As we drove further, gaining elevation with each turn, we hit the snow line. The summit was at 1600 meters (5,285 feet). It was very cold and windy and not quite in alignment with my plans for a picnic lunch at the summit. The summit is historically known for being the highest elevation battle fought in WW1 between Italy and the Austria/Hungarian empire. Most soldiers died from the cold and desolate surroundings.
As we descended the Julian Alps, we entered the Succo River
Valley. However, to get to the valley, I
still had 26 more hairpin turns. I did fine until Turn 38 and then I had to
close my eyes and find my happy place until the end at Turn 50. Once on the
valley floor, we flowed the Socco River and the WWI historical sites along the
way. There were many mass graveyards with a marker to commemorate the soldiers.
The day was a full driving tour and went through some of the
most beautiful parts of Sovenia. By the
end of the day, we were out of the mountains and headed towards civilization on
the autostrada on our way to the capital city Ljublijana. About 2 miles onto
the autostrada, an unmarked car pulled in front of us with a flashing sign in
their rear window saying, “Police, Follow Me.” We definitely had not been
speeding. There were no sirens, the flashing sign was only in English and they
definitely meant for us to follow them. They did not pull over to the side of
the road, but rather to an off-ramp and from there into some random parking
area behind a fire station. My warning instincts went into overdrive when to
guys wearing scrappy jeans and t-shirts, plus no visible guns or any other
police bits, got our of the car and flashed their badges, claiming to be
police. They requested passports and would not immediately state a reason for
pulling us over. Matt was required to supply paperwork on the vehicle along
with his own identification. They did not seem to understand that Matt owned
the car and proceeded to check his registration. I began filming and taking
photos of the guys. Everything was red flags. I had visions of kidnappings, car
theft, muggings, etc. Matt had noticed a woman next door who was hanging her
laundry and watching the whole thing. Matt had waved to her basically to let
the “cops” know, “Hey, someone else has seen us with you two guys.” They stated
they had a computer in the car which was hard to believe. Matt followed from
about 20 feet away and verified they indeed were looking up our info on the
computer.
Turns out, at each autostrada on-ramp, there are cameras
which look for the Blue Slovenian vignette sticker. Matt tried to explain that
in Austria we were told we were sold a dual vignette sticker for both
countries, but they had never heard of such a thing. The fine for using the
roads without a sticker is 300 euro. When we had passed through without a
sticker, they were dispatched to ticket us. Fortunately, the cops could clearly
tell that we were tourists, they verified the car was not stolen, it was
legitimately registered to Matt, and they could tell we thought we did do the
right thing by buying the vignette in Austria. They ended up giving Matt
directions as to where to get the sticker, what color it should be, the
duration and where it should be applied to the windshield. Everything turned
out ok and we were not fined, but went immediately to the Petrol Station to buy
the 16 euro vignette sticker. In all, they were really toll plaza police,
trying to catch people skirting the system (which admittedly, is a far better
system of stickers than it used to be in years past – gone are toll booths and
toll money takers at every on and off ramp). As Americans, we are used to very
by-the-book law enforcement, coupled with always having our guard up when
travelling. So wild thoughts were racing through our minds when in the end,
they were actually rather kind, let us know how to fix the issue, and said
goodbye. Weird.
We did not arrive in Lublijana until 6pm. The hotel was nice
and on a pedestrian street. However, the “hotel parking” that we paid for was
actually a spot reserved on the street. Matt left his car hoping it would be ok
in the morning. We had about 4 hours to explore the city. It’s a big city, but
where we stayed in Old Town with its riverside walks felt more European. The
residents are very proud of the castle, so due to limited time, we took the
funicular up rather than hiking. What remained of the original castle was very
little. Most of it had been rebuilt after various earthquakes and was now more
of a “Disney” experience. Up top it did not look like a castle, but rather a
plaza where you could choose from a variety of restaurants. The view was of a
big spawling city with a mix of communist era architecture and European orange
tiled roofs. In short, the castle was lame. The rest of the evening was spent
wandering around Old Town and the market area. The best discovery was a vending machine for milk!
Slovenia is known for their dessert called Prekmurska Gibanica. I had heard a podcast which said it was a “MUST” to try, so when we found a slice, I was excited to try it. It contains poppy seeds, walnuts, apples, raisins and ricotta fillings. I like all these ingrediants, but put them together, it was a big disappointment. Not delicious at all. It had a really weird texture. There wer 14 layers. Each ingredient is ground to a paste and applied between filo dough. I really wanted to like it and it was a splurged, but neither of us took more than 2 bites.
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