Post It from Camping Ljubljana Resort, Ljubljana, Slovenia. Tuesday 12th May, 2015.

The drive from Austria was only about 65 miles along the A2 motorway in Slovenia having crossed the border via the 5 mile long Karawacken Tunnel. Our Go Box deducted the toll charge for us and on the Slovenian side we paid tolls by card or cash due to our weight. However when I tried to pay the 10.10€ using my MasterCard the young lady said it was not accepted, only EuroCard, which I later learned was another name here for MasterCard and was widely accepted in Slovenia. The scenery along the way was of lush fields and heavily forested hills and mountains.

We found the camp site very easily and received a very welcoming reception in perfect English from two young ladies. The site also includes a hotel complex, a bit like a Campanile style accommodation, a large gym and a swimming pool which had yet to open. The lay out of the site was very good with hard standing pitches down avenues and each had their own patch of grass adjacent the hard standing. Others were on grass and situated amongst mature trees. There was even a direct access in the fence to a river side walk and cycle path. A restaurant completed the facilities with fre wi-fi at reception and cheap 24 hour passes for only 2€ from the pitches. I must say it was slow though and I am not sure I shall be able to post this story with the accompanying photos.

The toilet block was lacking, dated and in need of refurbishment although the hot water was plentiful. There were no ground level waste water disposal points for those who needed them and the chemical toilet disposal point was at the very corner of the site in a storage compound where you enter so a long walk for most.

We had an enjoyable first evening swapping stories with a couple who occupied the pitch opposite ours, Jenny and Paul, who happened to come from Sheffield which is not a million miles from East Yorkshire where we live. We gave them details of Camping Jodl and Natterer See for their return journey so perhaps Dianne may see them? They left the next morning heading for the tiny piece of Slovenian coastline sandwiched between Italy and Croatia.

We could buy our bus payments at the site and they were loaded onto a credit style card. 1.20€ gave one person 90 minutes of travel on unlimited busses, you just swiped in on board and if you told the driver to take more passengers tickets off the one card this was also possible rather than getting a card each.

We could have easily cycled into the city of Ljubljana, less than 3 miles away, along cycle paths and once in the City there were cycle paths everywhere. If there was no path in the Old Town pedestrian areas then it appeared absolutely fine for cyclists to ride with the pedestrians, and lots of cyclists were seen everywhere.

The city, as a capitol, is very small I think. It only has a population of around 280,000 and you could walk from one side of the central area to the other in 20 minutes. The Old Town was situated along the river of the same name. It is a very welcoming city with a small town feeling.

I was pleasantly surprised to learn that it is said to have been founded by the Greek mythological here Jason, who had stolen the golden fleece and fled King Aetes with his fellow Argonauts by ship across the Black Sea and up the River Danube, Sava and Ljubljanica to its source. There they disassembled their ship and carried it over land to the Adriatic Sea where it was reassembled and they sailed back to Greece. On their way across the land Jason slayed the Ljubljana Dragon which is now the cities mascot. The reason I was surprised is that I knew the story, but not this detail, and named our son Jason having him in mind when we did so. His middle name came from a Biblical hero for those who know him.

We had an excellent day wandering the beautifully clean street which were full of people and saw pretty much all the sights we wanted to in the one day. We got off the bus outside the Drama Theatre and viewed from the steps of the Holy Trinity Church the Kongresni Trg (Square) with Slovenian Philharmonic building at the end and Ljubljana Castle high above. You could catch a funicular train up to the Castle, rather than climb the footpath, from the area of the old market by the side of the river. From here you could wander along the many craft stalls alongside the river to see the Cathedral Church of St Nicholas before heading across the ‘Three Bridges’ into Presernov Trg  where the Franciscan Church, coloured pink, is located.

We had a good look in all the shops, spent some money on Sharon’s Italian shoes, and enjoyed walking along the banks of the river which had many elegant dining places of all types along its length whilst listening to the pupils in the University buildings playing their musical  instruments near to the Cobblers Bridge. Finally we tried to make our way to Tivoli Gardens but the main road and railway line between the centre and the Gardens meant a long detour for us so in the heat of the day we gave it a miss but did get to admire the bronze figures surrounding the entrance doors to the State Parliament building.

We thoroughly enjoyed our visit to this city and are looking forward to visiting Slovenia again perhaps on our way back home and taking in Lake Bled. Tomorrow we head for the Island of Krk in Croatia but have decided to follow a tourist route along the 106 south from Ljubljana as it is marked as having beautiful scenery along its full length on our map. The Caravan Club touring guides show it as being a major road, although it does not appear to be on our maps, so we should hopefully have no problems. There are petrol stations and even a Lidl located along the route to the Croatian border at Blod so it should be just fine.

Regards, Roy