driving through the Julian Alps!

I was a tad nervous for today because it involved our first ever car rental experience!  We had a quick breakfast and were at the car rental place at 8am which was when our reservation was for. Unfortunately the place was locked up!  We waited around and finally at around 8:20ish someone showed up!

We got our car and we were off. We downloaded an app called maps.me which is essentially an offline GPS. It worked quite well!

We made our way just fine and eventually started climbing up the mountains. There are 24 hair pin turns (switchbacks) to get up to the very top of the mountains. The driving wasn't too bad. We were following Rick Steves self guided driving tour so he would recommend places to pull over to get out for good views or things to see. We probably stopped about 5 times on the way to the top. Today was really all about the views so it is best described in pictures!

It was raining when we started but got clearer and clearer throughout the day and ended up sunny!

Cow selfie!
 
 

 

 

 

 

At the summit

We were getting hungry and weren't quite at our lunch spot so we pulled over at a teeny little store and picked up some cookies!

 

We stopped at a couple of suspension bridges. 

This was a gorgeous stop where the Soca River cuts through the rocks!

After that we went to Bovec for lunch. We got picnic fixing for munch and ate on a little park bench. 

From here it was about a 2 hour drive to Ljubljana (our final destination). This drive was about half scenic through the Soca River Valley and half on the highway. We did get lost. Our GPS started taking us a wild and wacky way which we knew wasn't right!  We ended up finding our way back to the highway but probaby lost about a half hour. From there we easily made our way into Ljubljana. 
 
We stopped successfully at a gas station (all of these little simple tasks seem like quite an accomplishment when you are in a different country!). We also bought a bottle of wine and beer for our room (which we are enjoying now!). 

We dropped off our car with no problems. We checked in to B&B Petra Varl which was a 5 minute walk from the rental car place. It's nothing special, but the location absolutely cannot be beat. It is in a quiet courtyard a 2 minute walk from the main bustling square. 

 

 

Our host even brought us some homemade baking!
 

We had to walk through the square to get here and I was immediately reminded why Ljubljana is one of my favourite European Cities ever!  I just love the atmosphere!

 

Trev and I were in Ljubljana in 2007 but we had bad luck (problems with our hotel reservation not being valid and the place where we were supposed to pick up our plane tickets being unexpectedly closed. We spent about half our allotted time here sorting out these 2 issues and it was so disappointing because we loved Ljubljana so much!  We are now going to head out for a stroll to soak up some of the atmosphere and find some dinner!