Wednesday, December 27, 2017:  Ljubljana, Slovenia to Zagreb, Croatia 

After breakfast at the hotel, we drove northwest of Ljubljana toward the Lake Bled area of Slovenia.  We are hoping to take a drive into the mountains, and over several passes, but we will see how the day goes.  There are low clouds and it is raining here in the city.  It will either get worst or get better.

There is an autobahn going toward the Triglav Mountains, but it stops soon after the exit to Bled/Lake Bled.  However, in the guide book there is a recommendation to stop at the village of Radovljica. It is known for the paintings on buildings and ginger bread – especially gingerbread hearts.  In this village there is also a museum on the art of beekeeping.  Slovenia is the primary honey producing country in Europe.  Cal definitely had an interest in visiting the museum. It was an excellent presentation.  

Bee Exhibit

Carrying a Bee Hive

Decorative Bee Hive

Painted Bee Hive Fronts

In Slovenia most beekeepers keep their hives in bee houses. That is, there can be 15-20 hives next to each other in a building, with the entrance to the hive outside the building.  They also paint the front panel of their bee boxes. They think bees can detect color and design – don’t know if that is an actual fact!  After the bee museum we went to the gingerbread house, where they make, bake and decorate gingerbread.  A lot of them are for ornaments.  Many of the ornaments are in the shape of hearts.  This was a fun place.  Since it was raining, it was great to be inside where it was dry and warm.   We did not want the rain to hinder our exploring, as we had coats, hat, gloves and umbrellas.        

Gingerbread Museum

Gingerbread Bee House

It continued to rain the whole way to the town of Bled.  Between the raindrops, we were able to take photos of Lake Bled, the Bled Castle and the Island in the middle of the lake on which there is a church.  We drove up to the castle, but it was a wet, cold, miserable tour. Back in the car, we drove to the other side of the lake for more photos. We had to keep a cotton cloth with us at all times to keep our camera lens dry.  

Bleb Castle

View from the Castle

Castle Winery

Church on Bleb Lake Island

By now we decided the weather was NOT going to improve, just become more dense fog and more rain, so be aborted our idea of the higher Triglav mountains/National Park.   With that in mind, we continued on the lake road, going deeper into the mountain valley, to yet another lake at the end of the road.   On our way we pulled off the main road and followed a narrow road into this little grouping of homes/barns/hay-racks, etc. All of a sudden, Cherie saw a bee house/shed (see photo).  We spent a more time in this village than expected, as we saw numerous bee houses, plus they had interesting barns and homes, etc.

At the end of the road we turned around and retraced our route.  By now we knew the weather was not changing today.  We decided the only thing to do was head back to Zagreb.  We can have a relaxing evening, eating our last meal in Zagreb and repacking.  Our flight leaves for Munich at 1:10 tomorrow.  

One of Many Hay Racks

Bee House