Had an early start this morning - cases out by 7am - as we have a long drive and a 2 hour tour of the Plitvice Lakes at 4pm.
We drove again through the rolling hills and great scenery to Ljubljana, passing through some pretty grim looking outer suburbs, before stopping at a big square to start our tour. Our guide took us through the city streets past lots of renovation and road works - things are starting to move along here - to the central square by the river. The city is old, but beautifully clean and tidy, with hundreds of little cafes etc along the pavements - cars are banned from large areas of the city centre and there were push bikes everywhere.
We wandered around past all the land marks and then went to the farmers markets which are open 6 days a week from 7am till 4pm. There was produce of every description, all beautifully presented and ultra cheap - huge strawberries were $5 for a monster punnet and asparagus $6 for about 20 stalks. There was even a self service milk station where for $1.60 a litre, you took a plastic bottle out of the machine and filled it with farm fresh milk - no pasteurisation here!
There was a magnificent cathedral also and we had a quick look before our tour finished and we had some free time. Very impressed with Slovenia - clean, neat and tidy, the people are happy, friendly and very helpful and unlike some of their more western neighbours have absolutely NO ATTITUDE! We could quite easily and cheaply have a great holiday here!
Mumsie and I found a cafe and had a great coffee - I did endeavour to use the lingo and said "dobar dan" which is "good morning" and "kaffe" for coffee and "hvala" for "thank you" - must have impressed because when I got the bill there was a discount and we got our 2 mugs of latte for €2 which about $2.75!
Then our stop in this lovely place was over and it was back on the bus and off towards Croatia - with Gaspar telling us about the 2001-5 war that took place mainly in this region - with devastating results for the people here.
At the border we had to get off the coach and get our passports stamped because Croatia is not a part of the Schengen Agreement in Europe and also does not use the Euro, so we will have to ensure we have enough Kuna (the Croatian money) for our needs.
Immediately after crossing the border the countryside changed - the houses were old and everything looked grotty - hardly surprising considering this area was heavily bombed and lots of people fled the area, leaving farms and homes, never to return! There are even land mines still buried all over the place, making farming impossible, their locations were never mapped or recorded by the army! We passed a museum of sorts alongside some bombed buildings with a few tanks, howitzers and aircraft in the display.
The rest of the drive was most uninspiring - very poor land and no inhabitants - until we got into the National Park that contains the Plitvice Lakes where the towns were all trying to take advantage of the millions of tourists who come here each year! Some very ordinary looking lodges and hotels everywhere and Gaspar even gave us the "let down speech" about our hotel for the night! Apparently it is Government owned and although about the best of the 9 hotels in the park it is apparently "a little below our usual standard"! Looking forward to that - NOT!!!!
The National Park is very strictly controlled and there is no camping, boating or trail walking - tourist guides must be licensed and no portable headsets etc allowed, so our guide Stefania was only able to address us at stops along the way.
She was very knowledgeable though and it wasn't long before we had our first glimpses of these famous lakes. There is a series of lakes that gravitate down over a few hundred metres with thousands of waterfalls ranging from a couple of metres to thundering falls 30 or so metres high! The water comes from underground springs and is quite mineralised and as a consequence is an amazing turquoise colour and the lakes are full of trout, carp and eels!
We walked for over 2 hours along the paths, marvelling at the sights - it was really quite awesome - before we got on an electric powered boat which took us across the largest lake to our hotel. After walking for about 3kms, all we needed was the 212 steps to climb up from lake level to the hotel, but after much huffing and puffing we all made it - quite a feat for a couple of the more senior ones!
So on to the hotel, which turned out to be pretty big but in typical Eastern European condition - that is a bit rough round the edges!!! Our room was comfy enough but with no aircon and an outside temperature of 28 degrees, we threw open the large balcony door and let it cool down a fraction. We had half an hour to shower and get ready for an "in hotel" dinner and that turned into saga when the hand held shower holder let go and water shot around the bathroom with gay abandon! Oops!! Not a great start! Got that mess cleaned up and headed for the dining room where with military like precision the staff dished out our dinner and drinks! The meal was pretty ordinary and the white wine Mumsie and Suzy ordered was undrinkable, but our beer was good and in no time at all the meal was over and we were dismissed! We had a quick nightcap at the bar and hit the sack tuckered out after a long day, but still thrilled with the sights we had seen!