So, much as we had enjoyed Verona we were looking forward to going somewhere completely different so we hot-footed across the border stopping only at a motorway services near Venice for a quick bite to eat. The drive to the campsite once in Slovenia was glorious. All beautiful turquoise rivers and green mountains, and most importantly, very quiet! Arriving at the first campsite however was a bit of a culture shock as we'd managed to time our visit with the annual meeting of the European Moto camp. More than half of the site was filled with hairy bikers - not quite the peaceful interlude we'd expected then! G got chatting to one of the english ones in the gents - as you do - and they seemed like a good laugh. A bit like the hash with bikes instead of the running but with beer probably the most important aspect! And they had some traditional Slovenian entertainment organised in the form of Oompah band and folk dancing which we were able to gate crash that so it all worked out well!

The next day dawned bright and filled with plans for exploring the mountains and lakes but unfortunately G woke with a very dodgy tummy - that Italian motorway services hamburger we suspect - so was reluctant to stray too far from the campsite toilets but at least they were nice ones, not like in Italy! I got a lighter dose but this all stopped us exploring properly for a couple of days. We did manage a swim in the river by the campsite - icy cold but beautiful. They do know how to do rivers in Slovenia!

When we finally felt well enough we wanted to visit Lake Bohinj, reputed to be stunning and with a cable car close by so you can get a really good view of the Alps. Unfortunately, by then the weather had closed in so when we got to the Lake it was a case of finding it when you stepped into it! Not really worth going up in the cable car then! We had some soup - yes it was that cold - and agreed to move on to Bled where there is another beautiful lake and more of a town to explore.

When we got there the rain was lashing down so we hibernated for the evening and hoped for better the next day. By then at least the rain had stopped so we scootered up to the Vintgar Gorge. It was lovely passing through all the pastoral farmland and Alpine style villages and then the gorge itself was beautiful with another fantastic river, so things were starting to look up.

We stopped off in Bled itself for lunch and found a really nice old-fashioned pub so even better! By the afternoon the sun was coming out so we were able to explore Lake Bled properly and it is indeed beautiful. They have no motorized boats on it so it is really peaceful and like a mirror. There is an island in the middle with a church on it and a castle overlooks it from the hills so all very picturesque - in fact, see photo attached to this blog entry!

The next day we had planned to move on as we'd had 6 nights in Slovenia but as it dawned bright sunshine we decided to give Bohinj another try and so detoured back there. It was as beautiful as advertised and the cable car trip was stunning so all in all we managed everything we'd wanted to do in Slovenia despite the legacy from Italy!

We'd like to come back here again one day as we only saw the North West corner but we'd have to time it right to get decent weather. And it certainly seems to nbe the place to visit as we saw cars with every European number plate you can imagine - we even got talking to a Serbian couple in the pub watching the US open tennis - apart from Scandinavians but they probably have enough lakes and mountains and rain at home!

Now we're off to Austria again but this time through the Tyrol so more lakes and montains for us, but hopefully not too much more rain!