in contact with their crushed skins and seed for one to six months. This exposure to the tanins of the seeds and skins gives the wine its colour and a really robust flavour, more like a red wine. We tasted a couple on the recommendation of the chap in the winebar that we stopped at, and then had another glass of the best one. The ride home, with a detour to check out a local park, was both warm, and may be a bit fuzzy!
Our next destination was a stop-gap. We had a night to fill before our next booked campsite and we had the paddleboard to mend. We found a glorified car park on an industrial estate that was designated for motor homes, and arrived early enough to find it empty and able to bag the best spot. This gave us a space next to the grass to do our work. After setting up we inflated the board, much to the bemusement of the Post Office workers that were arriving and leaving from the depot that was right next door. We spent the next 4 hours slowly peeling off the rest of the deck using my travel hairdryer as a heat gun, cleaning off the residue with white spirit and then re-gluing it down. It felt like a job well done! We rewarded ourselves with a trip to the nearby ‘camping supplies’ shop and bought a bunch of things we needed: camping toilet paper (twice as expensive as normal loo roll, designed to disintegrate just with the power of thought), loo chemicals (designed to make living with a cassette toilet bearable), replacement elastic rope (designed to attach things to paddleboards), mozzie candle (designed to keep Sara from being eaten alive by blood-sucking pterydactyls) and a second small -rechargable- fan. This, I thought, was not entirely necessary, but I was proven so very wrong in the coming weeks. Fan (designed to stop humans living in a tin can during a heatwave from melting and to make wife grateful that husband sometimes ignores her).
Our next stop, only one hour away, was the iconic Lake Bled. You may not know the name of this place, or where it is, but many will be familiar with it from its photos. It is a very popular place for a very good reason. It is gorgeous. The pristine waters of the 2.1 km long lake, set in the Julian Alps, are heated by thermal springs, making it much more pleasant to swim here than it should be. There is a very picturesque island in the lake, apparently Slovenia’s only natural island, upon which is built a church and there is a castle perched atop a rocky cliff, overseeing the lake and the town. A 6km walking/cycling track around the lake gives a perfect way to experience the lake from all angles, with several swimming beaches on its perimeter. There are walks up into the surrounding forested hills to lookouts and all the usual tourist activies of boat trips, SUP and rowing boat rental. The lake also is the site of the Slovenian National Rowing Centre, being just long enough to accomodate a regulation 2000m course, the lanes marked out with bouys.
We had pre-booked our site for 3 nights here, the only place with lake access, and just as well, because it was a’jumpin’. Despite that the campsite was spacious and didn’t feel overcrowded. It was expensive but from here we could walk our paddleboards down to the beach and then had the whole lake at our disposal, which was priceless. It is an amazing spot, and is now peak season, so ya gotta pay the money!
So what did we do here?
A lap of the lake on foot. Our campsite was at the opposite end of the lake to the town of Bled, which to be honest, wasn’t the most beautiful of places. Mid to late 20th century town planning hasn’t been kind to the aesthetic of the waterfront here which is a shame. I guess when you are looking out of the window of an ugly hotel, the view is still gorgeous. So we walked through Bled and back to camp again, which as I mentioned before, was a very pleasant 6km stroll.
We walked up to Bled castle. This sits atop a rocky precipice, looking down onto the lake and is apparently one of the most visited tourist attractions in Slovenia. First mentioned in 1011 it is obviously very old, like a lot of stuff in this neck of the woods, and must have some amazing views… I say that as if we didn’t see them. Which we didn’t. The climb through the forest up to the castle is steep and definitely a cardiovasular work out. To tackle it on a 30 deg C day also makes it super sweaty. We arrived at the castle entrance to find that the only views were from inside the walls, and the entrance fee was a hefty €17 each. We assessed this as ‘too expensive for a view’ seeing as we had no real interest in seeing the castle itself, or all the old sh*t inside, so we opted out and walked down again. My erstwhile travelling companion may have uttered some profanities on the pointlessness of the whole episode and was not comforted by my pointing out of the beneficial effects of the exercise that he had had.
We walked up to a proper lookout. This 1.5 hour round trip was another hot & sweaty endeavour that we undertook having omitted to take any water with us. It was silly steep and treacherous underfoot in parts and it was quite a surprise to get back in one piece. The view was, however, very worth it.
We did lots and lots of paddleboarding. Our repairs to Nick’s board were not brilliant as our chosen adhesive was obviously not the right stuff, but it was usable and that was good enough for now. Bled Island is a massive draw for most people that come here and one can get there by either taking a trip on a traditional wooden boat called a ‘pletna’, which is rowed forward from the rear by a standing oarsman, or by hiring a row boat or paddleboard. At peak times it is chaos and the island is mobbed, so we just dodged the other craft, did a lap and paddled on without making landfall.
The prevailing wind was against us going up the lake, which was ideal. We powered our way up towards Bled town and then after a loaf, ‘sailed’ back downwind. There were some very cool beach clubs with protected swimming and grassy sunbathing areas and some impressive large lakeside houses but on the whole the lake shore is underdeveloped and unspoilt. Nearer home we tied up to a buoy and soaked up some sun, had a swim and watched the world do a variety of the same. The water was lovely. Clear and a beautiful temperature. Give me lake swimming over sea swimming any day! Another day we did a similar route but the wind turned through 180 degrees just as we turned to head for home, meaning a significant workout both ways. Life can be so cruel!
Football was everywhere. A small band of tiny, soccer mad kids were relentlessly kicking balls around, loose shots bouncing into all surrounding sites. They were more interested in playing than watching the Euros games, and they were in equal measure amusing and annoying. Hard to chastise them when they were very cute and overtaken by such immense passion, but it would have been better for them to be using their own families’ camping equipment for their rebounds rather than everyone elses, and if their parents had actually paid attention to the fact that they had been told many times to go and play elsewhere by many people. There was a large bar/restaurant on the lakeshore that was playing all the games and many people around the site were streaming the games. Most of our fellow campers, as usual, were German and Dutch, so there were two important games for them whilst we were here. There were many simultaneous audible groans as Germany were knocked out by Spain, and the Dutch had a camp-wide, co-ordinated celebration of their late game equaliser winner against Turkey.
We sampled the local delicacy, kremna rezina or kremšnita. This is a vanilla cream pastry slice of which there are similar itterations in Austria, Hungary, Germany, Poland, Romania and The Balkans but this one was designated a protected dish of designated origin in 2016 by the Slovene government. The current ‘official’ local receipe was created in 1953 by the manager of the Hotel Park in Bled and its in-house patisserie has made an estimated whopping 12 million slices of kremšnita over the past 60 years. There is even an annual festival to honour it. Can confirm: is delicious.
Being at Lake Bled was like inhabiting a reality version of a land of fairy tales. It is just so achingly beautiful. The tourism here is just about under control and I hope that it stays that way otherwise the magic that is here will be lost.
From here we continued east, driving through the mountains to our next stop, the city of Maribor. This is Slovenia’s second largest city and sits on the Drava River. It is another place with a long and complex history, changing hands between various empires multiple times, being the site of fires, plague, seiges and many conflicts. Now it was a well located stop for us and we found a river side place to park for a couple of nights. This was the carpark of a restaurant which was happy to provide free overnight stops to customers. It was a lovely scenic spot but although the river was so close, it was not swimable here. This was shame as the weather was starting to get very hot, reaching the early to mid 30s. The car park was on a riverside cycle path so I did a satellite view search to see if I could see a swimming beach further up or down the river from where we were. I didn’t find a beach but what I did find was this….. An open air swimming pool complex on a river island only 500m away! We packed a bag and after a short five minute walk, after paying only €4 each, we were immersed in cool water. Admittedly surrounded by half the population of Maribor, but it was Sunday afternoon in a heatwave so what could we expect?! It was an unexpected treat.
We ate in the restaurant that night. A long and arduous 20m walk away. It was wholesome, robust, unfussy food as is their forte in this part of the world and we ate far too much. As is our forte.
The next day we headed into Maribor on the bikes. The heat was bearable whilst we were rolling, thus creating a slight breeze. but when we tied up the bikes on the edge of town and strolled around on foot, it was less bearable. Of note in Maribor is ‘the oldest vine in the world’. It still produces fruit every year from which they make wine and it has been ratified by the Guiness Book of Records. There was a massive long square (so, I guess more for a rectangle) with a marble monument in the middle. This is the Plague Column, the original one was errected in 1680 to celebrate the end of the epidemic that killed a third of the town’s population. This one is a 1743 replacement. Maribor had a limited array of things to see, so we had lunch in a shady spot (very good turkish wraps) and headed home. Our route was a bit circuitous as we detoured via another hardware store to get some better glue for the paddleboard re-repair. A nice employee offered to help us, but then realised that our Slovenian and her English weren’t up to the job of working out what we needed. A random customer offered her translation assistance and eventually we walked away with four packets of two-part epoxy adhesive and some sandpaper. I think this will be far superior! By the time we got home, although it was still hot, it was a bit too late to consider a trip back to the pool, so I set up the outdoor shower, we put on our swimmers, doused ourselves with cold water, pulled out our camp chairs and then sat in the shade on the riverbank. All overlooked by the early doors restaurant customers. Aren’t we classy!
We headed off the next day, back into Hungary. We had by no means seen all the good bits of Slovenia, but enough to know that it is a special place. Can recommend.