Italy	Slovenia	Croatia	Germany	Austria	Slovakia	Hungary	Switzerland	Italy

                     Europe 2010                        

Wednesday 30th. June 2010
We left the hotel at 8:30am and made the one hour trip to Lake Bohinj. The weather was fine and the morning quite brisk although Antonia told us that it would warm up to about 30˚C. We took the cable car up to the top of Mt Vogel, which is a ski area in winter. The view of the lake from the top is quite spectacular. The lake is 4350m long and 1250m wide.

After we descended from the mountain we drove to the eastern end of the lake and to the small township of Ribcev Laz. We had a look at the tiny church beside the river which is the lake's outflow.

It was then onto Bled, where we had lunch at a local restaurant. The restaurant overlooked Lake Bled and we had good views of St. Mary's Church out an a tiny island in the Lake and the Old Bled Castle above us. The scantily clad sun worshipers lying on the beach and swimming in the lake almost looked out of place in the pristine, medieval environment.

After lunch we drove up to Bled Castle. The has been some kind of fortification at this location since before the birth of Christ. Like many of these buildings, Bled castle has been enlarged over the centuries and underwent a major renovation in the 1980's.

We then drove down to the lake and were rowed out Bled Island in a pletna boat, climbed the 99 steps up to St. Mary's Church and rang the bell from inside the church. Custom has it that upon ringing the bell one should make a wish. We then walked down a path and back around the island to where our boat was waiting to row us back to the lake's edge. As we walked we we were encountered a number of bikini clad holiday makers, both on the path and in the water beside it.

Once back on shore we had afternoon tea which included trying one of the locally made "Original Bled Cream Cakes." It was then back to Ljubljana for dinner, which was provided free of charge by the Hotel Park to make up for not having hot water the previous night due to the Mayor of the city cutting off the gas to this part of town while maintenance was done on a large gas valve.

Thursday 1st. July 2010
We had thunderstorms and heavy rain overnight, and the group were fearful that we might have been in for some rainy days and it was overcast as we climbed into the black people mover and headed off back to Croatia. It wasn't long before it was sunny again and the temperature rising up towards 30˚C. We crossed over the Slovenia - Croatian boarder meaning we had crossed out of the European Union and had to go through Croatian passport control etc, which wasn't too tedious. Just another stamp in the passport and we didn't even have to get out of the vehicle.
Our first stop was in the suburb of Turanj in Karlovac where there is an open air museum of weapons from the "Homeland War" (1991 - 1995). This place marked the first defence lines of the town and during the Homeland War the Serb army attacked from the east and were stopped by the Croatians 600 metres away from where the museum now stands. Some of the old houses still show the bullet scars on their walls stand in the street behind as stark reminders of the war and how it effected everyone.
 

We then moved on and had a quick stop off at the town of Grad Slunj. It was most picturesque with rivers and waterfalls everywhere, some even running through the middle of houses.
 

We then stopped at the northern entrance to the Plitvice Lakes National Park and had a light lunch. After a short movie preview of what we were about to see we entered the park, decended the serpentine path to "The Big Waterfall" (Veliki Slap). We then walked upstream alongside the lower lakes and waterfalls until we came to a large lake, Jezero Kozjak and caught a 100 person ferry for about a 15 minute ride to the end of the lake and the beginning of the Upper lakes. The terrain changed quite considerably with many pools in the dolomite environment. All the lakes were crystal clear and the travertine roots of the surrounding trees were visible as were the thousands of small fish. Once  we reached the top lake we caught a strange 3 carriage bus/train that took us almost to our hotel (Hotel Jezero) where Ilya was waiting with the people mover and our luggage. It is a good hotel in that it has free internet connection in each bedroom. This is the first time we have had this luxury during our trip. There is no air conditioning in the rooms, but it is very pleasant to leave the door that opens out onto the balcony open and listen to the waterfalls in the valley below.