Here we are…This is our
English post for the wonderful Slovenia…
Caves, castles, spa and luxury
hotels…Slovenia couldn’t surprise us more!
Want you discover more about
our journey?
Well, continue reading and we
will reveal our secrets…
Last summer we went on a
journey “on the road”, we had planned to visit both Slovenia and Croatia by car
trying to book almost nothing…There were some hitches, but also pleasant
surprises…
We left Caravaggio on 29 July
2014. We bought the monthly vignette (toll sticker) for the Slovenian motorway
(it costs 30 €, while the weekly one costs 15 €), then we stayed in a boarding
house recommended by a friend of us for two nights.
Its name is Žigon, it is set in Logatec, a few kilometres from the Škocjan Caves Park and it
is run by a kind lady whose name is Giuseppina and who has proved to be a very
good cook (even for the Italian standards!). We discovered her qualities as a
cook at dinner when she prepared us a complete menu; we appreciated the
palancinke: a typical Slovenian sweet that resembles the crepes and is served
with marmalade or Nutella.
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| Žigon |
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| A beautiful flower alongside river Reka |
The next day was a rainy and
cold day. We visited the Škocjan Caves Park, which is made up of two parts: the
external one that follows the river Reka (literally river in Slovenian,
therefore river River) and the internal one.
Inside the tour is guided: our
group’s guide was Denis, a hoot whose English had a strong Slovenian accent. Nevertheless,
we understood the majority of his explanation and we loved the hanging bridge that
is 45 metres high and pass through one of the deepest underground channel in
the word.
It seems that the caves were
closed at some point because of a flood that has completely changed their
morphology, Denis used this anecdote to joke on the risks we might run staying
there.
The next step of the day was
the Predjama castle. Set in the mountain, it is a spectacular view! The ticket
is cheap and we could get the students discount.
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| The amazing Predjama castle |
Once come back in our bedroom
we had a wonderful dinner at Giuseppina’s and the next day we moved to
Ljubljana, the Slovenian capital. Till now we had driven for 559 kilometres.
Even though it is quite small,
this European capital deserves a visit: the Dragon Bridge and the castle, which
you can reach by taking the cable railway, are noteworthy. From there you can
see the entire city.
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| A dragon on the Dragon Birdhe in Ljubljana |
Another nice surprise of the
journey was the hotel we had booked with Booking.com: the Hotel Nox.
A few kilometres from the city
centre, it is a design hotel: it offers 24 different rooms, all of them
designed in a different way, in a luxury and creative manner.
When we arrived, on Thursday
31, we were asked to choose among many beautiful rooms: we agreed to select the
“Tony’s Room”. It is inspired by Tony Montana, a Scarface’s character played by
Al Pacino; the walls were painted with gold and the furniture was black and
decorated with black leather…amazing!
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| Hotel Nox' facade |
Furthermore we found a free
“welcome drink” in our fridge, two colas and two beers gently offered by the
hotel.
Dulcis in fundo the breakfast
the next morning was outstanding: there was a good selection and the breakfast
room was beautiful…Well, we were satisfied! But we had to move on…The
kilometres now were 643.
After a brief snack at Novo
Mesto we headed to the Spa Šmarješke Toplice.
We had found an offer on their
website before leaving: our room wasn’t very beautiful (maybe it was intended
for people who had booked the offer), but the spa is enormous and the pools are
fantastic.
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| The wooden pool |
Our favourite was the wooden
pool with thermal water at 40 degrees Celsius, we also loved the sauna even
though people there were completely naked! In fact we discovered that keeping
your swimsuit on in a sauna can be very dangerous because the wet cloth in
contact with your skin can burn it.
The only lack of the hotel was
the difficulty in communicating with the waiters: even though the food was
extremely good, we found it hard to talk with the waiters who spoke only
Slovenian.
In the neighbourhood you’ll
find a noteworthy castle, the Otocec castle: we went there thinking that it
hosted a casino, but today it is only a very luxury hotel.
However the sight is
considerable: surrounded by the dark of night and fog, the castle was beautiful
and unsettling at the same time. We took some beautiful photos too!
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| The Otocec castle |
We spent Friday, Saturday and
Sunday morning at the spa, then we left again. Heading to Croatia….It is 3
August and we’d driven for 798 kilometres!
And here we are, at the end of
our first stage, but coming back home we visited also the Bled lake.
It was Wednesday 13 August,
but unfortunately the weather was rainy or better very rainy, and we couldn’t
stop at the Camping Bled for the night (we had planned to stay there in a
tent).
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| The Bled Lake under the rain |
However we’re thinking of
coming back there because the lake offers a wonderful sight: the isle at the
centre of the lake has become so iconic to be chosen as the cover of the Lonely
Planet guide that had come with us on this journey.
And we absolutely want to try
the “mini chalet Godzne vile” offered by the Camping Bled, a sort of tent made
of wood with a bed inside and a hot tub outside!
In the end Slovenia is a place
worth getting to know better: it is cheap, with wonderful landscape and a
number of spa, with a capital that can be considered in reason a real European
jewel.
Our top three for our journey
are:
And you? Have you ever visited
Slovenia? And which are your top three?
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