The Best of Slovenia

Before moving to Germany, I would have never been able to locate Slovenia on a map, let alone think to plan a trip to visit this remote country. But after hearing about so many others loving this tiny country, I decided to do a little more research. Despite the country being so small, it has such a variety of landscapes. From the Alps in the North, to the Adriatic seaside towns and everything in between, Slovenia was the perfect choice for our long-weekend.

Our first stop was Lake Bled. This is probably the most well-known area of Slovenia and for good reason! Who wouldn't love a charming lakeside town with a castle towering overhead and a quaint church located on a tiny island in the middle of the lake?

The Bled Castle

We stopped for a late lunch at Pizzeria Rustika. Since Slovenia is so close to Italy, all the Italian food is authentic and delicious!

After lunch we hiked up to the castle on the top of the hill.

The museum within the castle wasn't too impressive, but the views of the lake alone made the visit worthwhile!

The city and its lake entertain lots of famous people looking for a little R&R, including Prince Charles and Laura Bush. Tito, the former leader/dictator of Yugoslavia, had a villa here on the lake that was used to entertain international guests. Now the villa has been turned into an upscale hotel.

After we hiked down from the castle, we continued to stroll around the banks of the lake.

The Slovenian Olympic rowing team practices here on Lake Bled.

There are 99 steps that lead up to the church on the island. It is a Slovenian tradition for a groom to carry up his bride on their wedding day. If the groom succeeds, he proves that they are "fit for marriage."

Fresh, local products are very important to Slovenes. They even have vending machines with fresh cheese, yogurt and unpasteurized milk straight from the farmers!

The next morning we checked out of our hotel, but I couldn't leave Bled without trying a piece of the famous kremna rezina, a cream cake that is the town's specialty.  The cake is a layer of cream and a thick layer of vanilla custard sandwiched between sheets of crispy crust.

After finishing the cake, we drove about 15 minutes outside of Bled to the Vintgar Gorge, a mile-long gorge carved out by the Radovna River.

The water was such a beautiful shade of teal and so clear!

At the end of the trail we reached Sum Falls, the largest river waterfall in Slovenia.

The water was so clear you could see all the fish swimming by!

Some of the species of fish found in the river.

We ate lunch at Gostilna Vintgar, a riverside restaurant serving fish fresh from the water.

The most common beer in Slovenia

Chris' brook trout was covered in a mushroom sauce.

My brown trout had a garlic sauce on top.

After lunch we drove about an hour away and arrived in Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia. It's a very small capital with less than 300,000 people. The capital has had a lot of influence over the years from nearby cities such as Prague, Vienna and Venice. It's a midpoint between the Slavic, Germanic and Italian worlds. Rick Steves', a well-known travel guide, says that Ljubljana is the "next, next Prague" after Krakow.

It's hard to tell from the picture, but this is the famous Triple Bridge. Joze Plecnik, Slovenia's famous architect who designs nearly all the structures in the capital, built this bridge as an homage to the bridges in Venice.

Preseren Square is the heart of the city and named after France Preseren, Slovenia's greatest poet.

Franciscan Church of the Annunciation 

The statue of France Preseren shows the poet being inspired from above by a Muse. When this statue was initially displayed, it provoked outrage with the locals since the muse, a naked woman, was in the same square as a church. For the first few years, local women would cover the scandalous statue every night with a tarp.

The riverside colonnade, also designed by Plecnik, is filled with stalls selling everything from local honey products to hand-carved trinkets.

The Butcher's Bridge was initially designed by Plecnik, but his idea was never created. Instead, the city designed a modern bridge complete with abstract art sculptures on the railings and a glass bottom to part of the bridge, so visitors can see the river down below.

The Dragon Bridge is ornately flanked by 4 green dragons that sit atop of pillars on either side of the bridge. The dragon is the symbol of Ljubljana. Legend has it that Jason, the mythical Greek hero, slayed a dragon in a nearby swamp and then founded the city of Ljubljana.

View of the colonnade from across the river

A truthful sign

National Opera and Ballet Theater

After seeing so many churches in Europe, it's hard to find one now that really stands out. But the Serbian Orthodox Church of Sts. Cyril and Methodius was unlike any other church we've seen.

We heard chanting as we approached the door and realized a service was beginning just as we arrived.

The inside was brightly decorated and had a painted screen, called an iconostasis, which separates the material world from the spiritual realm. Another unusual thing about the church is that worshipers stand the entire time throughout the service.

Nearby is Tivoli Park where locals go to relax in the summer shade. An exhibit from National Geographic showcased large photographs of Slovenia's Triglav National Park and the 59 American national parks.

We then hiked up a steep hill to explore the castle.

In the casemates of the castle was an exhibit dedicated to the humble bee. Slovenians are very proud of their bees and are very concerned with the future of these tiny creatures.

Slovenes believe that by painting colorful front panels on their beehives, the bees will remember their home on their journey back from pollinating plants.

Another exhibit we visited explained the long and complicated history of the Slovenian people.

Slovenian money from 1991-2007

The best part of the castle is the view from the tower. You can see all of Ljubljana and the mountains that surround the city.

Preseren Square from above

The castle courtyard

The castle lit up at night

In the Town Square is the Fountain of Three Carniolian Rivers, inspired by Rome's many fountains. There are 3 figures holding vases representing the 3 main rivers of the region: Ljubljanica, Sava and Krka.

We ate dinner at Julija, a cozy Slovenian restaurant in the heart of the Old Town. Chris ordered a grilled rumpsteak with mushrooms, Teran wine sauce and cheese dumplings. I ordered idrijski zlikrofi, which are traditional Slovenian dumplings filled with potato filling. They were topped with local pancetta and mushrooms.

After dinner we walked around the Old Town and stumbled upon a mini outdoor concert near some restaurants.

The next morning we ate breakfast at Le Petit Cafe.

We then drove outside of Ljubljana to visit the Skocjan Caves.

We weren't allowed to take any pictures inside, so here are a few pictures I found online. It's impossible thought to capture in pictures just how enormous these chambers were. Some of the deepest parts of the cave were more than 100 meters deep.

The place we left the cave was the entrance the original explorers used to enter the cave for the first time.

Our final destination was Piran, one of the most Italian-feeling towns we've ever been too outside of Italy. While we were waiting for our hotel room to be ready, we ate lunch at this beachside restaurant. Not a bad place to sit while we had to wait!

We ordered some calamari and Greek salad for a light lunch.

 
Our hotel was literally just a few feet from the Adriatic!

We could even see the water from our hotel room!

After spending some time relaxing in the water, we got ready and walked along the beach to the downtown area of Piran.

Tartini Square was once a harbor. But in 1894 the smell was so bad that the townspeople decided to fill it in. The statue is of Giuseppe Tartini, a well-known composer and violinist.

The new harbor

If the bell tower looks familiar to you, it's because it belongs to the Cathedral of St. George and is a miniature version of the famous one in St. Mark's Square in Venice.

I found the little mermaid

 A storm was approaching, which brought much appreciated winds with it!

We had dinner at the highly recommended Restaurant Neptun, a small and charming restaurant tucked away on a side street.

We split a bottle of local white wine.

We ordered mussels as an appetizer, which came in a delicious, red sauce.

Chris ordered langoustines (big shrimp) for his main course, and I ordered grilled calamari. When your restaurant is within 50 feet of the harbor, you know the seafood is fresh!

After dinner, we could feel that the storm was picking up, but we couldn't leave without getting one last gelato! As we made our way home along the water, the lighting began. And what a show we got! Bolts of lightning flashed across the entire sky and the thunder was so loud it felt like the ground was shaking. We tried to hurry back to our hotel while still enjoying nature's free concert!

The next morning we enjoyed the hotel's breakfast from the oceanfront dining room. The wind was still too powerful from the storm to sit outside.

Before we hit the road to head home, I had to try Cockta, a Slovenian cola flavored with berries, lemon, orange and herbs. It was originally called "Cockta Cockta" and was introduced during the communist period when Coca-Cola was difficult to find. After the real Coke was readily available to the Slovenes, sales for Cockta plummeted. But in recent years, with the slogan "The Taste of Your Youth, nostalgic Slovenes are drinking this cola once again.

Then we had to say goodbye to this beautiful beach-side town and drive home. Slovenia was definitely not on our initial bucket list, but we are so glad that we were able to see this underappreciated country!