Slovenia

Rob:
After leaving Opatjia we arrived in Rijeka to return the car, we hit a small snag. Even though we told the store where we picked it up that the reservation was to return it at noon on Sunday, we arrived at the store and it was closed. It had a number to call (great we have no phone). The guys at Avis were nice enough to call our guy and he said he was running late. When he did show he said he was going to charge us a $50 fee because he doesn't normally work on Sunday. McKay pulled the Jedi mind trick on the dude and said, "We will pay the agreed-on price and nothing more." His eyes glazed over and after a quick call to his "supervisor" he made an exception. It was amazing. She said she learned it from living in Africa. We made it on the train to Slovenia.

About 20 min into our train ride a woman plops down next to us and just starts chattering away about some crazy monk throwing stuff at the front of the train. It turns out that she entered the wrong car and thought we were the same people she had been talking to before she went to the bathroom (she didn't actually figure that out until the Slovenian border when she realized that her bag was missing). Her name was Tina and she was a very nice lady. Her father was Danish and her mother was from Atlanta, Georgia, which gave her a very nice European accent with a little southern twang (like the word "yes" being 3 syllables). She said we didn't look American because our clothes were wrinkled and our hair wasn't perfect.

Slovenia

McKay:

Llubljana

Pronounced loob-lee-AH-nah is the capital of Slovenia. We stopped here on our way from Rovinj to Lake Bled. Also worth a stay, we contented ourselves with taking a brief look at the notable architecture, buying a beehive cover as a souvenir (will hang on my wall later), filling our water bottles at the common fountains, and eating yet more gelato.

Lake Bled

You should always confirm your reservations in Lake Bled. We, thinking our email before we left the US was sufficient to confirm, arrived apparently 5 minutes too late to stay in what was to be one of our better rooms. Tired and disheartened and a little disgruntled (no, we do not have a mobile phone here in Europe!) we were grateful the proprietor found us accommodations, although they did not have the beautiful view of the lake that she had. Sigh.

We spent the evening walking around the lake and enjoying the cooler weather and a horse burger from the hockey game (tasty. We didn't know it was horse at the time).

Rob:
Lake Bled is the place where Slovenia brings people they want to impress. It is the most beautiful town/lake I have ever seen. It is like living in a Disney movie.

The water is perfect for swimming, there are no motor boats allowed on the lake, they have a family of swans protected by law, a castle on a hill, a beautiful church on an island in the middle of the Lake, and the back drop of the Alps. Wow! I half expected there to be singing mice in our room.

The next morning we were early to rise, surprised our host and had a wonderful walk around the lake all to ourselves. It was just what we needed to relax. Unlike Plitvice, you can fish Bled and we saw a guy land the biggest freshwater fish I have ever seen (not counting sturgeon). But we couldn't stay forever so we said good bye to our last European bed/shower and got on the bus.