Under the sea...

 

Yeah, spent most of this past weekend under the sea. Five dives isn't too bad for one weekend I guess. Got slightly lost on one of them and missed the main attraction. That's all experience I say. My buddy (Katja) was of a slightly different opinion so we had a longish fight. Not very serious though.

All the dives were done in Rabac. That's the closest really good diving spot in Croatia. We visited the wonderful wreck Lina and some other spots in the area.

Katja was toying with the camera - we borrowed a friend's Canon S1 and the underwater casing - and she came up with a couple of surprisingly neat photographs.

 

  

Gozd Martuljek Weekend

The end of another wonderful summer weekend. Visited a friend's weekend house in Gozd Martuljek, a great spot for hiking.

On Saturday we made a rather short hike to Vrsic, the highest road pass in Slovenia. Many people get all the way up by car. But that's no real fun. We took a rather unknown path, that starts about halfway up Vrsic. A nice and easy enough hike even for unexperienced hikers like ourselves. Some of the views are goregous though.

This path offers one of the best views of the rocky face of Ajdovska deklica I've seen so far. According to legend ajdovske deklice (ajdovske maidens) told people fortune at their birth. One of these foretold the son of a hunter that he would one day kill the mythical Goldhorn. The prophecy angered other ajdovske deklice and so they turned her into stone. With a little imagination it's easy to see her face.

Even though Vrsic is only 1611 metres high, there is still some snow left on the top. We like the experience of snow on a hot summer day...


... while some sheep sheepishly tried to find shade under this camper van.

Sunday was mostly the day of rest, as it should be. But we had to do a small hike to the Alpine valley of Tamar, nevertheless. An easy 45-minute hike takes you to this mountain hut (or valley hut as it should be called in this case.

Beautiful visitor

I had a beautiful visitor today. This was the best photograph I could make. It was fluttering nervously around the apartment, trying to get. Our cat, which sees any large insects as flying food, got really excited about it. The butterfly managed to find a way out in the end of course. Nothing very exciting for us humans, but it's nice to know we still have animals like that living in the very centre of Ljubljana.

Pics of our weekend with Val & Simon - part 2

Just outside Pleterje monastery there is also an open air museum. It contains a few farmhouses that were taken from original locations and brought here...


...and they have some friendly goats. :)


Moving on to Olimje. Monks in Olimje have specialised in natural medicine. Apart from herbs, bee products are also seen as an important part of this. Beehive fronts are typically painted in various motives.


Just around the corner from Olimje monastery is also the deer farm. Well it's actually a restaurant that doubles as a deer farm. Still it's really nice.

Pics of our weekend with Val & Simon - part 1

The impressive Zuzemberk castle dates back to the 13th century. It was first mentioned in 1246 as Sosenberch. Although essentially a Romanesque fortress, it was largely rebuilt in the Renaissance period. Unfortunately it was badly damaged during WWII. It still is a magnificent sight seen from the river bank.


Below the Zuzemberk castle there is what I refer to as the Zuzemberk riviera. After this beautiful waterfall the river gets quite and locals bathe in it on hot summer days.


Part of the Pleterje monastery. The monastery is still active, so you can only see it from afar. Still the beautiful surrounding area makes the trip worth it.

The monks of Pleterje have a special tradition of growing pears inside bottles. Their pear brandy famously features a whole pear in a bottle. It looks a bit like ships in bottles. Well here you can actually see how the whole thing is done.

Slovenian Tourism part 1

Still recovering from the weekend with Val and Simon. It's nice to be both a tourist and a tourist guide in your own country at the same time, but it can be a bit tiring as well.

But it's always nice to hear all the comments about the beauty of our country.

So what did we do exactly? Saturday was rafting on Krka, a short stop in Zuzemberk and Novo mesto. Then longer stops in Pleterje monastery and Kostanjevica. It all ended with a party evening in my hometown Celje.

Sunday started with a quick tour of Celje and a visit to Celje castle. I love what they're doing with this castle. They've been renovating it for a few years now and they've really done a good job so far. Can't wait to see the end product.

From Celje we went to Olimje monastery and visited the deer farm and the microbrewery in the area. No tour is complete without a stop at a brewery or winery as Simon observed.

We ended our tour at a tourist farm in Rogaška Slatina. Homemade cheese, salami and bread. Wow, fantastic!

Haven't downloaded the photographs from the camera yet.