Travels in Slovenia + Venice

I got back yesterday from a short but fascinating trip to Slovenia and Italy. A few months ago, my running buddy Jane told me that she was doing a teaching fellowship in Germany in June, and mentioned that she wanted to travel to Slovenia afterwards. I decided to come join her as a way to kick off summer.

Getting to Slovenia is non-obvious but, it turns out, fairly straightforward. American Airlines has a daily flight from Philadelphia to Venice. Venice is about 2.5 hours from Ljubljana, Slovenia, which was going to be our home base. So I flew on June 23 overnight to Venice and booked a car service to drive me the rest of the way.

(Our flight was terribly delayed, alas — we boarded, then had a mechanical issue, then deplaned, then eventually got on a new flight. Original take-off time was 7:30 p.m., roughly, and we were just getting in the air at 12:30 a.m. I kept having flashbacks to the Scotland trip that never happened after that flight that was so delayed! The good news with such a late flight, though, is that I actually slept! So the flight itself felt really short. This is a good thing.).

Jane and I stayed at the Hotel Slon in central Ljubljana, which was perfectly located — two blocks from the main action by the river, but on the slightly quieter main shopping drag. It had air conditioning! This was a big plus as it was 90-plus degrees every day. And breakfast was spectacular. I am a big fan of espresso machines.

On Wednesday, I didn’t get there until about 5 p.m. with the delays. We had traditional Slovenian cuisine at a restaurant outside, then got drinks at a pub and watched people watch the World Cup match. I did not sleep well — up from 1:30-4:30 — but survived. On Thursday, after an AM run along the river, we did the basic touristy stuff, for instance, we saw Ljubljana castle. This is kind of fun, because you take a funicular up to the top of the castle hill. The castle itself was…ok…but the views were good (if it was very very hot). Then in the afternoon we saw a local cathedral, walked around, did happy hour drinks by the river, and got Vietnamese food for dinner.

On Friday we ran again, walked around and shopped some, then met our guide at 2 p.m. to go to Lake Bled. This area is what you’ll see on any postcards or guidebooks about Slovenia. It’s only about an hour from Ljubljana, which is part of the appeal. We rode on our bus to Bled Castle, walked up and looked out and — wow. (See the featured photo on this blog post.)

The lake is just so amazingly blue, and then there’s this picturesque island in the middle with a little church. Let’s just say we took a ton of photos. Then we came down to the lake itself and got to see the castle we had just been in — which is  perched on a cliff. Stunning.

Jane and I took a traditional boat (much like a gondola) to the island and then walked around. I went inside the church and rang the bell and went to the top of the clock tower. I took so many photos. And bought a Christmas ornament at the gift shop— since that is the kind of souvenir I like to buy. Then it was back to Ljubljana and another dinner outside on the river, featuring a lot of people watching. The central district is car-free (mostly, delivery trucks and cabs bringing you to your hotel are exempt) so it was easy to walk around and to find a spot to eat (burgers and beer). Each day I would walk along the river on both sides and just see what there was to see, crossing the various bridges (the “triple bridge” by the center town square; the dragon bridge with statues of dragons…).

On Saturday we got up early for an all-day tour to the alpine areas of Zgornje Jezersko and the Logarska valley (I may not have spelled those correctly…). I had booked a winery tour for later in the day, but that got canceled, so the tour operator offered me some other options. I went for this all day tour and I think Jane was much happier with it than she would have been with the wine. Our young driver took us out to various good photo spots — lots of places with towering mountains, and things like churches in the foreground for optimal framing.

We went on a short hike to a waterfall, then went to about half a dozen beautiful spots before getting lunch at a traditional Slovenian place. Our guide was very knowledgeable and was telling us all sorts of random facts (Slovenia is the third most forested country in Europe…) but neglected to tell the group that the fence next to a road at one rustic outpost was electrified. I guess some of our group was not from cow-intensive places and didn’t think about that and one lady got herself well shocked. At least she had a good sense of humor about it.

We came back and ate at the same restaurant we ate at the night before. The burgers were really good! I had a glass of wine at lunch and at dinner, all from Slovenia, so I guess I got my wine tasting too, even without the vineyards.

Jane left early the next morning to fly back home through Frankfurt, but I was there until check out. I had a nice time just walking around town taking pictures — Ljubljana is very accessible as a city and easy to figure out. There are lots of sculptures of dragons — the city was supposedly founded when Jason came there with the golden fleece and defeated a dragon — and random picturesque alleys. My driver got me at 11 and we drove back to Venice, this time going to the old city.

There are no cars in the old town area (and no real roads!) so he dropped me at the bus station and I walked about half a mile into town with my little roll-aboard suitcase (a good reason to pack light for sure). This was advanced navigation, following my map and my written instructions through narrow alleys, over the canals, and finally to a plaza where I needed to let myself into my B&B (the host said I was arriving late — I was there at 2 p.m. — but hey, it was Sunday! It all worked fine). I rested and read for about an hour and then decided to get gelato and explore.

Venice is just stunning. So photogenic. It was grossly hot but all the stone buildings and canals and laundry on lines just looked other-worldly. I did my best to wander a bit, building a mental map in my head (I never got lost!). I enjoyed a drink on my balcony while reading some more, then went out for dinner at a place that seemed bustling and tucked away. My sense for a good restaurant was strong. The bruschetta was incredible. And they gave me some limoncello on the house. I did not want to go to bed so I just kept walking. At one point I realized I was just wandering through dark alleys with no one around, which I probably wouldn’t do elsewhere, though I believe Venice is very safe. I may need to go back!

Leaving was a process. In the morning I walked to the San Stae dock (needing to turn down various alleys since you can’t get there just walking from my plaza toward the water…) with my suitcases and caught the water bus to the airport. It drops you at another dock, and then you take moving walkways for about 10 minutes to the terminal. Then there was the whole mess of the EES system — though it wasn’t so bad. Coming to Venice I made it through in 2 minutes (a problem since the car service was moving my pick-up based on my delays and they built in an hour!). On the way out it was longer though only about 10 minutes for security and then about 15 minutes for EES. The airport employees were doing a good job moving people along. The flight was long but so it goes. PHL now seems to be using the face recognition technology for going through passport control, which was great. I had thought about enrolling in Global Entry, but if more airports are just doing that it might not be worth it (I have two tight international connections coming home through DFW over the next year – anyone know if they are using the facial recognition tech?)

It is always a lot of bother to travel — and arranging everything at home so everyone got where they were going — but it was so fun to see a part of Europe I haven’t seen yet. I think Europe in June is a good tradition for me. Now I am just up very early today recovering from jet lag….