It was time to turn the Polo in.  We drove almost 1,000 kilometers in the car.  It got us up the Julian Alps and to the Adriatic.  It was pretty hard to find a reasonably priced automatic in Slovenia but I’m glad I did.  The Hertz in Maribor was not in the center of the city but about 3 kilometers out of the center.  We decided to return the car 2 hours early so we could have the rest of the day free.   Hertz was supposed to open at 8 so we didn’t think we would have any problem.  When we got to the place it looked more like a repair shop and there was a driving school across the way.  There was a little sign for Hertz and the door was locked.  I asked people in the office next door (seemed like they were the AAA of Slovenia) and they went and got the phone number.  She called Hertz for me and said they would be there in 10 to 20 minutes. 

Maribor has been different from any other city in Slovenia I have visited.  There aren’t tourist busses or English menus everywhere.  There were some cute clay houses around all of the trees on a main square.  I’m pretty impressed that people don’t steal them or knock them over.  I can also say I have seen the oldest producing grape vine in the world.

We found a cute market to walk around and then we headed to the square to look at the music going on.  We also needed some lunch and since it seems like nobody eats out here it has been harder to find food.  Most people eat at home and just go out to get a drink.  There were some sausage stands in the square, and we thought maybe we should try some sausage.  I walked up to the stand and asked if they spoke English.  Naturally they did not so I ordered 2 plates of sausages using German.  I would have loved to know that one plate was 6 sausages but of course that isn’t advertised.  They  were wonderful people and I tried really hard to be polite and eat all of my sausages but I just couldn’t do it. 

Our drive from Bled to Maribor was about 2 hours.  Pretty crazy to think that you can drive across country in 2 hours.  We arrived in Maribor and decided that since we still had the car we would go check out a town called Ptuj which was about 20 minutes away.  Not sure it was worth the drive but it did allow me to fill up the car before returning it the next day.

Ptuj was pretty quiet.  Not many shops were open so we just did an hour walk around the city before returning to Maribor.  This part of the country is really popular for wine.  I suppose if you like wine then you would have a great time visiting all of the wine cellars.

There is nothing better than the sun beating through the window of the balcony door even if it is 5:30.  One thing I like about sleeping in the Alps is that I can have my window open all night and I can hear the sounds of crickets when I fall asleep and birds when I wake up (from the moment I stepped out of the car in Bled there was a Cuckoo bird singing).  This was the first morning that it was totally nice so I basically jumped out of bed and wanted to walk around the lake before breakfast.  The trick was that I also wanted to hike up to a view point en route around the lake.  If you just walk the nicely paved trail around the lake it takes around an hour and a half. 

Lake Bohinj is the largest natural permanent lake in Slovenia and is about 30 minutes from Bled (don’t ask what is the non-permanent largest lake is).  As you drive from Bled to Bohinj you are surrounded by Alps so you always have a nice view.  The road is a nice country road with a lot of curves.  I have yet to get a photo but because Slovenia is so wet (maybe even more than Portland) they hang their hay to dry.  They are cute wood covered drying racks. 
Bohinj seems like an outdoors person’s paradise.  I wish I was writing to tell you I went paragliding off of the mountain we went up but that just isn’t for me.  Instead I pay money to ride the gondola up the mountain and back down.  The gondola is used in the winter to transport the skiers up to their playground.  Stunning ski slopes and cross country trails.  They say that the ski season goes to early May but I didn’t see any snow so maybe this was a quiet year for them.

In the summer, you can pick from a number of hiking trails.  A lot of the hikes recommend mountaineering equipment, map and sometimes a mountain guide.  Since we didn’t have any of that, I guess a hike up in the Alps wasn’t for this trip.  Although I do have my eye on one hike up there.  The description sounds interesting: “Leading along the mountain ridges was the old Italian – Yugoslav border.  Therefore, the area abounds in remains of border stones and various military buildings.”  Anyone want to volunteer to do this hike with me?

Piran is on the Adriatic Sea and you can see Italy to the north and Croatia to the south.  We found a place to eat right on the water.  I really could have stayed at the table all day just staring at the sea.  People just climb down the ladders that are along the walkway and go swimming.  Pretty crazy to me since I saw plenty of jelly fish when I was walking by the fishing boats. 

Slovenia has many caves and I was lucky enough to explore Skocjan today.  It is not the most popular cave in Slovenia but that is just by the standards of tourism.  The most popular cave seems more like a Disneyland ride.  Reading about the caves Slovenia has to offer, this cave seemed more authentic and less touristy.  Of course my ideal cave exploration would be with a headlamp and not 20 people but funny enough our tour included the same Japanese tour group that we saw in Triglav yesterday.  I guess we think alike (however we didn’t pay a couple thousand dollars to come up with the same plan).

What do you when it is raining out?  You head to a cave and then to the Adriatic.  Basically we drove the length of Slovenia in less than 2 hours.  This makes it a reasonable day trip.  Below is a map of where Piran is located.  You can see Croatia and Italy to the south and north.  Let’s just say this is well worth the drive even if gas is expensive. 

Yesterday along the drive through Triglav National Park, we just happened to come across an Alpine Botanical garden.  I was actually hesitant to hike up to it since it was raining pretty heavy but I love taking photos of flowers.  As we hiked up to the garden we heard a tour bus pull up.  It was the same tour group we followed on the hike earlier.  Here are some of my favorite photos at the botanical garden.