Ljubljana, Slovenia

October 4 - 11, 2019

Slovenia is a beautiful small country north of Croatia, and the centrally-located Ljubljana makes a great base for our exploration around the country.

Day 0: Arrived from Plitvice

Day 1: Postojna Cave & Predjama Castle

Day 2: Lake Bled

Day 3: Vintgar Gorge & Lake Bohinj

Day 4: Ljubljana

Day 5: Skocjan Cave

Day 6: Home school

Day 7: Drive to Venice

Day 1 - Postojna Cave & Predjama castle

The Postojna Cave and the Predjama Castle are only about 10min drive apart, it’s definitely worth combining the two visits in one trip. The Postojna Cave was amazing, the Predjama Castle is a worthy addition with good photo spots.

Postojna Cave

Taking this mini train through the first 5km of the cave.

The train takes you through parts of the cave with different types of stalactites and stalagmites.

This one looks like a big orangutan.

Some parts of the track are quite tight.

More amazing and funky looking stalactites.

This part of the cave is quite big.

These stalactites are thin and flat; and looks a bit like streamers hanging from the ceiling.

On the upper right-hand corner are small, thin spaghetti stalactites.

Lots of visitors here admiring the cave.

These very thin "spaghetti" stalactites takes 100 years to grow one millimeter.

This stalagmite is unusually white.

The white thin animal is an ohm, aka human fish, aka baby dragons. It's their mascot.

Coming towards the end of the tour.

This shop doubles as a post office; it's the only in-cave post office in the world. The girls wrote and sent out post cards from here.

Time to take the train back.

It's been fun, now we must exit.

Taking a picture by the sign to remind us of the cave name in Slovenian. "Jama" means cave.

This looks nothing like the train we just took, but the kids wanted a picture anyway.

Postojna Cave was amazing, we’ve never seen anything like it. This network of four caves is 24km long!! And the train through the first 5km makes it very friendly to visitors. The cave is massive and the various types of stalactites and stalagmites were jaw dropping. This cave blew us away!

Voyagers tips: There were several restaurants on site, plenty of food choices. You can buy combined tickets to the onsite museums, but we just did the cave and that was already amazing.

Predjama Castle

We've arrived at the Predjama Castle. Jama means cave, and Pred means in front. It's a castle in front of the cave.

The integration between the castle and the cliffs is very interesting.

A view out of a small castle window.

The torture chamber, with necessary torture devices.

This is the only room with a fireplace in the castle, the only room that could be heated up to a comfortable level.

The view from the balcony is very nice.

A small taste of the Slovenia breathtaking beauty.

The armor room.

This tiny bell is quite loud. Legend has it that if you make a wish and ring the bell, your wish will come true.

We took turn making wishes and ringing the bell, which can be heard throughout the town.

Enjoying more view from the viewing station.

The top of the castle goes up to an interesting cave.

Looking out from the top portion of the cave.

This spot makes for interesting silhouette pictures.

Can you see M sticking out her tongue?

This was an interesting visit! We weren't that excited about seeing yet another castle, but this beat our expectation!

There is one more viewing station with a nice view of the castle further down.

This is the best spot to get a full view of the cave castle.

Predjama Castle, the largest in-cave castle in the world. The impregnable medieval marvel has been perched in the middle of a 123-meter-high cliff for more than 800 years.

Day 2 - lake bled

Beautiful Lake Bled with the iconic Bled Island in the middle.

Beautiful view of the lake from every angle.

M attempting to climb up the inside of this tree.

The path around the lake is laid out nicely.

We stopped for lunch before continuing. The trout was good!

We decided to rent a boat and row to the island ourselves.

This was A and M's first time rowing a rowboat. They've done canoes before, but never row boats.

We all took turns.

We made it to Bled Island without drowning!

The island is tiny, with a church on the island. Pulling this string rings the big bell on top.

Legend has it that ringing this bell will make your wish come true. We all took turn ringing it... except for Megan, she somehow lost her turn.

Climbing up the bell tower next to the church.

Walking around on the tiny island.

View of the church and bell tower on Bled Island.

Megan had fun rowing us back to shore.

Bled Castle is perched on top of the cliff.

Most people ride the "pletna" instead of rowing the boat themselves.

Instead of hiking up to Bled Castle, we took the easy way and just drove up here.

You have to pay entrance fee to enjoy the view, but the view is amazing!

Only M and Ivan went into the castle while Megan and A happily stayed in the car to read and play games.

Can you see A in the parking lot?

M's holding the Slovenian flag! Well, sort of...

A can't wait to drive.

A Rowing in Lake Bled

M Rowing on Lake Bled

Megan Rowing on Lake Bled

M ringing church bell on Bled Island

A ringing church bell on Bled Island

Bled Castle Aerial View

Lake Bled is the most recognized landmark in Slovenia, and its beauty is sure to impress. We walked around the lake, visited the church on Bled Island via row boat, and enjoyed the aerial view of the lake from Bled Castle. There are also several hiking trails for the active visitors. Lake Bled lives up to its lofty reputation!

Voyagers tips: It’s an easy day trip from Ljubljana, but budget for more time if you want to combine it with Lake Bohinj, which is about 30min past Lake Bled. There are several small parking lots around the lake, there is no one major parking lot, so look at google map carefully and pick a spot for a proper destination. Street parking can be prepaid at the machine or via the app; pay with the app so you can extend the parking duration as needed with a tap of the phone. Bled Castle can be hiked up from the lake, but we felt lazy and just drove up. There are several “pletnas” where you can hop on a manual boat and be rowed to the center island, but it’s much more fun to hire a row boat and row it yourself. There’s a “tobboggan” nearby where you can ride down the track on a small cart, looks like a lot of fun, but we ran out of time and didn’t get to try it.

Day 3 - vintgar gorge & lake bohinj

Vintgar gorge

Vintgar Gorge is gorgeous (gorges). Sorry, couldn’t resist, it’s a saying that only Cornellians would appreciate. Vintgar Gorge is an easy hike with beautiful scenery all along the hike. The beauty is quite different from that of Lake Bled, providing a great contrast and is equally beautiful. It doesn’t get nearly as much fame as Lake Bled, but is a definite must do in this area.

Voyagers tips: Trust google map. You will take some small streets to get here, but there is indeed a parking lot right outside the entrance to the gorge. Alternatively, you can hike from Lake Bled, roughly a 4mi hike to get to the entrance.

lake bohinj

The girls just love to climb.

Lake Bohinj is beautiful in a more grand, less delicate way compared to Lake Bled.

Lake Bohinj is often referred to as the big brother of Lake Bled. The location is more remote and you can only get here after driving past Lake Bled. This lake is much bigger than Bled, so we found it best to stop along the road at a few stops to enjoy the lake. The car-friendly road is only available on one side of the lake, however. Our friends say there are plenty of water sports during the summer, but none are available in October when we visited. It’s certainly much less crowded than Lake Bled and is worth at least a short visit.

Day 4 - ljubljana

The main part of Triple Bridge that leads to the Preseren Square.

Ljubljanica River runs through Ljubljana.

We loved walking around in the car-free streets.

The Franciscan Church of the Annunciation is the most recognized building on Preseren Square.

The square is named after the famous poet France Preseren, with his statue shown here.

The inside of the church is beautiful. We went in for a peek while a service was underway.

The Triple Bridge is split into three parts that all merge onto Preseren Square.

Fruits, flowers, clothes and other items for sale at the Central Market.

Beautiful flowers also at the Central Market.

The dragons on each of the four corners of the Dragon Bridge is a symbol of the city.

Do you see four dragons in this picture?

The Dragon Bridge crosses that Ljubljanica River that runs through Ljubljana.

View of the river from the Dragon Bridge.

There are some yummy inexpensive food trucks right by Central Market, great option for lunch.

We took the funicular up to enjoy nice views from Ljubljana Castle.

Nice views from the funicular.

More views on the ride up.

Here's the open area outside of the castle on top of the hill.

The climb to the viewing area.

You don't need to pay castle tickets to enjoy the view. We chose not to go into the castle based on poor tripadvisor reviews. Thank you tripadvisor!

Nice view of the city from up here.

The castle looks nice from the outside.

Looking down from the top of the funicular track.

We got inspiration to take some cool action shots.

You see dragons, symbol of Ljubljana, everywhere. Legend has it that dragons ruled the city until a hero killed them and made the city habitable.

We're back down from the castle.

The Butcher's Bridge is full of love locks.

We found a good psuedo-Asian stirfry place. The food might not be authentic but their wok-frying supply chain was very streamlined.

A big anchor in the city center. Not sure of the story of the anchor but the girls had fun with it.

This Bled cream cake can be seen everywhere throughout Slovenia. We tried one, it's quite good, very rich, we enjoyed it but couldn't finish one between the four of us.

Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia, has a central location that makes a great base for exploring Slovenia. The small city center is converted to be car-free, which makes it easy to explore by foot. This charming small city is one of our favorite cities in Europe!

Voyagers tips: Most of the must-see spots are in the small city center, and they can all be explored in one day. Find a nearby parking lot to park the car (with google maps) and walk around the car-free city center. Take the funicular up to the Ljubljana Castle. The reviews of the castle itself is pretty bad on Tripadvisor, so we didn’t go in, but you can still explore the area and enjoy the view from the top of the hill after getting off the funicular. There are nice inexpensive food trucks right by Central Market that serves up some great seafood for lunch.

Day 5 - skocjan cave

No pictures were allowed inside the cave, we could only take picture at the entrance and here, near the exit.

The guide was explaining the cave system at the entrance.

We're going in!

The UNESCO plaque.

This is just after the cave exit. Imagine these rock walls, rivers and waterfalls, continuing into and throughout the cave. It's amazing!

There's an interesting trail outside the cave as well.

You can see the exit of the cave in the far end. This was the entrance where the original explorers first encountered the cave.

Skocjan Cave is an UNESCO world heritage site, and for good reason. Whereas Postojna Cave is amazing for the beauty of its various stalagmites and stalactites, Skocjan is awe-inspring for the sheer grandeur of the cave system. Imagine massive cliffs and flowing rivers and small waterfalls, similar to that of Zion National Park, all underground, but with stalactites and stalagmites throughout instead of green plants. It was grand!

Voyagers Tips: Be very careful about where Google Maps takes you! When you enter in “Skocjan Cave” on google map, two destinations show up, one of them will take you to a forest in the the middle of nowhere. We made this mistake. Make sure the destination shown is to the south-west of Postojna Cave, otherwise it’s the wrong one! Better yet, just search for “škocjanske jame”, the real name in Slovenian. No pictures were allowed inside, we didn’t take any, although many other tourists snapped away and they weren’t super strict about it. In addition to the original cave tour, they have added a second tour that’s mostly on the outside of the cave. A third tour is in the works, which should allow visitors to see the biggest canyon in the cave system, and will require more strenuous climbing when it opens.