Ljubljana, Slovenia

 After a full week of lakeside fun, it was time to bid farewell to our Julian Alpine home.  We set aside the better part of three days at the end of our week on the lake to make sure we had ample time to explore the Slovenian capital, Ljubljana, as well as the Croatian capital, Zagreb.  We had a night and a day and a half in each, which was perfect.

The Stephensons had to get back to London sooner than we did, so we had just enough time to have one final meal together in Ljubljana before they headed out.   I can't say enough about how much we enjoy our time with this family.  Whether it's meeting up for a date night in London, or gathering for a meal in one of our homes or making amazing traveling memories together, we just love these people.  So grateful for their friendship.

 After saying goodbye to the Stephensons we spent the rest of the day exploring charming, compact Ljuljana at our leisure.

 The dragon bridge

 Butcher's Bridge over the Ljubljanica River

 I took Trevon and Madeleine on a gelato-treat crawl while Dallin and Scott cycled around the city.

 I was pretty blown away by how gorgeous Ljubljana was, so much rich colour and beautiful architecture.

 Cobbler's Bridge (or the shoemaker's bridge), where anciently shoe sellers had their stalls.

 Though so warm and summery feeling, this pretty little square definitely hinted at autumn.

 Could not get over all the warm, colourful light that blanketed this city like no other as the sun began to set.

 Corn stalls were everywhere.  I find it fascinating what different cities sell at booths like this on the streets.  In NY it's the hot dog, in London it's roasted chestnuts, in Jerusalem you get the local bagel, crepes in Paris, in Belgium there's a fry stand on every corner, and in Jordan it was falafel. Generally I dig street food, but somehow I wasn't in the mood for corn on the cob.

 Nightfall over Ljubljana was just stunning!

Slovenia Days 5 & 6

We spent the next two days exploring a bit further afield from Lake Bled.  One day we went to Lake Bohinj, Lake Bled's larger cousin and spent the rest of the day in the quaint village of Radovljica.  The next day we decided to hit the massive caves at Skocjan, and then spent the afternoon in Italy!

Arriving at Lake Bohinj we took the cable car up to the top of Vogel Mountain for spectacular views.  And it was pretty spectacular!  

 What would cliffside vistas be without some foolish looking shenanigans?

 More magnificent displays from our group's resident gymnast.

 After a day on the mountain top at Lake Bohinj, we visited charming little Radovlica.  It takes maybe 5 minutes to stroll this bite-sized charmer, and that was about the right amount on this hot Slovenian day. The unexpected highlight here was the wonderful little beekeeping museum.  Unbeknownst to us, Slovenia has a long, proud beekeeping heritage.  Slovenians hold beekeeping in high regard.  It is interesting to note the Slovenians have two different words for birth and death, one they use only for humans and bees, and another for everything else.

 On day 5 we headed do the Karst region to visit Slovenia's most impressive caves at Skocjan.  Also among some of the most impressive caves of the world, a visit to Skocjan includes two miles of walking over 400 steps through some of the most varied and vast caverns.  It was too dark for good hand held photography, but I did my level best!

 Skocjan is incredibly only 25 minutes to the majestic, Italian port city of Trieste.  So when you're less than 30 minutes from Italy and you're ready for lunch, what else would you do?  We spent just 5 hours in Italy that afternoon, eating pasta, stuffing our faces with gelato after gelato (three per person to be exact) and wandering the city sights.  It was really a perfect afternoon in Italy.  I'm amazed still at how varied the continent of Europe can be.  All these tiny (relatively) countries smashed together, and yet crossing from one border into the next means much more than just a language change.  I love Europe.