Slovenia - Finally!

Yes yes, we went in May, but we never got round to uploading any photos... so here we go.

Slovenia was a lovely country actually. Very picturesque, lots of beautiful forest, lakes, mountains etc. The people were friendly, and it was very quiet and peaceful. Best of all, you were never very far from a cafe selling big wodges of cake :o)

This is the capital, Ljubljana. As well as having a cool name, this has to be one of the most laid-back capital cities we've ever been to. And considering the competition (Tongatapu for a start...) that's quite an achievement!

There's quite a large Italian influence, so as you'd expect, it didn't take long for Sharon to find somewhere selling giant pizzas...

...While Craig rooted out the local beer fairly quickly.

The Dragon Bridge. Having recently watched "How to train your Dragon" Craig had unrealistic expectations about being able to ride them and set fire to people... As usual, it was left to Sharon to be the voice of reason (ie to tell him not to act like a little kid).

Ljubljana Castle. Even their castles are peaceful affairs.

We got the bus up to Bled, and went for some nice walks through the hills around the lake.

The lake at Bled. It looked lovely and calm, it can't be too hard to row across that...

...Umm, yes it can! At this point Craig was still smiling... Within a few minutes he was looking whistfully at the little motor-boats zipping across the water... A few minutes later and he was ready to pass-out...

As usual, Craig had picked somewhere with a castle to visit! Bled Castle was quite impressively situated at the top of a rocky outcrop.

Inside the chapel of the castle.

The view from the castle (once we had recovered from the climb and didn't look so red and out of breath).

Next up was Postojna, which has an amazing complex of caves.

You get a little train-thingy down through the caves to start with... good job neither of us are tall, as it whizzed you past stalagmites (or tites?!) just a few inches above your head.

Once you were down there you could walk for ages through huge caverns, over ricketly little bridges over chasms, and lots of other cool stuff.

Near Postojna is Predjama Castle (or Pyjama Castle as Craig liked to call it). It was built in the mouth of a cave in a hillside. This was the hide-out of the Slovenian Robin Hood - who met a sad end when a cannon-ball hit the castle toilet while he was spending a penny...

We were only there for a long weekend, but we loved it - so we're already planning to go back :o)