The 16th of July was mine and Anne’s last day in Croatia and we were leaving for Slovenia. Our initial plan had been to spend the whole day in Plitvice and to drive only as far as we could that evening, camping somewhere in Croatia that night. However, we changed our plans because we had started our day early, finished the park at 2 PM and as it was much too hot to spend the afternoon outside. Therefore, we decided to leave early and spend the night in Ljubljana. It was only a 3 hours’ ride, so it was okay.
We had found a nice hostel online, but it was very complicated to get into the parking (the main entrance was closed, we had to find the other entrance and there were 4 more cars waiting to get in) and the staff at the hostel was very slow…
Earlier that day, Anne had been bitten by that wasp and her foot was swollen, but it was okay for her to walk with me to the city centre. We walked around for a long time, trying to find a restaurant, but everything was full and I was starting to be hangry. I am a very friendly and happy person, but when I’m hungry, I’m the worst… In the end we found a free spot on the balcony of the most wonderful restaurant: it was cheap, it had really good food and the waiters were very friendly and funny! We had some beer, pasta and tiramisu for a desert and we enjoyed watching the thunder storm with all the lightning. It didn’t rain much, but it got much cooler which was a blessing!
The next morning, we got up at around 7AM, had breakfast and went to Vintgar, a gorge next to the Triglav National Park. I have already been there 6 years ago with my friend Lars and I absolutely wanted to show it to Anne. For me, Vintgar is the most beautiful place in Slovenia – and this considering that Slovenia has a lot of beautiful places. There was already a small queue at the entrance when we arrived there at 9:30AM and – strangely – a lot of Belgians! We had a very good time and Anne liked this place just as much as I did. Unfortunately though, her foot was even more swollen than the day before and I pitied her even if it didn’t hurt much. Her swollen foot and the heat made us decide not to stop in Bled to spend some time at the lake, but to pass by it only and start our way home a day earlier than planed. It turned out to be a very good decision, because, when we left Bled, we saw the queue of cars that wanted to enter this town… It would take them at least 2 hours to do this, it was sooo crowded, nothing advanced anymore and the queue went almost until the highway exist…
On our way back home to Belgium, there were a lot of traffic jams and so we decided to stop just after Munich to find a camping instead of going to Augsburg or Ulm as planed. We left the highway in some small town and drove around the villages there trying to find a guesthouse or camping. In the end, the owner of a small guesthouse allowed us, for a small fee, to camp in her garden. She was very nice and we were happy to have found her. Before settling down, we went back to the last town we had passed to have a good (and cheap) pizza and some wine. It was a very nice last evening for our 3 weeks trip trough Eastern Europe and it was wonderful to spend one last night in the tent.
In conclusion, I can say that this was one of the most beautiful and wonderful holidays I have ever had in Europe. I can highly recommend this route with the same stops we have done, maybe with a bit more time to enjoy a few more days in Montenegro and in Mljet. I recommend you don’t go in July or August because a) there are too many people and b) it is much too hot. Still, even in those months, these places are worth a visit.
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