southern austria to slovenia and back

Bled Island, Slovenia

Last week I took a trip down south with my dad. We went through Klagenfurt, Austria stopping at Maria Wört to see the pretty church on a peninsula area and eat lunch in the sun. We then drove down through the mountains, passing through a 7+km tunnel to reach Slovenia. The mountains are beautiful, but it was a much prettier drive on the way back when we wound through the mountains rather than just going through them. Our destination was Bled. It is a beautiful place, nestled in the mountains with a glacier lake. In the middle of the lake there is an island with a church on it and looking over the lake there is a castle, perched high on a cliff. Very picturesque. We enjoyed the evening watching the sun set over the beautiful lake and then had a nice meal before settling down for the evening.

Preseren Square, Ljubliana

In the morning, it was as beautiful as the day before, more perfect weather could not have been asked for. We went up to the Bled Castle which overlooked the lake and had a beautiful view of the surrounding mountains. We then headed to Ljubliana for the afternoon, which was not far away from Bled. Ljubliana is a beautiful city that I would love to visit again, but in the brief time that we were there I saw a lot of really cool graffiti and ate some delicious ice cream as I walked around and saw the sights. There was a book festival going on in Ljubliana so there were a lot of stands of books lining the streets on one side of the river. I bought one book for a Euro that was more of a comic style book, so even though I couldn't understand the words I could look at the pictures (and a good souvenir). There was a large farmers market which was fun to walk through (and I got a new hand bag, since the one that I have been using that I got in South Korea is on its last threads). 

 

one example of the fun graffiti in Ljubliana

 

We enjoyed the city sitting riverside at some cafes and I walked around just taking in the fun atmosphere and pretty sites. But definitely a city I could go back to and see a lot more of (and I am told it is absolutely beautiful in the evening as well! and there is a cool hostel renovated from a prison that I must see...next time). As the time on our parking was coming to a close, we sat on the main bridge (the triple bridge) and listened to some fun street music. We returned to bled for the evening where we rented a row boat and rowed out to the island in the middle to see the church. It was again, picturesque. The island is really small and home to a swan nest. We rowed back to shore as the sun was setting and then enjoyed a delicious meal.

 

the slovenian/austrian border

griffen castle

 

In the early morning, we headed back to Austria to get Ezra for the easter weekend. We drove through the beautiful mountains and made a quick stop in Griffen to climb to the top of some castle ruins that we saw while driving on the autobahn. After getting Ezra, we all headed out to the Raßberg. We saw the towns giant easter fire and made a smaller one of our own up on the Raßberg in the evening. 

 

Stallhofen Easter Fire

 

The rest of the weekend was then spent having lots of food (traditional meats, breads, and eggs) and visiting with family and friends. We closed out the weekend with some pretty cool rain/thunder/and lightning storms which were a first for me here in austria. normally it is tame rain. but this was some fun thunder and lightning!

for the complete set of pictures see album: SLOVENIA