Bled 🇸🇮

Bled is know for Lake Bled, Bled Castle, and a vanilla and cream pastry, kremna rezina. After a month on the road and rainy english weather we headed straight for the cream filled pastry and photographed the lake and castle on the way.

The pastry was brought to the local Hotel Park in 1953 by Ištvan Lukačević. As of October 2009, 10 million cream cakes had been baked at the hotel and we were more than happy to add to the count. The highlight for the kids was the robotic cat that brought the food out to the tables.

Lake Bled dates back to the Ice Age after the recession of the Bohinj glacier. At the middle of the lake is an island with the Church of the Assumption. There are numerous local traditions associated with the church such as ringing the bell in the church will fulfill one of your wishes and if a husband can carry his newly married bride up the 99 stairs from the dock into the church they will be ensured a happy marriage.

Velika Planina 🇸🇮

After exploring the Postojna Cave and their resident olms, we headed to Velika Planina (The Big Pasture Plateau). The Plateau is reached by cable car and double chair ski lift taking us up to the peak of Mount Gradišče (1,666 m). The peak overlooks the Slovenia Julian Alps and the largest herdsman’s village in Europe.

It was late in the season (and late in the day), so there wasn’t much activity in the herdsman village. Nonetheless it was a beautiful village with traditional wooden huts that are used by the herdsman’s in the summer months to tend to their herds. Had we made it to the village earlier in the day we might have been invited into one of the huts to experience the homemade dairy delicacies. However, we got to try a cheese dumpling desert thing (kobariški štruklji?) which was very tasty!

We ventured around the village to the chapel of Snow Mary where some curious cows checked us out.

We wish we had more time to explore the beautiful scenery of the plateau and spend a night in one of the huts, but we had to hurry along to catch the lifts down the mountain side.  We're off to Bled to explore the Triglav National Park.

Postojna 🇸🇮

We arrived in Postojna just in time to make the last entry into the Predjama Castle, the largest cave castle in the world. Nestled into a 123 meter cliff the fortress has endured for more than 800 years in various forms. One of its most legendary residents was the rebellious knight Erazem who has been likened to the Slovenian Robin Hood.

Slovenia was in the cross fire for conquest by the Holy Roman Empire, Frederick III and the Hungarian King Matthias Corvinus. Ezeram was son to the captain of the Emperor's bodyguard, however, during a heated argument over a deceased friend's honor, Erazem killed a relative of the Emperor. He fled back to his castle, swore allegiance to King Matthias Corvinus and barricaded himself in his impenetrable cave fortress. When the Emperor's men arrived at Predjama they were unable to capture Erazem and decided to starve him out. However, Erazem survived by smuggling food though secret passage ways in the cave system beneath the castle. Stories say Erazem and his men even taunted their enemies by pelting them with cherries.

Unfortunately Erazem was killed during the siege. Legends say one of his servants was bribed by the Emperor's men, told them of a weak spot, and agreed to light a candle in a window as a signal to attack. The weak spot was supposedly the toilet and while historians believe it was actually his bedroom the story is thought to have been spread by the Emperor's men in order to destroy Erazem's admirable reputation and leave him as the knight who died perilously on the loo.

Next day we visited Postojna Caves and boarded the subterranean train to explore the cave system that is home to the most curious aquatic cave salamanders, the olm, which has adapted to life in complete darkness. While essentially blind its other senses are highly developed and it can survive up to 10 years without food. They were first documented in 1689 and during heavy rains olms would wash up to the surface leading to local folklore of baby dragons growing beneath the Earth's crust. The kids were very excited to see the olms in the tank at the end of the cave tour as they look very similar to another creature found in one of their favourite video games, an axolotl.

Zadar: Sea Organ 🇭🇷

We headed to Zadar for the night as a pit stop between Krka NP and Slovenia once we found out about the Sea Organ in the harbour.  Consisting of 35 pipes underneath marble slabs, the organ works with the waves to create a musical melody.  It was built in 2005 by Nikola Bašić as a part of the waterfront redesign to hide the unsightly concrete wall built during the construction after the Second World War. 

It is accompanied by the Monument to the Sun light display.  The light display consists of 300 multi layer glass panels including a 22-meter diameter circle.  The solar panels gather energy during the day that power the show at night.  

The Old Town was small enough to explore on foot.  We strolled around the Roman Forum, St. Donat's and St. Mary's churches grabbing a bite to eat and souvenir shopping.

Let there be light: Nikola Tesla 🇭🇷

How could we resist a highway sign pointing the way to the birthplace of Nikola Tesla?  Not to be confused with the Tesla car company, Nikola Tesla was a Serbian-American inventor most famous for his work on developing alternating-current (AC) electricity supply systems (i.e. the power in household wall sockets).  He was born in the present day Croatian town of Smiljan; previously part of the Austrian Empire.  Tesla’s life has been a roller coaster that brought him to work at Edison's company, Machine Works, only to be screwed out of bonuses that caused him to leave after 6 months.  Afterwards he started his company Tesla Electric Light & Manufacturing; however, this ended poorly when his business partners left him penniless and digging ditches for $2 per day. 

Eventually Tesla developed an induction motor that ran on AC power that made him financially independent allowing him to pursue his own interests including the Tesla Coil.  Tesla Coils make high voltage, low current, high-frequency AC electricity and we got to experience one producing 1-million Volts.  The kids got to hold a fluorescent bulb in the  electric field and experience them light up as electrons flow through the air.   

The kids (and Jason) couldn't resist the playground fun!