In August 2016 I flew to Serbia and Slovenia for over 3 weeks. This was to include a week in Serbia, 2 weeks in Slovenia, and an unplanned layover in Helsinki, Finland.
The trip started with a long day of flying. I started with a flight to Paris, where I had time for a fine French breakfast because of a 4-hour layover. Then I had to catch a flight to Helsinki where I had a luscious lunch because of another 4-hour layover. Then my next flight segment was to Ljubljana, Slovenia to spend the first night. I made it to my Ljubljana hotel after 14 hours of flying and 8 hours of layovers. Despite all this, I walked around the Ljubljana old town and had a delightful dinner (I'll be returning in a week to spend 2 weeks in Slovenia). After dinner, I finally went to bed. However, the next day I flew to Belgrade, Serbia to officially start my trip with a week in Serbia.
I had 8 hours of sleep the first night, but had to get to the Ljubljana airport to catch my flight to Belgrade, Serbia (the capital). Ljubljana has a small airport, with only 10 gates. Slovenia has a strong tie to Austria, so before my flight I enjoyed a delicious apple strudel at the airport. Once in Belgrade, Serbia I checked in to my hotel and scoped out my neighborhood for food, found a couple places and a 24-hour grocery with hot food. Cool! Also, a McDonalds that I literally can see from my hotel window (always a safe bet). I got to bed early that first night in Belgrade and got caught up with sleep.
Belgrade offered a 4-hour guided walking tour of the city. This tour covered a lot of what I planned to see in Belgrade, but since it's all new to me I had no concerns that I would go back later to some of the sites on my own. Plus, there were more things I was going to see not on the tour. It was a good way to get oriented to the city.
The next day I had lots of walking around Belgrade, 16 miles. I saw the largest Russian Orthodox church in Serbia, the Church of St. Mark. I also walked all over old town, including the Belgrade Fortress and along the Sava and Danube rivers. In Belgrade is where the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers occurs, visible from a beautiful viewpoint of the fortress. Part of my walk was attempting to get to the Tito Mausoleum using a paper map from my tour book. Long story short, I was getting there but it seemed like I was walking way to far (I was kind of turned around and not sure of the streets because my paper map was not that detailed). I ultimately turned on Google Maps on my mobile and it said I still had an hour of walking left. My paper map was misleading about how far it was and Google Maps saved me a lot of walking. It would have been closed by the time I got there. In the end, I used Google Maps a couple other times to find the best way for walking to my sites. Data, cool...
I took a 90-minute public bus ride from Belgrade to the town of Novi Sod, Serbia to spend 2 nights there. Novi Sod is a really nice town with great architecture. My hotel was right in the heart of old town, I could see the tops of the old town buildings from my room. Novi Sod also has the ruins of the Petrovaradin Fortress right on the scenic banks of the Danube River. Novi Sod is really nice, and is not as busy and hectic as Belgrade. Oddly, while in Novi Sod I ran into the tour guide on the street that I had 2 days earlier in Belgrade on my 4-hour city walking tour, small country I guess. Another oddity, in Novi Sod I realized I was only 2 hours away from Timisoara, Romania where my co-brother-in-law lives and I was there just last year.
From Novi Sod, it was only a 20-minute public bus ride to Sremski Karlovci, Serbia on the Danube River. It has only a small-town center, but a lot of nice historical buildings. Besides the beautiful town hall, courts building, and many churches, there is the Panorama. The Panorama is a viewpoint high above the town overlooking the entire town and the Danube with several monuments and statues there.
I thought I had the public buses figured out in Serbia, but not quite. When I took the bus back to Belgrade from Novi Sod, I must have gotten the express bus as we are on the highway to Belgrade. Going to Novi Sod, we took the scenic side road and it took about 2 hours. The bus back to Belgrade on the highway only took about 50 minutes. When I did get back to Belgrade, it basically was a 'Day of the Dead' (no, it wasn't that I was tired). I went to see the Nicolas Tesla Museum, very interesting and his ashes are there. Also, I finally made it to the mausoleum of Josip Tito, former President (Dictator) of Yugoslavia from 1943 until his death in 1980.
At the end of my week, I flew from Belgrade, Serbia to Ljubljana, Slovenia (the capital). I'll be getting back to Ljubljana at the end of my trip, but just so you know, you pronounce it: Lube-lee-on-na. In Ljubljana, I picked-up a rental car and drove to my destination where I will be for 3 nights, the beautiful Lake Bled. Really nice area with a lot to see and do. Before that, I stopped in the medieval town of Radovljica. You're on your own to pronounce that one (now you know what I go through all day).
As I mentioned, the Lake Bled area is really beautiful. I spent a day walking the path around the entire Lake Bled, and taking the boat out to Bled Island. Overlooking the lake is the 1000-year-old Bled Castle, and in the lake is Bled Island with the Pilgrimage Church of the Assumption of Mary. Really pretty. At the castle, I got an 'I was here' certificate printed on hand made paper stamped on a Guttenberg press. I took a video of him pressing it, and I helped. I can actually see the lake, castle, and church from my hotel room. So, if I could see this all from my hotel window, why did I walk 10 miles that day?
The area around Lake Bled is in the gorgeous Julian Alps. Driving through them, I saw numerous small towns worth stopping in. Picture post card Slovenian towns that aren't necessarily tourist traps. I drove over 2 mountain passes. The highest peak in Slovenia is Triglav, with an altitude of 2,864 metres (9,396 feet). Incredibly twisty roads in this area and not too crowded.
I drove down towards the small coastal region that Slovenia has, a 47 kilometre (29 mile) stretch on the Adriatic Sea. It was close to the same area I was at 2 years ago when I was in Croatia, so I knew it would be gorgeous. I ended up spending 3 nights in this area. Along the way I stopped at Postojna Cave (where I took a train ride in the cave) and Predjama Castle on the side of a cliff (built in 1274). Both very impressive. All in all, a great day's drive.
In the coastal town of Piran, Slovenia they have a webcam in Tartini Square. I sent email notices with the webcam link to a bunch of people to be able to see me standing there. I waited about 30 minutes and received some emails from people that said they saw me. Neato! It was very hot there and the webcam is right in the sun, so 30 minutes was about all I could stand. Slovenia only has a couple coastal towns on this small stretch of the Adriatic Sea, and I spent the day wandering in this beautiful old town viewing lots of old buildings and charming narrow walkways. Thanks to those that joined me on the webcam!
I went to a couple more Slovenian coastal towns on the Adriatic Sea. I actually stayed in Koper, a larger town that's a little more industrial than touristy. Their beach is a little lacking and right next to the docks with all the big cargo ships. The small town of Izola has a nice beach with a park on the coast, and has a Mediterranean feeling with the tourist places. But the town of Piran, was still the best.
Two words – cream cake. One more word – deliciousness. Rezina kremna is what they call it in Slovenia (they also had it in Croatia when I was there 2 years ago). It has a flaky crust, with whipped cream and custard filling. I did have one with a mango layer and that was really good. All I know is that I had it whenever the chance came up.
Funny story on my way to the next hotel. I forgot my power convertor at the apartment I had just checked out of, but they were nice enough to email me when they found it. Fortunately, I had not driven that far, and was at Skocjanski Cave waiting for my appointed tour time (10:00 am). I let them know I would pick it up after my tour. It only put me about 2 hours out of my way. LESSON LEARNED: Always take 2 adaptors.
The area of Slovenia I was in was cave country. After my Skocjanski Cave tour (then picking up my convertor) my next stop was another cave, Skocjan. The second half of the tour was impressive, with massive caverns. This was the second cave tour of the day, there's even more caves in the area, but I hit the 2 biggies. The remainder of the day was driving to 4 impressive castles (I guess it was castle country too).
In Celje, Slovenia I encountered my first bad weather day, cloudy and rain. I used this to get some extra sleep. The weather is supposed to be perfect the remainder of my trip, but considering this was the first rain the whole trip, I was happy. After my nap, I walked around the town and was able to get up to the 13th century Celje Castle, one of the largest fortifications in Slovenia. One advantage of being this close to Italy, real Italian pizza. I had a wood fired oven pizza for dinner. The guy actually had a pizza certificate on the wall with an Italian flag and everything. Yummy!
Sure enough, the next morning the weather was back to being perfect and I was well rested. I then spent 2 nights in and around the town of Maribor, Slovenia, the 2nd largest city in Slovenia. I went to several castles nearby in the northeast part of the country. Then in Maribor, located on the Drava River, I walked around the scenic old town. On Glavni Trg square, the old town's main square, the Renaissance-style Town Hall (Mariborski rotovž) dates from 1515. On nearby Grajski Trg square, 15th-century Maribor Castle houses the Regional Museum of Maribor.
I drove to the town of Ptuj, Slovenia, the oldest town in Slovenia (69 AD). It has the 12th century Ptuj Castle overlooking the Drava River. What does one do in the oldest town in Slovenia? I had some green apple ice cream, tasted great! Nearby, I drove to the Vinarium Tower, the highest observation tower in Slovenia standing at 54 metres (176 feet) and opened last year. You can see 4 countries from the top (of course I could also drive to them) - Slovenia, Croatia, Hungary, and Austria. Very windy on top.
On my drive back to Ljubljana, I stopped at Velenje Castle in the town of Velenje. It's one of the best-preserved medieval castles in Slovenia and was built in 1270. It was hard to get a good selfie, I guess they didn't consider that when they built it back in 1270. Spending the next 3 nights in Ljubljana.
Back in Ljubljana, I trekked up to the Ljubljana Castle located high above the city. While the interior is modernized to handle city events, the exterior walls are from 1461. There's a great Ljubljana webcam near the triple bridge area. Fortunately, lots of people got to see me on the bridges. That was fun. When I'm not a web celebrity, I spend my time spelunking. On my last full day, I took a tour of the second largest mercury mine in the world located in Idrija, Slovenia. It was discovered in 1492. Not sure, can you only spelunk in a cave or does a mine count too?
I caught my flight out of Ljubljana, Slovenia to Helsinki, Finland and arrived in the evening. The next morning, I went to check in for my flight to London / Chicago and they redirected me to the service desk. They offered me a direct flight from Helsinki to Chicago which left Helsinki about 6 hours later. Consequently, that meant I could have 6 hours in Helsinki roaming around. By the way, the direct flight would arrive only 10 minutes later in Chicago than I would have arrived going through London with a several hour layover. Wow! What to do, what to do? Fortunately, I am familiar enough with Helsinki, easy enough to get into the city centre from the airport and navigate my way around. This was unexpected, but a pleasant surprise. As you can see by my pictures, there's a lot you can see in Helsinki in a short time if you know what you are doing…
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