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Slovenia is bordered by Austria, Italy, Hungary, Croatia, and has a small Adriatic coast. It declared its independence from Yugoslavia in 1990, and became fully independent soon after, as did its neighbor Croatia. Its capital, Ljubjana, had a colorful past
The Grand Union and Holiday Inn Hotels are adjacent to 
each other in the Old Town, and are business class hotels with all the
amenities, only to blocks from the Square. A 20 minute hike takes you to
the top of Castle Hill where Ljubjanski Grad (Castle) sits overlooking the
city of less than 300,000 people. Churches and museums abound along with
sidewalk café’s, coffee shops serving the most delectable pastries, and
pubs with excellent beers, including the locally brewed Grand Union label.
Restaurant abound from the elegant
 and
fully priced Maxim’s, to the Slovene cuisine Sokol’s, in the Old Town.
Sokol’s is popularly priced, as Schnitzel, Ljubjana style, (generally veal
or pork folded over ham and cheese, (cordon Blue) breaded and lightly
fried with veggies and potato, and a drink costs less than $15.00 for
two.). Add a salad and dessert and you are still under $20.00.
Since the country is small and driving two hours in any direction from Ljubjana find you out of the country, using Ljubjana as a base makes sense. Heading west from Ljubjana to the Adriati
Another
day trip took us We spent time in Old Town Ljubjana and other areas of If you have any questions contact a Uniglobe travel specialist by e-mail. |
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governed by its geographical
position, as gateway from central Europe to the coast. Pile dwellers,
Illryians, and Celts lived here more than 5,000 years ago. The Romans were
here from the first to the sixth century, and a portion of their
fortifying wall still exists in Ljubjana. The Romans called the town Emona,
which was destroyed by the Huns under Attila in 452 A.D. The Slavs began
to settle in the area in the sixth century.
Ljubjana
can be reached by air from virtually any major European city by a
multitude of airlines. We chose to rent a car and drove from Munich,
through Austria, as we wanted to get the full impact of the Alps. The
drive was magnificent as we went through tunnel after tunnel into
beautiful valleys with homes, farms and a few castles standing on the
mountainside rising to unlikely heights! The drive took six hours, over
four lane divided highways, (A-9 & A-10, toll roads), except for the first
few miles in Slovenia. (That portion is under construction also going to
four lane divided highway.)
c,
we passed through pretty valleys, bypassing historic Postojna area, to
arrive at Koper, Slovenia’s seaport. From there we drove onto a long
peninsula that projects north into the Adriatic. Portoroz, (Port of
Roses), a sprawling resort area, is known for it’s mild climate, healthy
mud baths, (made from the local salt pans) since the late 80’s. The area
now caters to all tourists offering superbly appointed hotels, elegant
restaurants, cafes and bars, discotheques and casinos, romantic strolls
along the shore, tennis, swimming and rowing, cycling, fishing and more. A
short distance away lies medieval Piran, a historic town jutting out into
the Adriatic. Nearby Socerb is the site of a prehistoric fort and a later
Roman fortress. 
to the Lake Bled area. We drove to Bled and parked along
the lake, and proceeded to see the sights! We took a local bus up into the
mountains to a park that had a trail through a gorge. We hiked through the
gorge, mostly on a trail with wooden railings, with the sound of the
rushing water coursing through the rocks, overpowering any other sound.
The scenery was outstanding. After we reached the end of the gorge we
continued up and down the trail through the pristine forest for over three
hours to Blejski Grad, the cas
tle
overlooking Lake Bled. Fortunately for us the trail at one point led
through a small village with a pub and we rested with a cool brew before
continuing our hike. This ancient castle has a museum of sorts inside with
a history of the area. As we were leaving a wedding party arrived and
marched into the castle for a reception dinner. As they exited the cars
and entered an accordionist played Slovenian polkas. Happy music for a
happy couple! We then walked down the trail for another 30 minutes to the
lake area. As we were
passing St. Martins church, which was being renovated, as are many of the
churches here since they became free. We went inside and saw and heard a
small group of teenagers singing hymns. Their singing echoed throug
h the
whole church, making incredibly wonderful sounds. We sat and just listened
for quite awhile. We then left and got on a Pletna, a ten-passenger
rowboat, to journey out to the church on the island in Lake Bled. The
30-minute ride was very restful and scenic. Legend says that if you pull
the rope to ring the church bell good luck will befall you. That bell sure
rang a lot! The church also had artifacts and a history of it’s past.
Slovenia too numerous to mention here, but can say that Slovenia has many
health spas, golf courses, casinos hiking trails, sky resorts and boating
available in their respective seasons. Slovenians really like Americans
and unlike other European countries have 4 or 5 TV stations broadcast in
English with Slovenian subtitles, which help their students with the
language. We had no problem communicating with people in the capital or in
the resort areas. We wandered around the Old Town at night without any
worry at all, looking in shops and listening to concerts in the square.
Only in the little towns in the outlying areas did we have a little
difficulty communicating but every one tried to help us! It truly was a
great trip.