Slovenia
24 hours in Piran
As first-time visitors to Piran, what immediately struck us was how it felt more Italian than the towns we’d passed through/stayed in during our travels around Slovenia. […]
Slovenia
Europe
Spellbound in the Logar Valley in Slovenia
We change into light walking clothes and head deep into a glacial valley renowned for its beauty in a country where scenic splendour comes as standard. It is completely enclosed by mountains – on two sides are conifer-clad slopes, behind us are high meadows, ahead tower the saw-toothed peaks of the Kamnik-Savinja Alps. […]
Hiking
Why pay for specialist travel guidebooks and holidays?
It’s a convivial gathering, eight of us around a dining table at a rural hotel in a converted farmhouse. The food has been plentiful, the wine flowing. As the evening progresses we get to know one another better and tongues loosen. […]
Europe
Travelling by train across Slovenia
Sitting on a wooden bench in the early morning sunshine at pretty little Bohinjska Bistrica train station – flower baskets hanging from wooden eaves frame pine-clad hills and the timber yard opposite – we’re old soldiers. […]
Douro
The best and worst of travel in 2019
Delivering training sessions about some of the destinations we’ve visited over the year prompts us to reflect on our experiences in a specific location; something which doesn’t always happen immediately after a trip as there’s nearly always somewhere else exciting to visit steaming toward us. […]
Europe
Adventures in another world, Velika Planina in Slovenia
Forget jaw-dropping, breathtaking, mind-blowing, awesome or any such word. All are too feeble to describe first contact with Velika Planina. The feeling of standing on a ridge looking down on this scattering of wooden herdsmen’s homes is one of a sense of discovery. […]
Europe
What’s so good about Ljubljana
Sitting in a riverside bar in Ljubljana and the movie Logan’s Run pops into my head; I instinctively close my fist around what would be a black-for-an-aeon palm flower embedded into my palm. Ljubljana is a young city, possibly the youngest-feeling city we’ve visited. Young and vibrant. […]
Hiking
Impressions from walking around Lake Bled in Slovenia
Very quickly the natural and historic scenery takes over, and what glorious scenery it is. Bled Castle sits nobly on its perch; the bushy forest, just taking on some coppery autumn hues in early September, sweeps down to the water’s edge […]
Hiking
The ups and downs of seven days of walking
Will we be up to the challenge? Have our muscles atrophied to the point of no return? A trio of leg muscle-loosening exercises before we set off is akin to slapping a slumbering drunk – “come on, wake up you lazy gits”. […]