DAY 6 - THURSDAY 17 MARCH - LJUBLJANA IN SUNSHINE

Typical that the sky is blue for the last morning, so we race back to the bridge before breakfast and sadly it's an 11am flight back to Stansted
 

DAY 5 - WEDNESDAY 16 MARCH - CERKNICA TO LJUBLJANA

Last full day and we're headed back to the capital.  We've never seen so many logs, stacked up very neatly under cover...

Mind you, when you see the snow, you realise why so many chimneys and puffing out blue wood smoke

The car safely stashed at our hotel very close to the dragon bridge, we visited Preseren Square (named for Slovenia's leading romantic poet) with the 1660 Franciscan Church of the Annunciation

Ljubljana's mascot is the dragon, seen everywhere...
 

 

Lunch was fish and chips - a bit cold but very good indeed

And then up in the castle via the new funicular - yet more dragons and some lovely views over the city

In the castle museum is a copy of the Danse Macabre mural which we missed 2 days ago

 

DAY 4 - TUESDAY 15 MARCH - ADRIATIC COAST INLAND TO CERKNICA

Divert south to Hrastovlje along twisty hillside views

for the fortified Church of the Holy Trinity. Unfortunately can’t get inside to see the Danse Macabre mural 

Quick coffee stop on outskirts by flooding (probably overflow from Lake Cerknica) and go south-east for Cerknica.

Signs for Sneznik Castle which lead us to what looks like a large turreted house

mounted on a small keep and moat. 
  

It’s very quiet so we're unexpectedly treated to a private tour of the four beautiful floored interior with intricate parquet floors and hand-printed wallpaper. No photos save in the entry hall.

A very late lunch outside the castle – now raining – then return to Cerknica for somewhere to lay our heads and we find a penzion advertising pizza and rooms. What else do you need?

DAY 3 - MONDAY 14 MARCH - SKOFJA LOKA TO THE ADRIATIC COAST VIA PREDJAMA CASTLE

The 1274 gothic castle of Predjama was built under a natural rocky arch high in the stone wall, making access impossible.  to make access to it difficult. It's known as the seat of Erazem, a 15th century knight and robber baron, son of the Imperial Governor of Trieste, who had a bounty on his head.  He was beseiged in his fortress for a year and a day but, knowing a secret tunnel leading down from the castle, often nipped out for supplies so life wasn't so bad.  His enemies had the last laugh though as apparently he was finished off by a well-aimed cannon through the window as he sat on the loo.

The present-day castle is a reconstruction dating from 1570 (the seige was closely followed by a 1567 earthquake)
 

  
From there, it was not so far towards the Adriatic coastline.  Slovenia's tiny parcel, wedged between Italy and Croatia, is only 47km long, 

boasting three seaside towns – Koper, Izola and Piran, with winding cobbled streets and Venetian Gothic architecture.

 

Sadly the downside of ancient winding cobbled streets is that they're not car-friendly so it was park and ride from the outskirts and we didn't stay too long after all

DAY 2 - SUNDAY 13 MARCH - BLED CASTLE AND SOUTH TO SKOFJA LOKA

It's a fair walk up a cobbled pathway to the terrace at the top of the castle (chilly, as you see from the hat!) but a super view
 

and quaint well-preserved building

containing a museum and a forge.  Back down the hill 

and south across the snowy hills

we stopped in the pretty town of Radovljica

for how can you pass by a museum dedicated to gingerbread... well, honey dough in fact

then a little further south again

to our overnight stop of Skofja Loka ("bishop's meadow"), a gracious town established in 973 and with a chequered history of plague and fire, peasant revolts, earthquakes and book-burning. 

There are lots of well-preserved river terrace houses and the Cappuchin bridge, the oldest preserved bridge in Slovenia, over the Selca Spra river.