I’m from the south of France, more precisely from Perpignan, close to Spain and the Pyrenees. Never went to the Alps. For me it was just the same kind of mountains, high, and that’s it. Nothing better than our ones. Why go there?
I was wrong. The Alps are much more impressive than the Pyrenees. Everything is just “more”…
We crossed them from Salzburg to Villach and then headed to Kranjska Gora.
And I wouldn’t even imagine how awesome would be the Slovenian part of the Alps. If you look at the map, it certainly not the highest part of them, but it was enough to impress me.
It’s the third greenest country in Europe, half its surface is covered with trees, you see them everywhere, and I’m not talking about few trees there and there, no at all, it’s dense forest.
Slovenia is actually not a flat country, it’s a succession of up and downs, twists and twirls, and roads are just perfect, wide, flat, with happy and relaxed drivers. Heaven for bikers. Nothing compared to Polish roads and users.
We slept 2 days in Kranjska Gora, a small village, a ski resort during the winter, and a mountain bike and trekker HQ during the summer. If you like any of them, it’s will be like heaven for you. I used to. But we weren’t there for that. It was more for the sun, wine and food. And just enjoy and relax ourselves as much as we could.
TRIGLAVSKI NARODNI PARK & BLED
The Triglav National Park is the only Slovenian national park and was named after Triglav, the highest mountain of the park, which is also the highest one in Slovenia (2864 m). It’s a very nice place. Lots of people, but quiet. The starting point of a good walk into the deep forest of these mountains.
We had such a big amount of fresh “un-polluted” oxygen getting into our lungs that we had a headache, not used to that living in Gdańsk!
I have never seen such a beautiful color for a river before, and it was just the beginning of our holidays! So clear, clean and with a lovely turquoise color (or emerald as they name the trail). We thought that made our day. Wrong, because after a nice walk in that park we headed to Bled.
French fries, our traditional holiday food, I mean, we eat some fries once during our holidays, wherever we are going, for only one day or more.
And that Ducati is a lovely motorbike. The kind of one which makes me say that one day she will be mine.
A very touristic charming place. And luckily (or unluckily), it was the time of the World Rowing Championship. So it was packed with all sorts of people, coming there for different reasons, but enjoying a pleasant time around the lake.
The Bled Castle, the oldest Slovenian castle and one of the most visited tourist attractions in the country. We didn’t get inside, it was Sunday, and with such a lovely weather, why getting lost inside some dark and cold rooms anyway?
Didn’t I tell you that the color of this water was just fantastic?
THE WAY DOWN TO NOVA GORICA
The emerald trail follows the course of the Šoca river, one of the most important one in Slovenia. It stretches from the Alpine north to the lowlands, Idrijca and Vipava valleys.
We drove down to Bukovica. About 120 km, normally a 2 hours drive. It took us much longer. We stopped all the time to appreciate the view, relax or taste a bit of the water.
We crossed Tolmin, this is where the river seperate into two main trails, one to Nova Gorica and the other to Idrija.
Dense forest has given way to vineyards, fruit trees, sunflowers and corn fields. The sun was getting stronger, and the temperature much higher. We could feel we were getting closer to the see…
I won’t lie to you, Nova Gorica is not a little charming town, and Bukovica not a cute village. But they are close enough to Brda, the Coastline and Ljubljana. A central place, the starting point of our peregrination around Slovenia.
Next time I will post a review of one of the best place we ever ate. And here “best” has a very large meaning, because it doesn’t concern only the food, but everything around… The place in itself, where it’s located, the view, the feeling of happiness sitting down on their terrace on a sunny day, the expectation of having really great lazy holidays next year…
[...] I will write about the Alps and the Emerald trail (from Kranjska Gora to Nova Gorica), the seaside (Koper, Izola and Piran), the Brda region (the wine & food trail) and the rest [...]