How good is this! Just sit back and imagine a tiny country, smaller than Tasmania filled to overflowing with the most beautiful jewels of countryside scenery.

The terrain is diverse with high alpine snow covered mountain ranges bordering on four other separate countries. There are rolling hillsides covered in a whirl of artistically contoured vineyards, there and hidden lakes and a narrow 46 km Mediterranean coastline that will take your breath away.
Add in a host of historic towns, around 300 fairy-tail castles (some of which hold annual tournaments with Knights, Archers and Swordsman), a cave system that would literally hide a complete city and then some, a handful of Golf Courses with settings that will inspire even the most amateur player and you have one of Europe’s real sleeping beauties - Slovenia.

Tucked away between Italy, Austria, Hungary and Croatia, Slovenia has so much to offer the tourist that it is difficult to know where to start. Our visit early in March gave us two advantages, the lack of the summer tourist crowds, and the seasonal transition from winter to spring, which gave us cold, but very bright sunny days. It was a recipe for some extraordinary photographic opportunities, with much of the picturesque scenery layered in white, due to a late end of winter snowfall.

There was no snow on the coast during our visit, and the beautiful ancient town of Piran gave us a glimpse of very best of the sunny Mediterranean. We were greeted with superb views from the old city walls and the Baroque church of St George which looked down across the medieval town, and over to the azure blue waters of the tiny harbor. Dozens of local fishing boats and up-market yachts bobbing gently in the breeze completed the scene.

Piran is an outdoor museum. It used to be part of the Venetian republic, and its narrow streets are rather prominently featured with buildings styled after the Gothic architecture of Venice. In the Tartini Square, the statue of the famous local Slovenian composer and violinist proudly takes center stage. Giuseppe Tarini was born in Piran in 1692 and was city still lives in the spirit of him with numerous musical events held throughout the year.

The square was a great place to start our walking tour.

Piran’s history is based on salt production, and just around the corner, past the more up-market town of Portorož (similar to some parts of the Italian Riviera with all the hype of the hotels and casinos) is the Sečovlje Salt Flats Regional Park where salt was, and still is to some degree, produced in the ancient classical way. Spread between the sea and the land, this area is now a museum as well as real time salt production, and each year during April, July and August they hold the Saltmakers Festival where visitors can attempt the difficult task of gathering the vital substance in the old fashioned way.

The region known as the Karst is an area of high plains above the Gulf of Trieste heading towards the foothills of Julian Alps. The plains are mixed in with forests, sinkholes, underground streams and magnificent limestone caves. Slovenia has over 15,000 subterranean caves, with 24 ‘ Show Caves’ open to the general public.

We visited the Postojna Caves, a gigantic exciting complex which gets over 1.2 million visitors a year.

The sign above the main entrance said “Immensum ad antrum aditus” – Enter traveler, into this immensity. There are 20 kilometres of underground wonders here, which are among the biggest and best in the world. Here we were whisked deep underground for three and half kilometers on a small open train before alighting into a huge chamber called the Giant Concert Hall. Amazingly it can accommodate around 10,000 people at one time, and is often used for that very purpose. From then on we walked for another kilometer, the guided tour taking us through some of the most spectacular cave scenery of Stalagmites and Stalactites we have experienced.

One of the many fascinating ‘cave dwellers’ we saw had to be one of natures strangest animals, the Proteus Anguinus or ‘Human Fish’.

In a world without light, this long almost non pigment colour swimming sort of eel with four legs does not need eyes, but has a highly developed sense of smell, touch and taste. They have a lifespan of around 100 years and can live without food for several years.

“Location location” - the choice was difficult. What with Otočec Castle built on an Island in the middle of the river Krka close to Novo Mestro, and Ptuj and Ljubljana Castles both towering above their respective cities, but while we were still in the Karst area, we visited the very unusual Predjama Castle, just 9 km away from Postojna.

Built literally suspended in the middle of a 123 high cliff with the entrance to a huge cave behind it, this has to be one of the more sensational castles with respect to visual beauty and enchanting history. The system of caves over which the castle is built is all connected, there are some 13 km which lead into the main cave system, albeit via underground rivers and unexplored areas.

Records of the castle go back to 1202, with the current structure dating around 1600. It’s a proud, defiant construction, impregnable and was perfect for the rebellious knight Erazem, the ‘robber baron’ - similar to England’s Robin Hood. He was holed up here until his untimely demise - targeted with a cannon ball whilst taking his daily constitutional, a natural task which all of us do.

Each year on the 27th August, the annual “Erasmus Tournament of Knights” is held at the castle and a huge cast of period dressed nobility and roving minstrels assemble to entertain and celebrate the rascal of old. Bold horse riding knight’s charge each other with lances thrusting forward. There is sword fighting and archery contests, and a lavish medieval feast.

Fair damsels and an assembled cast of hundreds, all dressed accordingly entertain as huge ancient wooden catapults besiege the castle – and the crowds of visitors and tourists just love it.

Weddings are another medieval affair at Predjama Castle, and can be arranged to include just about anything you desire from costumed servants for the medieval banquet to the bride choosing a Knight to fight for her favors – pity the poor groom!

Our next stop was the capital, Ljubljana. Bathed in a deep mantle of soft snow, the city had an almost European Christmas feeling, and with a population of only 270,000, the city center has some outstanding Baroque architecture and is very easy to explore.

Our morning stroll from the centrally located ‘City Hotel’ took us across beautiful Dragon Bridge, which is guarded by the statues of the Ljubljana Dragon – although at that particular time of the year, they certainly had their flames extinguished.

We walked through the open-air market and on to St Nicholas Cathedral built in 1701 and on to the Town Hall, and then a short steep climb to the 12th century castle. The view from the lookout tower high above the city gave us spectacular vistas back over the old historic center, including that of the “ Triple Bridge”, which forms an elegant gateway to the old city and “frames” the superb pink architecture of the Franciscan Church of the Annunciation, built between 1646 and 1660.

We visited the historic town of Novo Mestro, located on a rocky promontory and almost surrounded by the river Krka. The surrounding area with its heritage trails through the region of Dolenjska and Bela krajina is a chocolate box full of delights. It’s an area of ancient castles and monasteries where woods thickly covered in beech, oak and spruce trees mingle with, and border many small villages, a place where farms and vineyards are based on the more traditional way of life.

We were overawed by Stanjel, the way the old stone village wound around its hilltop position, and further north we visited Škofja Loka, Kranj and Ptuj, all of which gave us a another insight into the history of this amazing country.

The prominence of the limestone soils and sub Alpine climate make Slovenia ideal for the cultivation of grape vines, and indeed we passed through many beautiful areas covered deeply in rich vines, but our visit to an ancient cellar in Ptuj, dating back to 1239 really won our hearts and taste buds.

The Modern multimedia tasting room above the cellars gave us a fascinating introduction and history to the wines of the region, including whites, reds, sparkling and what they term ‘Archive Wines’ which carry the secrets of old, captured in time and improving every year.

Our visit to the cellars deep below opened up another world, with gigantic barrels and racks of wine going back to the year 1917.

We always find it imperative to taste as many traditional and local dishes as possible when visiting overseas, and some of the dishes we tried included “Selinka” minestrone with buckwheat polenta, lard-basted boiled cabbage with klobasa sausages, some superb cottage cheese “Struklji (strudel) such as buckwheat struklji with cottage cheese and struklji with nettles and spinach. The Teran and Prsut were superb, as of course many of the Goulash dishes.

The most magic sight for us at that particular time of the year was Bled, with its breathtaking lake covered in ice. The backdrop panorama of the snow covered mountain range of the Julian Alps and Mt Triglav high above was quite literally, the icing on the cake.

Lake Bled nestles below Slovenia’s oldest castle, Bled Castle, high on a cliff 100 metre’s above the lake. From here the sight of the tiny Santa Maria Island in the center of the lake was exactly as we had seen in the brochures – exquisite.

In winter the lake is a skaters paradise, and in summer, canoes and pollution free electric powered small craft meander slowly over the pristine deep blue waters.

Weddings are the order of the day here. The groom is expected to carry his bride up the 99 steps to the entrance to St Mary’s Church in order to ensure a long and happy marriage. We were told that this was to counter the fact that apparently wives carry their husbands throughout their life - I’m researching those statistics at the moment, however I must admit, you could not pick a more romantic place to take your nuptials.

Summer or winter, this lake is without equal. You can drive, walk, or ride a bike around the edge and get great views and photographs back towards the castle and the island. The camping park (Camping Bled) on the edge can accommodate up to 1000 guests has to have one of the best outlooks value for money you can get.Lake Bled celebrated its 1000th birthday in 2004.

Nestling beneath the majestic snow covered mountains, Bled Golf & Country Club certainly appears to take some beating. Dating back to 1937, it is said to be one of the most beautiful courses in Europe. Covering more than 100 ha, we found strolling around the two courses, the 18-hole Kings Course and the 9-hole lake course, even covered in a mantle of snow, just breathtaking. The natural charm associated with this type of golfing environment, with its healthy refreshing alpine air and spectacular scenery must be paradise on summer’s day.

One of the countries tourism logos is “Slovenia Invigorates” – and we certainly agree on that! Slovenia is a country for those who love un-spoilt nature and traditional places. It’s a place where globalization, and many of the influences of the modern world are well kept secrets.

We think you should put Slovenia at the top of your ’must visit’ list, because on the 1st January 2007, Slovenia joins the EU and its currency changes from the Tolar to the Euro. Further more, the country has agreed to a proposal by which Slovenia would be a part of the first troika, together with Germany and Portugal. They will be part of the team presidency of the Council of the EU from the beginning of 2007 to the middle of 2008.


Slovenia will actually take the lead for the last term, during the first six months of 2008, so as they say - “The times, they are a changing”.