Tuesday and our last day here in Slovenia. It’s been an experience the five days we have spent in this beautiful country. Our biggest regret is not having visited Ljubljana, although we were a bit put off after an impromtu tour of the inner ring road post a satnav “failure”. Moe says I didn’t do as I was told (honestly?), but I maintain the satnav told me to go the wrong way.

As you may know, we like our trains and we haven’t been on one during this entire trip so it was a must to experience Slovenia rail.

 

We had intended to take the train to Ljubljana but decided instead to head from Bled Jezero, south west to Most na Soci.

 

The first thing to be aware of is no credit cards – cash only for our 17 Euro round trip to Most na Soci.

 

 

 

 

 

The Bohinj Railway is a railway in Slovenia and Italy. It connects Jesenice in Slovenia with Trieste in Italy. It was built by Austria-Hungary from 1900 to 1906 as a part of a new strategic railway, the Neue Alpenbahnen, that would connect Western Austria and Southern Germany with the then Austro-Hungarian port of Trieste. The line starts in Jesenice, at the Southern end of the Karawanks Tunnel; it then crosses the Julian Alps through the Bohinj Tunnel, and passes the border town of Nova Gorica before crossing the Italian border and reaching Trieste.

There is a spectacular bridge at Solkan, the second longest stone bridge in the world.

Our trip would only take us as far as Most na Soci but we did experience the feat of engineering to create this line, including the Bohinj Tunnel, a mere 6,327.4 m long.

Our overriding assessment of the rail journey was it was a bit of a step back in time. No credit cards, not an electronic timetable or sign to be seen anywhere but the trains were fairly prompt and the scenery was very special.

Tomorrow, all being well, we head North, all the way through Austria and onward to Ingolstadt, about 50 miles above Munich. We then intend to catch a train back to Munich hbf and meet friends for dinner. It’s going to be a long day…

 

It’s Monday and today we decided to visit Lake Bohinj. More on the detail of the visit later but as nice as Bled is, it’s really busy at the moment at Camping Bled. Another daily sell-out and on our journey to Lake Bohinj, we did spot some rather nice looking smaller, quieter sites. I wish I’d had the foresight to note the campsite names – just in case we return sometime in the future.

On our arrival at Lake Bohinj, we took the boat across to Ucanc (where one of the campsites is located) and hiked back along the North bank of the lake. It’s the longest route but the prettiest and very quiet. Wear walking boots or shoes and not flip-flops!

Another thing to watch out for, shortly after we had set off, we were literally attacked by Mosquitos and took a few bites before we got “deeted” up after which no problems whatsoever.

Lake Bohinj is another stunning lake and there are numerous beaches from which to sunbathe and swim – and it’s all much quieter than Lake Bled.

 

Other things we would have liked to have experienced but didn’t have time were:

•  Cable car from near Ucanc is 1km long and the ascent takes just four minutes. The pods hold 80 people and once at the top there is a chair lift to other areas.
•  We would have liked to have hired a rowing boat on the lake
•  We also didn’t make it to Slap Sovica which is a spectacular waterfall. The Mavic Pro was launched but we couldn’t find the waterfall.

In the evening we cycled around Lake Bled and ate outside at one of the restaurants. Cheap and cheerful would best describe the experience!