Slovenia by RV

Day 1: Touch down in Ljubljana, Slovenia

We packed up and headed to the Trieste bus station to board our 11:30am bus to Ljubljana, Slovenia. The views from 1.5 hour bus ride were incredible! The clear views along the Adriatic Sea were stunning and we are excited to learn about this area of the world that is new to us! We are renting an RV for the month to travel through Slovenia all the way down to Greece.

We loved our RV experience in the Canadian Rockies and it afforded us the flexibility to see visit lots of parks without having to pack and unpack and move to new hotels/airbnbs. We thought we'd bike the Eurovelo 8 for part of the coast but the logistics of carrying our packs, staying at different hostels, cooking, etc. became overwhelming. We decided to rent an RV and buy used bikes to still do lots of biking, but also have a home base. We got lucky and found Boris in Slovenia using our Outdoorsy app and corresponded on Whatsapp to figure out a plan. He has been amazing!! He met us at the bus station in Ljubljana, took us grocery shopping, helped us find 3 used bikes at a nearby bike store, took us to Decathalon and gave us a very thorough and helpful RV orientation.

We settled into the RV by unpacking our bags and finding a place for each item. It's nice to be in the same place for a good amount of time and the RV is perfect - it has a 3 burner stove, 1 induction burner, a fridge, 2 queen beds, a table and chairs, and small bathroom of a sink, toilet and standing shower, and cabinet storage. It came with a storage area built in the back and bike rack, and solar panels on top. We are in the lap of luxury for sure. We cooked our first RV meal and settled in for the night. Tomorrow we'll take it on the road for our first RV road trip to the town of Bled.

Day 2: Lake Bled and Bled Castle

We had a good night's sleep, a quick breakfast of cereal and scrambled egg on toast and headed out for our 1st RV trip. We started with something nearby, the town of Bled known for its beautiful Lake Bled, which surrounds Slovenia's only island, Bled Island, and Bled Castle. The driving was fairly easy, and we found an amazing 1st camp ground to park the RV for the day, River Camping Bled. We lucked out as it was the last day it was open for the season and had plenty of space.

We hopped on our bikes and rode along the established bike path to Lake Bled about 2km away. The weather was perfect, and it felt great to be biking! We made it to the lake and decided to take a pletna boat across the lake to Bled Island. These flat-bottom wooden boats are Slovenia’s traditional lake boats created in the 12th century, and human powered. We were 18 passengers but the operator who was hand rowing us across the lake, looked cool as a cucumber, using his whole body stepping forward and back using his legs and arms to power us across. He didn’t break a sweat! The views of the blue-green glistening lake and the lake shore, were stunning and we could see Bled Castle and the Julian Alps, named for Julius Cesar, in the distance. Lake Bled is part of Slovenia’s biggest national park, Triglav National Park, whose mountains are the silhouette on the Slovenian flag.

We visited Bled Island which we were able to hike around in about 25 minutes. We visited the church there, a couple of cafes and souvenir shops. We enjoyed our hour-long visit and it was time to return back to the boat.

After our boat ride, we got back on our bikes and road to another part of the lake to find the stairs up to Bled Castle. But first, we stopped at a café to try Bled cake, which can only be found here! It consists of custard, cream, and layered crispy pastry on top. It was very sweet – the top pastry layer was my favorite.

We locked up our bikes and started the ascent up to the 1,000 year old Bled Castle. The castle towers over the lake offering amazing views of the lake and island. We did the audio tour and learned about the Castle Printshop which used a copy of the Gutenberg press to print the first books in Slovenia (the alphabet book and the Bible), the Tower, the Gallery of archeological artifacts dating 14,000 years ago, the 16th century chapel still used for weddings today, and the wine cellar, where you can bottle your own wine. The castle Roman walls and draw bridge are still intact which makes it easy to imagine what it must have been like back in the day!

We rode back to our camping site just before dark and Asha tried out the bike course before dinner. She had a blast!

Our first day of our RV tour was a success! We had a nice dinner, took showers at the camp facilities, and even had time to watch an episode of Baking Impossible, our new favorite show.

Day 3: Vintgar Gorge, and Camino friends reunited

After some bike riding and RV tasks, we took off to visit Vintgar Gorge located on the eastern edge of Triglav National Park. It is a stunning 1600m long, 250m deep gorge discovered in 1891 by a photographer and cartographer from Bled. We parked the RV and had a bonus 1 hour walk through the small village of Blejska Dobrava to get to the entrance of the Gorge. We were instantly reminded of our time on the Camino as it looked just like the small towns we walked through in Spain. No sooner did I say, “We’re only missing the yellow arrows” that mark the Camino trail, did a yellow arrow appear right in front of us as we turned the corner!

We made to the entrance of Vintgar Gorge and walked the 4.3 km trail. The views of leaves turning beautiful Fall colors, the clear blue-green, emerald waters and power of the waterfalls were stunning. It brought back memories of our time in the Canadian Rockies. We took our time walking through this natural wonder!

We returned to Ljubljana in the evening to visit with our friend, Luka, who we had met while hiking the Camino. We met while cooking dinner in Larrasoaña and he became part of our Camino family. We biked into the historic city center and he was waiting for us at the base of Ljubljana Castle. It was great to see him again! We hiked up to the castle together and took in the gorgeous panoramic view during sunset. We caught up on his adventures while walking all 700 km of the Camino Frances. We went to the wine bar where he works and had Slovenian wines and cheese, and then to a nearby pizza restaurant for dinner known to be one of the best in Ljubljana. While strolling along the city center, we bought roasted chestnuts (literally, chestnuts roasting on an open fire!) which tasted like potatoes! It was a great visit and we are so grateful we were able to get together.

Day 4 Postojna Cave

We did some housekeeping this morning – groceries, cleaning up – had breakfast and headed to Postojna Cave, the largest cave in Europe. We were amazed by our visit there. During the tour, we learned Slovenia has the most caves in all of Europe – 14,000 and 500 new caves are discovered each year! This is because of Slovenia’s abundance of limestone which is easily shaped by the Pivka River and also dissolves in rain and to form the tunnels that become caves over millions of years. Postojna Cave was discovered in 1818 and is over 24km long and up to 120m underground., not to mention a chilly 50F all year round. Luckily we had our coats!

We boarded the train that took us 70m below with our tour guide and then reached the walkways where we could hike. It was like walking into another world. We saw countless stalactites hanging from above, stalagmites rising like pillars from ground, and stone curtains that really look like real drapes formed by slow moving droplets on the walls. We also learned that these stalagmites and stalactites form at a rate of 1cm per 100 years!! Asha is roughly 140cm so she would be 14,000 years old! We saw shades of white (from pure calcite), orange/brown (from iron oxides) and gray/black (from manganese). We also learned about the underground species that call the cave home, the largest of which is the cave salamander that thrives as a cave predator even though it doesn’t have eyes! It makes up for this with its keen sense of smell, hearing and touch. It was a unique opportunity to see something we’d never seen before but we were pretty happy to finish the tour, board the train out and return to the sunshine! We all admitted that it was unsettling being that deep below the ground.

We got back on the RV and headed to our next camp site in…CROATIA!