At last, we had nearly one whole day of sunshine, in which I spent several hours on a bike, going around the coast of Rab Island. A really beautiful coastline which apparently teems with sun-deprived northern Europeans in the height of summer but still is somewhat deserted now. One claim to fame for Rab Is...this is where King Edward VII and Mrs Simpson got their kit off during their long period of exile from GB.
We moved to Bled, in the Slovenian mountains today, first by catarmaran out of Rab to Rijeka and then by private transport. Stopped on the way to visit a huge cave system at Postojna with lots of staligmites and tites and a few blind salamanders. You travel several kilometers through the caves on both small train and by foot.
Bled is a tourist town with a beautiful lake surrounded by mountains ( Julian alps ) and lots of forests. Indeed, all of Slovenia is bright green but then it does get a lot of rain...which we are experiencing in bucket loads today. On an island in the lake is a church and high above a castle. Too wet to visit either yet. Will try tomorrow. On Saturday, the tour ends and Im off to the capital, Ljubljana for a night and then figure out a way of getting back to Rovinj.
Our little group has held together well and the tour leader, Kris has done an excellent job of organising everything as well is quite knowledgable on the areas through which we have been touring.
Slovenia is small with a population of about 2 million. It is now part of the EU as well as the euro zone and looks significantly wealthier than Croatia. Most of the land appears either suitable for farming or is covered with forests. These are a varigated mix of lighter coloured deciduous species intermixed with darker conifers..looks good at this time of the year.
skip to main |
skip to sidebar
