Day 21 - 12th November 2016

I woke grateful not to hear any more rain. It had rained all evening. I rolled over and looked out the window at sunrise – 7am, to not hear any rain, but to see SNOW falling!!

I jumped out of bed so excited! SNOW!!! YAY!

Poor Steve groaned – he wasn’t happy about it snowing. After the other days events up in the Dolomites and us looking traction in the car, doing it again was the last thing he wanted. There was a real chance of us being stranded if the snow was deep.

Steve eventually got out of bed and went down to the car to see what sort of condition the car was in, and could we open the doors, or were they iced in?

YAY – it was wet snow…..wet slushy snow. Which meant it was too warm for the snow to form into ice, which meant the roads would be fine!

We did decide to drive the long way along the major roads to Lake Bled just to be sure. So we got going earlier than we planned just to be safe. We said our good-byes to Carlo and got our gear and jumped into the car.

Unfortunately because the wet snow was falling quite heavily, I couldn’t stop to do any photography. But it was ok – the snow wasn’t thick enough on the ground to make the cascades look pretty yet (maybe in a few days if it kept up the same way!)

The snow was only really falling around Plitvice, and not long afterwards the snow turned to slush and then to rain. The rain continued to fall most of the trip – well into Slovenia.

It was amazing to see just how much water the region has had. All of the creeks and rivers had all broken their banks and were flooding surrounding areas. No wonder Plitvice Lakes had area’s closed.

We came around the outskirts of Zagreb and then onto the border, which we went through really quickly – we were the only ones coming into Slovenia! It was amazing to see all the Slovenian’s trying to get into Croatia – the traffic was banked up for quite a few hundred meters! But we thought because it was a Saturday, people might be going across the boarder to fill up with food and fuel – it would be cheaper there maybe?

The countryside changed, as did the architecture. The Croatian homes that have had a very hard life & have been war ravaged, made way for a more affluent community of chalet style homes. You could really see the difference in everything, in the space of a few kilometres!

I was hoping the whole trip in Italy to come across a forrest to take images of the autumn foliage, but it just never happened.  I see gorgeous forests of "red" tree's on 500px and I would really love to see them.  As the Autumn colour was all about gone, I have come to realise it won't happy this trip, but we came to a section of forest that Steve could stop on the side of the road by and he let me loose.  It was still raining, but I didn't care.  Not the images I wanted, but they show some the remaining colour that was around.

The rain dissapated the further north we drove. Soon we could see the large mountains in the distance covered in snow, and we finally turned off the motorway to Lake Bled.

Our GPS took us the quick route, but that was through some of the smaller villages!!! Hysterical driving through street’s that are barely wide enough for us to fit through. Glad we did it though – it makes the experience so much better!

We finally made it to the lake! YAY – there it is in all it’s splendor!

We parked the car and went and grabbed lunch. Pannini’s (ham & cheese) and Hot Chocolates… true Italian custard style. I had a coconut flavoured one and Steve had White Chocolate – they were to die for. Then Steve had his favourite thing….. the local delicacy – the Vanilla Slice – or “cream cake”. Its light like air…. Whipped custard of sorts, its as light as air! (Stupid me should have had one !) But I was happy to finally see Steve enjoy something special just for him! It will be first of many over the next few days!

Steve bought a couple of postcards and managed to post them then and there! Its always so easy to buy postcards….but more difficult to buy stamps and post them. So glad we got that done...should have been the first week, but eh, you can’t rush these things!

We went walking around the lake. Not the whole way as time was against us, but we walked into the sun, enjoying the lake. 

 Lots of White Swans around – they are beautiful. 

 As it is a Saturday, the Lake was packed with locals all enjoying the lake. I’d hate to see this place in peak season – where would they all fit? Lol

We went to the hotel and checked in. Its more of an apartment style building, with about 6 apartments. We are on the top floor with a window overlooking the lake – RIGHT AT THE ISLAND!!! BOOM! Perfect! Steve was laughing – he doesn’t have to leave the room – he can do all of his photography from here he reckons! Ha ha ha

The room is quite small compared to everything else we’ve had (except the really tiny room up at Passe Rolle). But it is neat and comfortable – Steve will just have to keep his things tidy and not throw them all over the place and things will be fine! (ie Vicki will not get cranky and start nagging) – we’ll see how it goes!

We rested and then we realised the time was getting late already. Sunset is at 4.30pm, and it was 3pm and we didn’t really know where we were going to shoot from. We had an idea, but until you actually walk around, you loose time.

Of course its paid parking everywhere being a touristy town, and the machines only take coins and we didn’t have any. So Steve managed to find a small dirt road that we could park on for free  (I swear we went up a “no access” road)….. and we walked to the lake.

After a couple of minutes looking around, we decided upon a composition on a boardwalk looking at the Island.

We made it just in the nick of time, as the colour started to appear in the sky quickly and it really went off for us! YAY!!

I did some long exposure shots and Steve did some fast exposure with some long exposure shots at the end.

You can take all sorts of images of the same scene.... I even like this one too!

We left, only to come back about 10mins later to take some “blue hour” shots as the lights came on at the Castle high on the hill. They do light up the Island, but from the city side only, so we didn’t get to see any light our side, but that might be a good thing.

Happy with our images we went back to the apartment to warm up. It gets cold quickly when the sun disappears. Its going to be minus 4 overnight! (I’m secretly hoping for snow!!) ha ha ha – but that isn’t forecast for another week or so.

There is a restaurant "SOVA" at the bottom of our apartment, so being too tired to drive around and search for food, we decided to eat there.

OMFG, so glad we did! Its possibly the best food I’ve eaten – EVA!! I decided to have soup for entree.. ‘Chef’s Soup” - a Cream Truffle Soup with Proscuitto & croutons – OMG – to die for! I could have bathed in it!

Then for mains I had Salmon on Prawn filled Raviolli with Foam & a Saffron cream. OMG – so good.

Dessert was Mango Tiramisu. WOW – amazing!

Steve had slow cooked Veal Cheek with Mashed Potato & Veges. I almost ordered that too…. OMFG – it is the best thing I’ve ever tasted! Steve was lucky to get any! Ha ha ha

And for dessert Steve had the Chocolate Soufflé! WOW that was awesome too!

The food was so good, we’ve reserved a table for tomorrow night as well! Guess who’s having the soup and the Veal Cheek? Lol

Unable to move or eat anything else, we somehow managed to walk up the stairs to our apartment where we took off all our clothes and rolled around on the bed in that state where you’ve eaten too much and you feel sick but are still really happy you did! Ha ha ha

Its offical – all the lycra I’ve been wearing has reached its maximum stretch capacity! Not sure how I’ll manage to get through the next 5 days!! Hope they don’t split!

Hope the bed is comfortable tonight…… we’ll be up at 6am to be at the lake in position for 6.30am for sunrise. Doing the same location for sunrise, then tomorrow we’ll scout further up the hill so we have a birds eye view for sunset!!

Steve loves Slovenia – he could happily live here. What with the Vanilla Slices and the Veal Cheek and Hot Chocolate and the Lake – he’s a happy man! (Oh & they all seem to speak really good English too!)

Good Night Slovenia!

xxx