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As a crash course in Slovenian topography, Gašper took me on a driving tour. In one day, we experienced the countryside, castles, mountains, winding forest roads and rivers, further fostering my quickly-multiplying affection for this place. Our first stop, the 13th century Turjak castle:

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The castle was officially closed to visitors that day, but the charming elderly groundskeeper kindly let us into the courtyard and showered us with trivia all the while.

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This gigantic linden tree at the castle gates is famous and has been here for hundreds of years.

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We pulled over near a school to consult the GPS, and to discover incredibly thick, low-hanging fog over the mountains, as well as amusing (if unattractive) graffiti in the parking lot. Beach.

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The fog and the ferns were giving serious Twin Peaks that morning.

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I spotted this freestanding observation hut just as we were about to drive into a forest. Seeing my excitement at this wee treehouse, Gašper gallantly flipped a U-turn and pulled over.

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It had to be climbed – there was something visibly quick-but-loving about the construction of this thing, between the texture and smell of the morning-damp, recently-cut wood and the solid constitution.

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The forest was beautiful and reminded me of my spring mushroom-picking expeditions back in Russia.

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A little while later, we happened across a curious church, so we stopped.

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I was perplexed by the presence of a speaker peering squarely from a stained-glass window.

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There were wild plum trees in the back, near the attached cemetery,

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so we sampled a few of the ripe ones.

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The cemetery itself was teeny and speckled with red glass lanterns, flowers and the occasional chillin’ cherub.

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Smart being swallowed by the hills:

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Our official mid-day destination was Turisti?na Kmetija Madroni?, a restaurant and lodge in the Kolpa valley, the sort of wonderful place you only find if you know it’s there.

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It was around noon and the morning fog had disappeared. We could see and hear the rushing water from the riverbank terrace – late September is considered off-season and we were literally the only people there.

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The local specialty – fried trout, as well as Serbian pljeskavica and, not pictured, is another Slovenian delicacy we ordered: walnut brandy.

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After lunch and a walk along the river, we took a different route back to Ljubljana.

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Sheeeeep.

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This is probably a hay storage, but it looks like a chapel amidst the fields:

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We left Ljubljana around 10AM, and were back around 5PM. Our itinerary, for the curious (click for big):

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