Spent the day in the marshlands (barje).
Woke to grey skies (again) and after some tricky reversing, got our car out of the carpark at our B&B (after a quick visit to the market across the road to get some fruit) and exited the capital city amazingly smoothly and quickly.
The bike is in the back of the car as I will keep My Friend company today while we explore this large (15,000 ha) of marshy plain which comprises grasslands, woodlands and lakes.
Our first stop was at Cerkev Svetega Mihaela v Črni Vas which I think is basically the Catholic Church of St Michael on the Marsh. It was designed by the architect Plečnik (1937-40) and, because of the type of soil, had to be supported on 350 eight-metre long piles (Plečnik was responsible for much of the architecture in Ljubljana).
Not long after, the sun came out for yet another lovely day as we drove to Ig which was our staging point for two excursions.
One was to Ribniki v Dragi: ponds in the valley of Draga which were excavated in the 18th century either for clay for the nearby brickyard or for fish-farming. Over 130 species of birds have been listed here. We enjoyed the numerous flowers as we walked part of the way along the lake. Now, get ready for lots of flower shots!
It was soooo peaceful.
Back to Ig, where we stopped at a gostilna for a coffee (which is probably the best I have had in Slovenia).
Our 2nd port of call was the Iški Vintgar. The scenery on the way was beautiful.
And we came across a van that stopped regularly (with a Mr Whippy-type of call) to sell cakes, biscuits, buns and bread. Always ready to do what the locals do, I got My Friend to stop (on the incredibly narrow road I have to say!) and I bought some pastries for lunch (and had a ‘chin-wag’ with the fellow running the van). Hilarious!
We had a pleasant walk through part of this gorge and stopped for lunch.
But there are some serious walks here which would require more planning to undertake. There was a monument to WWII partisans that we came across.
We then travelled along the edge of dense woodland that rose up high into the adjacent hills on one side while grasslands and pasture rolled out for miles in the other direction.
We arrived at Jezero, another lake, and enjoyed a long stroll through woodland and past local properties with apple trees, vines and vegetable gardens back to the gostilna at the lakeside park where locals were enjoying the sun, lying out on the jetties or on the grass.
We had a drink and a coffee and a read while the clouds rolled in again until it was time to move on to Vrhnica, our destination.
Along the way, we passed the Technical Museum of Slovenia which also houses Tito's cars. We knew it was closed on Mondays (like most museums in Slovenia) but My Friend may return tomorrow (and I may ride onto Postoljna, weather permitting).
At Vrhnica, it started to rain but we had little on the agenda here so got more maps at the Tourist Info plus found somewhere to return to later for dinner. We are staying at a hotel here (pretty standard fare but there is not much else here that I could find on the Internet). It is a little town. I just couldn't resist this photo of a window box display - of all the ones I have seen, I think this one may take the cake!!!!
Our gostilna for dinner was a find, though. Like a tavern it was, with pottery light shades hanging from the old wooden roof anda lovely girl served us; she is also a fashion photographer so My Friend got her to take our photos. She was a great help in deciphering the menu although we ended up with too much food; the food was lovely and we had home-made wine too which was yum.
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