Lake Bled, Slovenia

The Julijeske Alps are in the north west corner of Slovenia.

Lake Bled is a glacier lake we visited with castle overlooking and

 an island with St. Martins Church in the center

                                                         

 You can ride over to the island on a pletna, an old 

fashioned canopied wooden boat

 Triglavski National Park

 I kept expecting a knight on horseback to appear.

                                           Roads in this tiny town are cobblestoned and narrow

A few things I've learned

 I thought I would share a few things I have learned  since being in Slovenia

 If you plug in your hair dryer, even using the correct adapter, you could blow out the power in a hotel.

You can make ice cubes in a bag!

Just pour water in and the little pockets fill up, tie off the top and put in the freezer.

After they freeze just  rip the bag and pop them out

You can't change channels on the T.V. if the microwave is on.

The sink faucet might not reach both sinks 

You will always get an eye roll from a waiter as he walks away after you have ask for ice in your water.

...and the most important thing I've learned is if you turn the key in the front door the wrong way too many times you will lock yourself in the apartment,

 unable to get out,

 till someone comes to rescue you.

Postojnska Jama

This weekend some new friends of ours who are working for PurePlay,

Igor and his wife Blanca, took us to the world famous Postojnska Jama.

It is a few kilometers west of Ljubljana in Slovenia.

It was raining all day so a cave trip seemed the perfect choice.

It is one of the largest network of caves in the world with approximately

14 miles of underground passageways. A train takes you about 4 1/2 miles inside the cave , where we walked for another mile or so. The train then takes you back out. There were a few times on the train, which was going pretty fast, that Bryan had to duck his head because the tunnels were so low. The tour was well done and the 1 kilometer walk in and around the stalagmites and stalactites was really amazing.

It was breathtaking!

Pictures just can't do it justice.

Speaking of pictures, you were not allowed to take any in the cave.

The guide said it was because the flash causes algae to grow.

(so I took a couple without flash)

There were a number of rooms but one was quite interesting. It was called the spaghetti bowl.

Thin, white stalactites were hanging from the ceiling making it look like noodles were falling down into the room. There is a fish specie that is only found in that cave called the human fish.

Nowhere else in the world will you find this fish. There is no pigment in its skin so it is white. It looks like a small lizard having 4 short legs and ears. There was an aquarium along the path that had a few on display. It can't stand any light and prefers to live in the water.

Outside one of the entrances waiting for the next train into the cave.

These two, above and below, I took off of a website.

I have always imagined that I would have a hard time in caves. Wondering "how many tons of rock could fall on me!" and with the "there is NO air in here!" syndrome. A few times I thought I was going to throw up or have a major panic attack, especially when they turned out the lights without any warning. But I made it through the hour and a half tour without

any embarrassing incidents.

The day was followed by a nice dinner and some homemade strudel.

It was so worth it!

We finally got wi fi in the apartment so I can upload more than 1 picture a day!

Celje Castle

tiny, tiny shower

orange couch

kitchen

entry hall

First Week

I know you will all be disappointed to hear that we didn't get the apartment with the lime green cupboards, the tenant decided to stay longer than we wanted to wait. It took us a few days looking but we are now settled into our new home. The entry hall is tangerine orange so we still feel "European". It is very small (877 sq feet) but cozy. The worst part is we are on the 4th floor..... eight flights of stairs!!! On Friday we went to the Slovenia Coast, they call it sea side. It was wonderful. On the drive that morning we were stopped in traffic and the weather was foggy, There was a church on the hillside and I got my favorite pictures of the day from the freeway.

We're here

We arrived in Frankfurt Germany on tues, April 3rd after a 9 hr flight. Slept on benches for a few hours, then got on a plane to Graz Austria. Bostjan Straus picked us up and we drove for about an hour and a half to Celje Slovenia. WE checked into our hotel and I slept for 12 hours! First photos are out the hotel window. Later today we will go see our apartment. Rumors are the kitchen cupboards are lime green!!!

arrived in Celje Slovenia