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A natural beauty
Imagine creating a little European-themed train set country. You’d want some sun-dappled vineyards and orchards, rolling hills painted green and topped by white churches, and a coastline of cedars and olive groves. Rummaging around in your box of extras, you could add Renaissance cathedrals, pink villas and tidy farmhouses. In the background you could push the hills up into mountains, dusting the summits with snow and filling the valleys with clear alpine lakes. Set your train lines snaking through the countryside, under the walls of an old castle, through pine forests and past picket fences lined with wanton geraniums. And welcome to Slovenia: a lovely little toy country, where guards in red caps twiddle their handsome moustaches on railway platforms. Slovenia packs in an incredible diversity of landscapes and culture – a Mediterranean coastline, a corner of the Alps, rolling eastern plains. It managed to peacefully extricate itself from Yugoslavia intact, is more sophisticated than other eastern European countries, and more reasonably priced than western ones. Not surprisingly, travellers have begun sitting up and taking notice of this hidden little gem. For now, it offers the best of Europe without any of the crowds, theme parks or overcharging. Ljubljana elegantly proves that small cities can also pack a punch. You can walk across the city centre in 15 minutes, enjoy the renowned philharmonic orchestra in the gorgeous opera house and take your pick of a host of buzzy theatres. There are several very fine museums, including an excellent collection of paintings in the National Gallery. Indeed, the capital boasts thousands of cultural events each year, and its chief town statue shows not a king or a warrior but a poet. Ljubljana’s old town is a huddle of mediaeval and art nouveau buildings, innumerable bridges, and little squares hosting more cafes than you could try out in a lifetime. The beer is Germanic in its quality, the ice-cream Italian and the homey atmosphere of street markets distinctly central European. It’s the best of old Europe mixed with the new: young university students sit tapping at their laptops at riverside cafes, overlooked by statues of dragons, the symbol of this fairytale town. According to legend, the dragon slain by St George once lived beneath the hill where the castle now stands. From the parapet you can gaze north at the alps on the horizon. The Julian Alps are Slovenia’s greatest drawcard, and little more than an hour’s clickety-clack away by train north of Ljubljana. Lake Bled is one of those ridiculously beautiful corners of Europe, a crystal lake surrounded by alpine peaks and – needless to say – rounded off with a castle on a rocky crag. The castle interior is actually disappointing, but it’s worth the 15 minute hoof up from the lake to admire the battlement views. Better yet is the walk around the lake’s perimeter, which takes about an hour. Out on an island, the Church of the Assumption adds to the picturesque views. You can compete with the swans by rowing out to the island, where many Slovenians come to get married. Further into the mountains, Lake Bohinj is just as beautiful. It lies within Triglav National Park and, although not as developed as Bled, is just as scenic. You can boat, swim and hike, all the while admiring the reflections of the Church of St John the Baptist, which dates from 1520. When Agatha Christie holidayed here in the 1960s she was asked by a local journalist whether she was about to set a book in Bohinj. The crime writer replied it was far too beautiful for murder. In Slovenia’s north-west corner, the Soca River Valley has startling turquoise waters and marvellous vistas of surrounding peaks and forests. It’s probably a destination for the more adventurous, with skiing, cycling and river rafting. The clamber through Vintgar Gorge, where trout swim in the pools and the rocks are covered in moss, is a highlight. If you saw nothing but the Alps in Slovenia it would be a worthy journey, but those with the time can explore more of the country’s scenic treasures. West of Ljubljana lies a karst landscape (porous limestone) studded with vast cave systems. The most worthy are Skocjan Caves, a World Heritage site with some unbelievable formations, limestone pools and even an underground river, whose rumble is a little unnerving. Horse lovers will want to visit the Lipica Stud Farm, where Lipizzaner horses have been bred since 1580, to watch dressage performances of these famous dancing horses. Nearby Predjama has a spectacular castle perched on a vertical slab of rock as if defying gravity. Keep going and you reach the Adriatic coast – in fact, it’s just 200km from alpine peaks to shore in this pocket-sized place. Slovenia’s share of the Mediterranean stretches just 50km between Italy and Croatia. Its beaches will hardly win any awards from Australian visitors, but the coastline of olive groves is pretty enough, and dotted with Venetian-era fishing ports such as Koper and Piran, jumbled with Gothic architecture and cobbled laneways. The east of the country, in contrast, gets far fewer visitors and lies on the edge of eastern Europe’s vast plains. Maribor is a lovely riverside university town full of cafes perfectly situated among the vines: the sort of lazy little place where you can happily spend a day or two browsing the flea market, rambling the waterfront and admiring the views from the cathedral tower. In the countryside around about, visit cellar doors and explore the rich Roman and mediaeval history of the region. This is a modest place of quiet beauty, where green trains wander through a toy landscape, regular as clockwork. Travel facts When to go: Book ahead in July and August on the coast and December-February in the Alps. Getting around: DriveAway Holidays offers a wide range of car hire options in Slovenia. See www.driveaway.com.au or tel.: 1300 723 972. Slovenia Tourist Board: www.slovenia.info |
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Europe’s hidden gem has caught the eye of discerning travellers who want compact, cool, culture and charm. Slovenia fits the bill beautifully, as
Brian Johnson discovered.