Day 14 - Ljubljana

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Bid farewell to Zagreb and off to Slovenia. Only a short time to the border. Get to passport control and we have to get off the bus, walk in the office, get our passports stamped then out the next door (on the Slovenian side) and back on the bus. Hmmm.....

Anyway, all done quite quickly in comparison to one of the Bosnian borders. A few minutes later we stop at a roadside diner. No Burger King this time. We are given half an hour. Way too much time again, and you had to pay €0.50 to have a wee. Finally into the centre of Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia. Meet our guide who likes to crack jokes and ask us lots of questions - thought he was meant to be the expert. Bloody hot so everyone is seeking any available shade.

We do the walk around the old town, quite pretty and easy to get around. We then have 1.5 hours for lunch. Get something from the bakery and sit in a little alcove with a nice breeze coming off the river. Cold beers are the order of the day and we get them. Nice.

Back tot the bus at the allocated time then to our hotel. Nice rooms tonight, we have a bed with a walk in robe, separate sitting room with a couch and large desk and a bathroom with separate toilet room - luxury. We depart for our optional tour of Lake Bled (which all but 2 are taking). Lots of muttering about the lack of time we can spend at Bled, especially after having such long breaks during the day. Never mind.

We get to Bled and do a drive around the lake, up some dodgy steep back streets then back to the bus park. We are walke down a shortcut to the lake then given just on 2 hours to do our stuff. It takes about 2 hours to walk the lake and in this heat nearly everyone declines that offer. The castle on the hill looks appealing but again, the climb in the heat kills that. The only other option is a boat ride to the church in the middle of the lake. About 15 of us decide to haggle a boat dude down from €12 to €10 each for a row around the lake rather than getting too tight on time at the island. Good decision. He rows us (gondola style) to the middle of the lake then around the other side and back. Nice views on the water and a cool breeze. We are sitting under a canopy.

Viktor has spruked about the special cream cakes (or as we know them, snot blocks). Sit down and have one between us with a drink. Then back to the bus for our Slovenian dinner. This is at a restaurant in a little village which is also a winery. We are taken down to the cellar where we are given wine (red and white), cheese, dips and then bratwurst sausages. These come cut, then in bread, and by in bread, they are actually inserted in the bread like some hot dogs are served. Really nice as was the wine.

all the while we have a dude on the squeeze box (not like a piano accordion, this has buttons, not keys) and an elderly couple dancing, all in period costumes (and sweating a little after each dance). We go up for our dinner, and they keep entertaining us through that as well, even getting some poor people up to dance with them.

Nice dinner, then back to the hotel for a much neede sleep.

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Photos

Lake Bled
Not our boat but same same

Lake Bled
Castle on the hill, with some renovation work being done

Lake Bled
Church on the island in the middle of the lake

Lake Bled
Luge with someone coming down the mountain, unfortunately not enough time to do it myself......

Lake Bled
View of the town from the lake. Lots of big hotels.