Our Last Day in Slovenia

We dragged ourselves out of the apartment around 10:30 this morning.  It was nice having a lazy day. That was the laziest part, however.  We searched out a food store and had a very cheap breakfast before hiking the 3.5 miles around the lake.  It is a beautiful setting, and the castle builder took full advantage of it.  I couldn't have chosen a better location for a castle myself.  

I have to note, however that this villa on the lakefront was my first choice for purchase, should we win a lottery soon.

The lake has a little island in the middle and is absolutely adorable.  It was hard to stop taking pictures.

We took a "pletna" boat out to the island to look around.  These boats were made after the farmers in the area petitioned Queen Maria Theresa for permission to charge a fee to go to the island.

In the background you can see Tito's villa.  He was the dictator who ruled Yugoslavia for many years.  Slovenians liked him because his mother was Slovenian.  There may have been other reasons as well, of course.

We had a nice lunch overlooking the lake and tried the "Bled cream cake".  It was delicious but very rich.

For our last dinner, we splurged on a wonderful meal at Tito's villa.  Unfortunately, he couldn't be there tonight because he's dead, but it was a great meal regardless.

It's just as we'll we're leaving tomorrow because the wind picked up on our walk home and lightning flashed over the mountains.  It looks like the rain is moving in.

Driving the Julian Alps

We escaped our prison confinement this morning and rented a get-away car to head to the mountains.  The rental went very smoothly and the car is the nicest we have seen yet.  We stopped at our next accommodation to drop the bags and then headed to a nearby gorge for a hike.  It was underwhelming.  In fact, it appeared strangely like home...and no, we are not secretly up Grouse somewhere.

Can you see the rainbow?

After the hike, we drove through some spectacular scenery.

The hole in the mountain is actually large enough for the Statue of Liberty to crawl through.

By far, the best part of the day was the car train.  At the end of the drive, they have an engine attached to several flat bed cars that you drive onto.  Then the train drags through a whole series of tunnels back to almost the beginning.  This proved to be Very exciting and we have lots of video clips we can't upload so you'll have to make do with the still photos.