Trip to Slovenia

Quick, without going to Google Maps or Google Earth, tell me where Slovenia is?  I know I couldn't have answered that question before we started planning our sabbatical in Austria.  But I now know where it is and how beautiful a country it is (at least the small part that we saw).  And like usual, I don't have pictures to do the country justice, so for this post, I'll intersperse some photos off the web with one of mine.

Last Saturday dawned like pretty much every day since we've arrived ... beautiful, sunny day with comfortable temperatures.  I picked up the rental car and collected Sue, the kids, and Sue's parents and we headed west and then south to Slovenia, a country the size of Massachusetts with a population of 2 million, that used to be one of the Yugoslavia republics.  Sue read some reports that Slovenia fared much better in gaining their independence than its sister republics (Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, etc.) because it always maintained its own culture (even though it was ethnically diverse), identity, etc.  The civil war for independence was like 5 days.

The mountains of Southern Austria and Northern Slovenia.

Anyway, our reason for visiting was not cultural.  It was to see part of the Julian Alps (names after Julias Cesar).  As you can see, they are quite beautiful.  But with only a day to visit and the need for some kid-friendly activities, we followed a travel author's advice, and headed to the town of Bled, near the mountains and the Austrian border (Google Maps said it would be a 2-hour drive, but it was more like 2.5 hours and much of it was over very windy roads on the way there -- more on that later!).

Lake Bled, Slovenia

The main attraction of Bled is its lake.  Or, more exactly, the island in the middle of the lake where there is an old church (dating back to the 1400's if you can believe that).  So, we arrived, ate a great lunch (by the way, Slovenia is part of the Eurozone so no need to bring the passports (but we still did) or change money) and found someone to take us across the lake to the church.  You'll see there is an old castle up on the hill overlooking the lake (directly behind the island in this picture).  (We didn't make it up there.)  After arriving to the island, Henry and I made it to the top of the island and Henry took his turn ringing the church bell before and we looped the island on a 5-minute hike.

You probably can't tell from the photos, but they use these really long oars and lean into it to propel you across the lake in boats that are closer to gondolas than any boat I've seen.

After returning, we had ice cream to reward ourselves for our accomplishment and re-joined Sue and Grace.

What's that?  Sue and Grace didn't go? Well, no. Remember those windy roads that I mentioned?  Poor Grace suffers, as I do, from car sickness.  And those windy mountain roads were too much for her (thankfully, I was driving and that keeps car sickness at bay for me).  So, getting in a boat really didn't seem like a good idea.  The good news is that on the way home our GPS routed us a different way and this route took us straight through the mountains ... literally, via an 8-km tunnel!  If you drive in Austria (the tunnel was right on the border) or Switzerland you will definitely say to yourself once or twice ..., "boy, they really love tunnels here!"  And I've established a tradition (in the US) that we hold our breath during a tunnel ... needless to say, that tradition is put on hold in Austria!

We are sure to return to Slovenia.  They have a national park that supposedly rivals the national parks of the western US.  And Slovenia has a thriving economy, great roads, and an interesting history.  With direct train service from Graz to their capital, I think our return will be soon!

Russ