Horses and Caves

Our next stop after Lake Bled was Skocjan Caves, which are the largest caves in Europe and also a UNESCO World Heritage Sight.  For my Virginia/Mid-Atlantic friends, picture Lurray Caverns on steroids.   When we got there, we found out that we had missed the 10:00 tour by a half an hour and the next tour wasn't until 1:00.    Since we had some time to kill, we decided to take a detour to the Lipizzaner Farm, which was about 20 minutes away.

As a huge (or yuuuuge! as Donald Trump would say) horse enthusiast, I was probably more excited than the average person about this little detour.  Plus, Lipizzaners are so cool.  I remember going to see them perform one time when they came to Norfolk and it was a blast.  They dance all around doing all sorts of intricate dressage moves.  Even if you aren't a horse person, if you get the chance to see the Lipizzaners perform, you should go.  

The horse farm was beautiful and made any farm I've ever ridden at look like the slums of the horse world.  The stalls were gigantic, the grass was green and the dirt paths leading to the rings made it look like the scene of a movie.  These horses definitely lucked out. 

Fun Fact: Adult Lipizzaners are white (or called "grey" in the horse world), but they are born black and as they grow, change colors.

We didn't have time for the tour, but I am sure it would have been fascinating.  After walking around for a while, we grabbed lunch and headed to the caves. 

The tour was two hours and it's the only way you can go into the caves.  Our tour guide was great, providing all sorts of information about how the caves were formed, the wildlife that lives in the caves (I prefer not to think about it) and the work being done to preserve the caves.  Unfortunately, you can't take any pictures while in the caves, so the only picture I have is a selfie at the end, but let me reassure you that the caves were cool.  Also, my fifth grade teacher Mrs. Villanueva would be proud.  I remembered her teaching us the difference between stalagmites and stalagtites.  Stalagmites might reach the top, so they start on the bottom.  Stalagtites have to hang tight not to fall from the ceiling.  Mike smiled when I told him that.  I think he's just jealous :)

We ended the night in Llubljana, Slovenia.  We were pretty impressed with Llubjana, although I'm glad we were only there for the night.  It gets classified under the "great places to live" category that Mike and I have created.  I'm sure there are museums and such that you can see, but we found it to be a great Eastern European town to walk around and enjoy.  We found a  street food festival where we ate dinner and a pub to grab a drink at afterwards (it was cold and we were glad to get inside!).  It was the perfect place to spend the night after the caves. 

Lake Bled, sLOVEnia

Excuse the massive amounts of photos that are on this post, but I've found one of my new favorite places.  It's Slovenia.  Mike and I have already planned out itineraries for people's vacations to Slovenia and Croatia because we fully believe that everyone should go.  It's like a little slice of heaven hidden in Eastern Europe.  Go in the fall when it's not tourist season and you're even more golden.  Actually, just go.  Go whenever you can for as long as you can. You won't regret it.

We arrived on Thursday around 4:00 after our little stop at Kehlsteinhaus.  We checked into our hotel and dropped off our stuff before walking down to the lake.  I had seen pictures of Lake Bled before, but had no idea how absolutely breathtaking it was.  We also got there as the sun was setting, so it made it even more picturesque.  We spent the evening walking around the lake (it's 6km) and stopping for dinner at one of the restaurants overlooking the lake.  We were both grateful to have some seafood after all of the German food we've been eating.  Neither of us are used to living so far from the water!

Autumn in Lake Bled

After a good night of sleep, we headed out for a full day of sight seeing.  Our first stop was the castle that overlooks the lake.  The land was given as a gift from Emperor Henry II to Bishop Albuin of Brixen in 1004 and then the castle was built in 1011, but the Bishop never actually lived there. Because of this, there aren't the grand ballrooms and features that a lot of castles had. In fact, Mike and I actually found the castle to be somewhat disappointing.  The hike up there is worth it though, because you have SPECTACULAR views of the lake.  I may have been out of breath and sweaty when we reached the top, but I'm glad we made the trek.

Views like this make the hike up completely worth it.

We asked a man to take our picture and ended up with a full on photo shoot!

This guy was hanging out on our walk back down. 

After the castle, we headed to the Vintgar Gorge, which is a 15 minute drive from the lake.  This was equally as beautiful as the lake.  It's about a mile walk to the end on narrow paths.  I was glad we went in the off season because I could see it getting really crowded in the summer.  The gorge was full of flowing water and wild life and was a perfect afternoon.  I really enjoyed being outside and out of a city on this trip.  It was so refreshing.

What is going on here?

Mike would like the picture to be dedicated to all of his fellow Stone Bridge alums.  Get it...stone bridge?

Our last stop of the day was the other lake, Lake Bohinj, which is actually bigger than Lake Bled.  We walked around, hiked up to one of the waterfalls nearby and relaxed for a little while.

Can you see now why I took a million pictures of Lake Bled?  I could have spent a week there just hiking around and taking in the scenery.  It was breathtaking, the weather was beautiful and the air crisp.  I fell in L-O-V-E.

We ended our time in Lake Bled with dinner with fellow Olmsteders!  The Scott Van Nest is a class behind Mike and they are new residents of Budapest.  They were stopping Bled for the night and saw my picture on Instagram!  We were able to coordinate dinner at their hotel, which was a super fun and eco-friendly restaurant that turned out to be delicious.  We already had plans to meet them when we stopped in Budapest the next week, but it was a fun surprise to meet them in Bled as well!!

I know I've said this a million times already, but you need to go to Slovenia.  It's breathtaking.  Before we left, I saw pictures of Lake Bled, but I didn't believe anywhere could be that beautiful.  Oh, how I was wrong.  It's possible.  None of my pictures are edited and I love them. Almost as much as I love Slovenia!