What a surprise Slovenia is, when we had set our GPS for Ljubljana we had know idea of what we were headed for. Slovenia has been more like Scandinavia than southern Europe, the cities have been clean and the countryside spectacular with snow capped mountains and lush green forests of pine and birch. The people too have been wonderful and we can't believe the diversity of nationalities we have seen and met in the caravan parks. While Ljubljana was really just another capital city, it was still nice to look around and had a great feel with markets, cafe's and restaurants around the river and some beautiful old buildings and streets to walk. From Ljubljana we headed north west to a place we had seen pictures of, it is called Bled, an absolutely stunning town dominated by a fresh water lake with an island in the middle with a church on it and a 1000 year old castle built high on a rock cliff over looking the lake. Nearby there is a lovely gorge to walk through, the major feature here is the crystal clear river that flows through it, you can easily see the fish swimming in it. The gorge is very narrow for the best part of it and requires the walk way to be attached to the sides of the cliff. In Bled we stayed in a caravan park that is at one end of the lake, set in a valley with high mountains on each side. Julie and I enjoyed a boat trip to the church and a lovely walk around the lake, it was like nothing we have experienced anywhere else, the place has been described by famous writers as the second Eden. The castle too was brilliant with magnificent views of the area, several exhibitions topped off by a well setup history museum. We had a couple of lovely days in Bled before it started to rain, we then packed in the rain and rode to Postojna to look at some caves and another unique castle. We decided to give the cave a mis at €23 each, but visited the castle that is built into the front of a cave, it was stated in the 13th century and has been well preserved. The day had started with fine weather, but started to rain when we got back to the park from the castle. We are now going to head for the coast of Croatia in the hope of finding some sun and warmth.