A day of caves and bees

We drove to Postogna Caves today. This is a huge series of underground limestone caves in the Karst region of Slovenia. As a geography geek I wanted to see this example of Karst topology. The cave tour was quite an operation as they take you into the caves on a train/people mover. You walk for about 1km in the middle through the caverns before being transported out via train. The formations were stunning and unlike anything we've seen before.

Closer 'home' to Bled, we made a stop at the apicultural aka bee-keeping museum in Radovljica. It's hidden away in the town hall and is a tribute to the industrious species. They even have a working bee-hive in the museum. This is a picture of one of the fancier beehives on display. Apparently many bees in the U.S. are descended from Slovenian bees. No mention of colony collapse at the museum but Mr. Snootypurse reports reading about it somewhere along the line during our trip.

We will drive through Austria today on our way to Cortina Italy. I was struck last night on how strange it is to be traveling freely through the former Yugoslavia. Prior to the fall of the Iron Curtain these folks were the 'bad guys'. I can only hope that the future brings such peace to parts of the world that are under fire today.

Lake Bled

Today we visited the main attractions of Lake Bled. We walked around the lake first thing in the morning. About halfway around, we rented a rowboat to row to a small island in the middle of the lake. This picturesque little island is home to a church and cafe. It was a glorious morning.

After lunch we indulged in a slice of cream cake that is the signature dessert of the area. I'm not a big fan of whipped cream so I thought it was so-so. I think I'll stick with the ice cream.

We wrapped things up by climbing the hill to Bled castle. You can see the castle on the left-hand side of the second photo. Views of Bled and the surrounding area from this vantage point were outstanding. We could even see large fish in the lake when we looked down. If only I'd had my fishing pole and a really, really long line!

And finally, here is proof that Mr. Snootypurse did indeed accompany me on this trip. It's so hard to get pictures together when you're traveling.

Hvala Chemoexpress

The sun shone brightly on our last morning in Ljubljana. We took another spin around the old town. Sladoled before lunch is okay, right? The middle photo is the Dragon Bridge in Ljubljana designed by Plecnik.

If you've ever traveled for an extended period of time, you know how reassuring it is to have a suitcase full of clean clothes. Before leaving Ljubljana we gratefully picked up our laundry from Chemoexpress. It was clean, pressed, and nicely folded. If only they had a Portland location...

We made our way to Lake Bled which is near the Austrian border. If you look closely you'll see me on the balcony of our B&B in Bled. You can tell by the architecture that the feel of this area is much different than our earlier stops. We're definitely moving into the Alps.

Dober dan Ljubljana

We spent most of today exploring Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia. The first photo is taken in front of city hall where we met our walking tour. The weather was cool and drizzly, just like home. Although it would have been nicer without the rain, the cool was refreshing. The tour took us up to Ljubljana's castle that looks out over the city. We dropped our laundry off before meeting the tour. Hopefully it will be there when we go to pick it up this morning...

Jose Plecnik is the architect of much of the city and designed the triple bridge you see which is in the heart of the old town. We had sushi for dinner last night figuring we probably wouldn't see it again as we head up to Lake Bled and then into Italy.