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 town was to have a lunch on a river raft owned by Rudolf’s Rafts and take in a different view of the town. We assumed the boat was a flat bottom boat but it was indeed a raft with large wooden logs tied together with thick ropes. 




We were greeted by our host and an accordionist playing traditional Slovenian music on an old piano accordion. 




The table looked elegant and especially set for our three course lunch. Each course was accompanied by a different local wine. As we enjoyed the food and wine, the raft meandered along the wide green Krka River which almost encircles Novo Mesto. The journey took an hour and a half. Each course was introduced by the young chef and the host talked about the history of the area which was fascinating.




As we drifted along the river we saw frequent bright blue dragonflies sitting on the raft’s ropes and on the edges of the river. A few of us managed to get a photo of the beautiful insect.



At the end of the raft journey Zoran was waiting for us with his bus and we set off for the final leg of our tour to Zagreb. We arrived at our hotel just after four which was enough time to rest and shower before our final group dinner at 7.00pm.


The dinner and evening were excellent. We have all enjoyed each other’s company and as each day passed we got to know each other so much better. 


We loved the choice of desserts on the triple layer service. 


 
Jill, on behalf of our group, thanked Sanda for the terrific job she did as our guide and coordinating seamlessly behind the scenes so everything went so smoothly.   


We’ll see each other tomorrow morning at breakfast and then our group disperses to other tours and others, like us, return to Australia. 


The Bunnik Jewels of Dalmatia journey has been excellent. It’s been diverse with both cultural and geographical insights to Croatia, Bosnia Herzegovena and Slovenia along both the Adriatic coast and inland. 


We have had the freedom to tour independently as well as being guided by our excellent guide Sanda and the local guides in each of the places we have visited. The professionalism of the guides and all those involved in the tourism industry is a credit to their countries. 


Our group of 19 Australians were a brilliant group to travel with, all experienced travellers with varied backgrounds. We all got on so well. To be able to travel in a small group makes all the difference. 


I now hand over this blog to Henk along with the hundreds of photos I have taken so that he can make a photo book of our memorable trip.


Di Taylor

2025



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