Melbourne to Slovenia. August 2017

Hello. Dobar dan!

It is Sunday morning. We are now calmly ensconsed in our lovely apartment at Lake Bled in Slovenia. We arrived,without drama, yesterday. It has been a long haul. The joys of travelling from Oz, "The Tyranny of Distance," as Manning Clarke once said.

All started well on our Thai Airways flight from Melbourne. They fed and watered us well. It was a joy to stretch our legs in the spacious Bangkok airport with its gorgeous displays of exotic flowers dotted around the concourses. Arriving at our next Gate, for our Frankfurt flight, indicated that there was an hours delay. Eventually seated in the plane, it was announced that a flat tyre had now been detected and a delay of a further hour was expected. There goes our connection to Vienna. Never mind, we were destined to arrive early in the morning and no doubt there would be another flight to Vienna. There was, but the one they had re-scheduled for us was due to leave half hour after we arrived and we were half hour from the Gate. THat wasn't going to work! After a frustrating delay, we eventually spoke to a lovely young lady at the Lufthansa desk who put us on a flight leaving in two hours and gave us vouchers for coffee and cake. All was well with the world, although we were by now a little weary.

With the miracle of technology, our bags had followed our re-schedules and we boarded the super- efficient non-stop train to the city centre. We emerged to a sign that read 34.9 C. Lovely holiday weather but a bit of a shock on our tired brains. Delighted to be in Vienna we trundled our bags the 500 metres to our calm, olde world hotel and relished our arrival, 2.30pm.

Showered and changed it was time for a wander. We were surprised how quiet the city was. Perhaps because it is still the school summer hols, there was a definite relaxed mode amongst the summer clad populace. Wandering the Stadtpark introduced us to the prominence that the music culture plays in this city as statues of major composers proliferated. Signs advertising concerts abounded. Folk were seen carrying instrument bags on their backs as goodness knows how many ensembles and small orchestras are needed for the 20 plus concert venues daily. And amongst the culture were the homeless.

Deciding that we deserved a drink, we found a bar and people watched for awhile before finding an outdoor restaurant for a meal. We will return to Vienna later in our holiday to explore further.

Next day was a little cooler making for an easy journey/flight to Ljubliana, capital of Slovenia. Slick transfer shuttle of 40 mins took us directly to our apt where our convivial host, Andrej, met us to open up. Three days of relax mode to start.

Tony had read about Lake Bled in motorbike magazines, famed for its picturesque setting. It is indeed lovely, a small lake, surrounded by wooded mountains, island in the middle with church spire and a castle perched on a cliff to one side. Loved by multiple thousands! If you ignore the constant promenade of people walking the lake's perimeter, the steady flow of cars traversing the narrow roads and the somewhat bland architecture of the monolith hotels, it really is pretty!

So we joined the promenaders. Had fun finding familiar goodies in the supermarket, checked out the variety of adventure activities offered to those so inclined and then found another bar!

Despite the hype surrounding this lake, it is attractive. I was stopped short when the haunting sound of a flute playing music from "The Mission" came floating over the calm water from a lone busker. That was special!

So now definitely in holiday mode. We had a decent sleep last night and are ready to explore further afield. It is a little damp today, but maybe we can hire some bikes. Tony is looking at the electric ones!

East meets West in the classical world

A well-deserved drink after a long haul.

Tony keen to get going next day.

 

Postcard scenery.

 

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