Tip. Never take a large group tours. It will take you hours to go
around the lakes, most likely you will not cover much and you will be
constantly in the crowd of people. Instead either do what we did ,
hiring local tour guide, or hike around the lake yourself.
In the evening we arrived to Zagreb. We stayed in Westin, which is most
business like hotel during our trip. Even though it is missing the
charm of all other hotels we stayed during our vacation, it is centrally
located and clean.
Our restaurant, Stari Fijaker 900, we quickly found from TripAdvisor . It was not far from our hotel, has a good selection of Croatian dishes,
provides excellent service and was very reasonably priced.
Zagreb was the cheapest place we visited during this trip. For example, our breakfast in the bakery across the street from Westin was 30 kunas (about $5): 2 coffees, a crousant and sandwich and 2 delicious pastries.
In the morning we met an excellent private tour guide, Nives. She gave such a wonderful introduction to Zagreb, showed untountouristy cobbled streets, a farmer market along with major landmarks.
Zagreb is our favorite among all the towns and cities we visited during our vacation. It does not have a feeling of the city with touristy traps. If you see the crowd it will not be tourists, but rather students who go to school.
We had lunch in the random place in the narrow cobbled street next to the farmers market.
We will definitely come back to Zagreb as we liked it very much!
In the evening we took 2 hour train to Ljubljana and stayed at te Vander Resort Hotel, right in the middle of a pedestrian zone. It is probably the most contemporary hotel we ever stayed.
October 18: On our last day of active touring we took a small group tour around Slovenia. There were 8 tourists in the minibus and a driver/guide. Well, it was rather a driver who drove us through the half of the country bringing us to beautiful Lake Bled, Lake Bled castle, unusual Predjama castle carved into the cave, and to famous 20 km long Postojna Cave caves.
Tip. If you travel to Slovenia and visit all these places either hire a good private tour guide or use audio guides or bring guides in electronic format to read about all the artifacts and interesting things you can see. Many of these places don't have descriptions next to artifacts.
When you go to the caves never take a large group tour without an audio guide. Large groups don't stop at more than 3 places. Having an audio guide would allow you to listen about many other places along the route. If you are more adventurous and have some time I would recommend taking a private tour guide.
In the evening we dined at Valvasor restaurant in Ljubljana. Great blend of European cuisine; the duck, trout and soups were very delicious.
We didn't spend too much time in Ljubljana. Our perception from the city was that it is small, cute and very pedestrian and bicycle friendly with a lot of students.
Tip. Even though I don't see Ljubljana to be worth of a couple of hours of exploring, I think it can be a great base to travel around Slovenia as the whole country is very tiny.
At the midnight we took the night train to Germany to fly back to the USA on October 20.
Our sleeper car was comfortable enough.
Tip. If you take a midnight train from Ljubljana be aware that the railroad station building is closed after 10 pm and there is a little information on train arrivals.
Tip. When taking trains in Europe make sure there are no strikes. If there is one make sure you understand what your alternatives are. When we arrived to Munich to change the train our next train was canceled because of strike. Fortunately there were 2 alternative trains arriving a little bit later than planned. In Germany don't rely only on the Deutsche Bahn employee at the information desk. Go to the ticket counter as they have more information and have better means to help you.
October 20: Flying home
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