Spring Holidays

THE JULIAN'S LOG

Eleventh Post

"SPRING HOLIDAYS"

For those of you out there who enjoy activity breaks and holidays, Slovenia is definitely not just a one- season destination. The winter sports are fantastic, but the mountains, rivers and lakes lend themselves to all year round sports and activities. We are happy to help you organise your activities when you are here, if for a one/two week stay or just a long weekend. Here is just a summary of some of the activities on offer…….

FOCUS On……….ACTIVITY BREAKS

As you can see from the Ninth posting, our area is great for cycling. In Kranjska Gora there is also a downhill mountain bike course for adrenalin junkies. With the bikes, you are transported up the mountain by the summer chair lift, and then the rest is down to you!! You can race the "summer toboggan" down, which if you aren't up for the cycling, is a great blast down the mountain!!
A chairlift at each of Bled and Vogel also run in the summer, so high -level walking routes are accessible.

For walkers, there really is something for everyone, from low level flower filled pastures, to easy and more demanding high mountain summits. The mountain huts (doms or kocas) are now open until Autumn. They provide a welcome stop, where you can eat, drink and soak in the atmosphere and admire the views.

There are endless horse riding trails through the meadows and in the local area, with schools at Bled and Bohinj.
For water lovers, there are many lakes for swimming and now the fishing season is open, the rivers offer themselves to fishermen. The rafting on the Rivers Soca and Sava is popular and the rivers provide a variety of courses/levels to suit everyone.
If the sky is the limit for you, then locally in near Bled are opportunities to Parascend and Glide, where you can calmly look down upon the activities and life below in the mountains, rivers and lakes.













Hope you’ve enjoyed this edition. Next Blog focus will be on

SLOVENIA, HONEY AND BEE KEEPING

Spring Holidays

THE JULIAN'S LOG

Tenth Post

"SPRING HOLIDAYS"

The end of April, beginning of May brings with it a holiday atmosphere in Slovenia. April 27th is a Public holiday, celebrating the Day of Uprising against Occupation in 1941 and is closely followed by May 1st and 2nd, Labour Day holidays. People celebrate with friends, family and have short holidays at home or at the sea.

FOCUS ON……….MAY DAY CELEBRATIONS

On April 30th, the night before May Day, bonfires are lit like beacons around Slovenia, to remind people of looting from the Turks, which happened for 2 centuries. When there was danger of an attack, the fires were lit as a signal.
The fire in Mojstrana was huge this year, helped by our apple tree prunings. However, as locals gathered and the schnopps and beer were flowing, the fire was very slow to burn due to the rain over the previous 5 days, it was probably at it’s best as we left at 11.30!
We celebrated May Day itself, by walking up above Mojstrana to Borovje, a small mountain nestling on the Karawanke mountain range. We’d only ever walked up once before in thick cloud in November and in the wooden summit box we had discovered a full bottle of Schnopps. We had vowed to return and replenish it’s stocks! The view was much clearer this time round and the birds and flowers were in abundance to remind us it was Spring. There was still a welcome bottle of schnopps at the summit, and we left some Orehovec, walnut schnapps, as promised. Our friend Roman and his band “The Party Kings” played live in our local pizzeria in the evening, so we danced the night away, just in case we hadn’t done enough exercise for one day!

On May 2nd, we went to Kranjska Gora. Here it is traditional for horse riders from Slovenia, Italy and Austria to meet and “ride beyond the borders” The horses and riders created a colourful scene in the centre of this pretty alpine village, with it’s craft market stalls and outside bars hosting a friendly family day.




So, all in all we have enjoyed our truly Slovenian May Day Celebrations

Hope you’ve enjoyed this edition. Next Blog focus will be on
ACTIVITY BREAKS