Saturday 7th August, Ljubljana, Slovena, the trip felt like a holiday for the first time, as we had a day without travelling and also finally shook off the Manchester weather that had followed us since Wednesday's departure. Teased the previous day by sunshine through the window of the train, for most of the journey from Munich to Ljubljana through stunning Austrian Alpine scenery, but literally as we pulled into the station a dark cloud appeared from nowhere, accompanied by thunder, lightening and a torrential downpour shortly afterwards, which left us hovering in the station for half an hour alongside all the other shorts and T-shirt sporting new arrivals. But at least we got a free bus ride to the hostel, as the seemingly already out of date Rough Guide propelled us onto the bus armed with just one Euro coins to pay for our fare when it turned out we needed a city bus card, and it must have been the downpour that led the driver to just wave us on rather than turn us back to the pavement.

Anyway, getting ahead of myself. A late start finding a blog site means I have a couple of other cities to recap on.

Paris, however, I expect to have forgotten about by next week. Confusion with the direction the clocks went in as we went under the Channel suddenly altered our previously intended 5 hour blitz of the city to a 3 hour one. Upon arrival, the first and not the quickest walk with our mammoth rucksacks, from Gare du Nord to Gare de L'Est, which looked just around the corner on the map, reduced this to 2 and three quarters. A queue at left luggage left us with 2 and a half, and by the time we gave up on the Paris metro touch screen ticket machines, which were disappointingly non-responsive to touch, we had 2 and a quarter. Which we changed to 1 and three quarters in the interest of giving us time to find the right train and go through the passport check which naturally never actually materialised. So we walked, not far, saw nothing of note, got soaked, and Paula got 4 blisters from her new shoes. Next stop please.

Munich was great, despite the rain. Could definitely come back for an Oktoberfest some time in the future, methinks! Rob Clark, your 40th in a couple of years, was it?... The city has real Bavarian character, and was clean, compact, friendly, and generally just seemed very welcoming. Scampered round seeing as much as we could in a day, but it´d good to have had a couple of nights as well to sample the beerhalls ("halls", not pubs - sounds like they enjoy their beer!). Note to self, though, time spent on solo visits to check out famous football stadia = one third time spent in bad books of girlfriend. Therefore, ensure high quality of stadia in advance of any future visits, or arrange city tour so that stadium is accidentally stumbled upon (the Allianz Arena is pretty damn impressive, though!).

Hostel dorm-mates review, Wombats Hostel Munich: Two stroppy young American girls, one old Dutch guy with bad BO (high volume snorer), one gay Norwegian keenly awaiting imminent reunion with Korean boyfriend and one silent therefore accentless therefore unidentifiable oriental girl.

After Munich, we had daytime train journey through and alongside the Austrian Alps on the 6th, one which we´d been looking forward to since we booked it over a montha ago and weren´t disappointed by. Amazing scenery, and managed to get a couple of half decent pics from the moving train, so check them out if I manage to upload them. Journey enhanced by album of the month on the iPod, Avett Brothers latest (thanks for the Glastonbury tip, Mary!).

And so onto the present! Spent the day wandering in Ljubljana today, which is a really nice, chilled out city. The old part of the city hugs the river, which kind of wraps around the castle, all very picturesque. Not one of those castles which is actually a castle, mind you, i.e. with towers, turrets, canons, moat drawbridge, etc, so therefore in my book shouldn´t earn the title, but not a bad set of old-ish buildings, and a good spot on top of a hill.

Note on Slovenian views, however. Slovenia is an incredibly green country. Despite the 2 million-odd carbon burning inhabitants, it must be carbon positive, the amount of CO2 the green stuff is sucking in. Apart from some roads and buildings, every square metre of the country is covered in grass or, more frequently, trees. Which is a good thing, unless you drag your arse up a big hill to see the view, when it will be blocked by the aforementioned trees. Every time. I´m all for not cutting down trees, but a bit of selective trimming would be handy.

Anyway, blocked views aside, really enjoyed Ljubljana, and off to check out some Slovenian Alpine countryside tomorrow.