Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina and Slovenia

Friday, 30 May   Ljubljana - Zagreb  Hotel International, Zagreb Weather - Sunny, Max 26c This was our last day of touring and my last post for this blog. Tomorrow we begin our journey home. We had a free morning in Ljubljana until 11.00am so we took the opportunity to venture back into the city for a walk and a coffee. Being a Friday there were many more market stalls set up in areas we hadn’t seen before. The flowers are so beautiful and plentiful. The river tourist boats had already started winding their way through the river city. We climbed onto the bus to find Zoran was our bus driver again and we were pleased to see him. We toured south east through lush farmland and dense forests for an hour to the ancient town of Novo Mesto. Arriving at noon we had time to walk around the small town and have a coffee (some had Aperol Spritz!). Novo Mesto’s town hall was an impressive building overlooking the wide central square. The purpose of our visit to the small to...

Thursday, 29 May   Ljubljana  Occidental Hotel Weather - Sunny, Max 25c Lovely Ljubljana! We had a wonderful day in an amazing, beautiful city and we saw it in perfect weather. We headed out with a plan to see the castle, the markets, the cathedral and anything else which attracted our attention.  The city was looking brilliant in the early morning sunshine. We first headed to Ljubljana’s key landmark, the castle which overlooks the city. We were keen to climb the castle’s Outlook Tower and ramparts to have 360 degree views. Apparently the climb to the castle is quite steep so we opted to catch the funicular railway to take us to the top. We also wanted to experience the 70m long ride. It only took about two minutes in the all-glass cabin to arrive at the castle.  We climbed the steep wrought-iron staircase to get to the top of the tower and walk around the ramparts. We had clear views of the city and its landmarks and the distant mountains with the ...

Wednesday, 28 May   Bled - Ljubljana, Slovenia  Weather - Sunny - Max 24c The weather for the afternoon was forecast rain so our afternoon visit to the exquisite Vintgar Gorge was brought forward to the morning. It was a ten minute drive from Bled. Following the visit we set off to Ljubljana which was only a hour’s drive arriving for a walking tour of the city before checking into our hotel. We also said farewell to Zoran, our driver for the past 2.5 weeks as tomorrow is a rest day for us and he has been assigned another job. Zoran did a terrific job and certainly knew the size of his bus as he manoeuvred some very tight corners.  Access to the Vintgar Gorge was by short ride on a shuttle bus. Sanda briefed us to make a dash for the bus if there were many people waiting. We had our elbows ready if needed but this wasn’t necessary. The gorge is breathtaking in its pristine beauty and we saw it at its best in the sunshine. We all couldn’t stop taking photos thro...