Jump

Just a brief review of my itinerary and to share some of my better photos from my recent trip to Slovenia. As I drove throughout the Slovenian countryside I continually asked myself how it was possible for a country to be so beautiful! I was in Slovenia from 9/11 to 9/19, 2012.

The best way to view the photos is after the slideshow page opens, in the lower right hand area of the screen is an icon to expand to Full Screen.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/4013978...14820038/show/

Day 1 – Venice to Bovec and a night in Bovec

Day 2 – Through Vrsic Pass to Lake Bled. Unfortunately it rained the entire day so the trip through Vrsic Pass didn’t allow for any photography. While I tried a few photos at Lake Bled, it was raining and the light conditions were terrible

Day 3 – Another day in Lake Bled and another day of steady rain.

Day 4 – Finally the rain had ended. Lake Bled to Ljubljana with stops at Lake Bohinj and Skofja Loka. Unfortunately I didn’t get to Skofja Loka until later in the day so I didn’t get the opportunity to explore it to the extent I had hoped

Day 5 – Explore Ljubljana

Day 6 – Day trip to Logar Valley doing a loop that took me through Jezersko, briefly into Austria, the Logar Valley, Kamnik and back to Ljubljana

This is the route in case anybody wants to replicate it. Beautiful drive!

http://maps.google.com/maps?saddr=Lj...ra=ls&t=h&z=10

http://maps.google.com/maps?saddr=Je...1,2,3&t=h&z=13

https://maps.google.com/maps?saddr=L...via=1&t=h&z=13

http://maps.google.com/maps?saddr=Ka...ra=ls&t=h&z=11

Day 7 – Day trip to the Postojna caves, Predjama Castle and Sneznik Castle

Day 8 – I had a free day set aside for today in case I wanted to return to any previous viewed locations due to weather and if not, a free day to explore somewhere else. Since I had miserable weather my 2 days at Lake Bled I decided to return today for the photo opps and for Vintgar Gorge

Thanks to everyone who helped me organize this fantastic trip!

Michael

Nice pictures. Isn't this Bled?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/4013978...57631814820038

bobthenavigator

Wow---spectcular.
Tell me what software you use to edit.

yestravel

Great photos! Thanks for sharing. In terms of time was a week enough or would you have allocated more time if you could have?

adrienne

I'm with Bob - if Slovenia looked like your photos when I was there I would have liked it better. What camera do you use and were these photo shopped? They're gorgeous!

Michael

adrienne,

the camera is a Nikon D90. I suspect that there was relatively little editing.

irishface

Gorgeous! Your colors pop!

Jump

Thanks everyone. Michael is correct, it was a Nikon D90 (and yes, it is Lake Bled). On some of the photos I did use a technique called HDR which is too complex to go into an explanation here but you can Google it. I prefer to not use that technique for landscape shots unless the light conditions dictate it to get more detail but I love a light application of it for buildings.

The others I did the normal editing I find necessary with digital photos, a little increase in saturation and sharpness (in my opinion 35mm film had much better color saturation as shot than digital).

And beyond all of that, the subject matter helps tremendously!

Jump

yestravel, I could easily have spent more time there. I didn't visit the coast area or Eastern Slovenia at all. Spending some time in wine country would have been nice. Spending a night or two at a tourist farm would have been fun. There are other caves I would have liked to visited and I'm sure there are many more castles to see.

pja1

Hi Jump,

Fantastic photo's! Thank you for posting and making us add another country to our very short list of places we'd like to visit. If you don't mind, could you post the websites or hotel info of the places you stayed?

Paul

latedaytraveler

Jump, fabulous photos, really exceptional.

What is the predominant language spoken in Slovenia and did you have any difficulty in communicating?

Again, thanks so much...

Jump

Thanks pja1 and latedaytraveler!

pja1, the hotels:

Bovec: www.hotel-mangart.com

Very clean with a decent breakfast offering. Easy walking distance to the town. Decent restaurant with good prices. Nice outdoor patio to enjoy a beer and the views of the Alps all around you.

Lake Bled: http://www.mayer-sp.si/gb/index.html

My favorite. An older property than Bovec but very clean. The owners were great and would bend over backward to help you. Great restaurant for dinner and a very good breakfast offering.

Ljubljana: http://www.slamic.si/en/index.html

My least favorite of the three but still very adequate. An easy 5-10 minute walk to Old Town. Free private parking but it was a little tight.

latedaytraveler. Slovene is the primary language but in all tourist areas English is very prevalent. In the small, off the beaten path towns the older generations won't speak English but there is usually a younger person around who does. The only time I ran into this was when I stopped for gasoline in a small town.

Mikenmass

Very nice pictures! Thanks for sharing.

pja1

Hi,

Thanks for the excellent info! I was also wondering if it was easy to navigate roads and highways. I'm certainly going to do more research into a trip like yours. The routes and maps you posted will be a great help to get us started. Thanks again for taking the time to post the photo's and info about your trip.

Paul

Jump

Paul,

I brought along a GPS which I find invaluable. Others have said that they've done fine without one but I travel alone so I don't have the benefit of a navigator in the seat next to me. For my trip to Logar Valley I had to trick the GPS into taking me the way I wanted to go otherwise it would try to take me the most direct way. That is why there are 4 maps for that trip. Each map was an individual segment I put into the GPS separately. Even then, after the first leg was completed and I entered the information for the second leg, it tried to take me back a different way. I had printed the Google Maps so that allowed me to go the way I knew I needed to until the GPS caught on. I was to find out that the reason the GPS didn't want to go that way is it was a fairly minor road through Austria but an absolutely beautiful drive.

sundriedpachino

Very nice photos!

catcrazyaf

These are the most gorgeous photos. What a contrast in colors. Thanks for sharing.

julia1

Stunningly beautiful! Thanks for sharing.

Seznz

Stunning photos... makes me wish I was there!

pattyroth

Gorgeous photos!