Holiday: October 11th til 18th 2023

Holiday - October 11th - 18th, 2023

Austria, Slovenia and as it turns out a bit of Italy, so that also gets crossed off my European list. At date of typing this, Austria is one place I do want to revisit, along with Poland.

Lienz is a beautiful city, with a vibrant café culture, ideal for relaxing having a drink and watching life just stroll by. Further down the road and over a mountain pass is Hermagor, with a few tree lined streets and lovely cafes with delectable cakes and drinks to wash them down with.

After my visit to Lienz, admiring all its buildings, both historic and modern, went to Villach for a rather splendid Chinese buffet at a restaurant called 'The Wok', it was a great establishment, clean and bright with friendly staff and excellent service.

Austria is clean, the homes of residents are picturesque and each one is different, a joy to behold. This in most respects transfers to businesses, hotels and commercial.

I've enjoyed my time in Austria, not got to grips fully with the geography, but getting there and learning it! With easy access to Italy and Slovenia as well as other neighboring countries, Austria should be on everyone's list of 'MUST VISIT' locations.

As I prepare for my departure from Austria and head for Slovenia, my attention turns to my hire car. A Renault Clio, a nice looking car, with all the mod cons you expect from a car of the current day, however one issue lets it down.... the fact is is too far down to get in to! Its far to close to the ground, and could do with being about 7 inches higher up to get in to!

After departing the company of Bill and Kelvin, I was to head for the lake at Bled, but you know what satnavs are like, I ended going up and over a few steep mountains, I did enjoy some stunning views and a few layby stops to let other cars overtake me, there was no way I was going to take these twists and turns going 70kpm, heck, I think in parts it was pushing it to do 30kph!  

After the twists and turns I finally got on to a fast road, and Bill, if you are reading this, I actually got to about 110kph! how exhilarating, and I over took some other vehicles too!

On arrival at Vila Teslova, I was greeted by friendly staff, and given a glass of water. The satnav struck once in Ljubljana and sent me down a wrong road. I'm not too sure if it was the in-car satnav or the one on my phone, but it did sound different. I went up to my room then went back down stairs to park the car in the car park.

My holiday appartment @ Vila Teslova

Once parked and rested, I took my first stroll in to Ljubljana. I admired and took photos of a few buildings before heading to Lidl. It was a little cramped in there, but it was clean and bright. Screaming uncontrollable kids awaited me instore, and once through the checkout, outside the store a scruffy urchin was begging for loose change, as a rather nice chap translated for me.  I left feedback on Google, but knocked off two stars.

I had a good sleep, well I was shattered after all the driving and walking of the day. Then I had a full day to explore. I ventured out at around 9:30am and 4 degrees.

I found part of a Roman wall and followed it round until it sort of ended, I guess it continued a little further in another direction, but I found myself being drawn in to a maze of buildings and alleyways. I stumbled upon the river and followed it, on the banks of it were mostly cafes. At around 11am it started getting busy with Chinese and other ethnicities tourists, as well as gaggles of children on school trips. 

After a break back at the hotel, I decided to track down a small pair of headphones. First stop was a store called Muller, which a reviewer claimed '....has everything one could want', but not what I wanted. I finally managed in a store called InterSpar, think Tesco on steroids. I grabbed something for dinner and headed back to the hotel, which I found with ease without use of my satnav.

An evening of relaxation and doing nothing, other than typing this blog and uploading photos to Facebook, I also had to get my case sorted out for the journey home, online check-in is done. Boarding opens at 5:05pm, check out is at 11am, but I can add an extra hour or more should I wish, so I'm not hanging around at the airport.

I know there is a storm in the UK forecast for Wednesday, wait and see what happens as this blog continues!

Well the flight home went well, it was a bit delayed but not by too much, and I made my coach, with just minutes to go, but I made my coach.

Lets see how many modes of transport I used to get from Ljubljana to my flat shall we? 

After driving the hire car at 12:50, then a wheel chair for part way through Ljubljana airport, then the plane, then a British Airways bus because the plane landed at a remote stand, then a Heathrow buggy part of the way in the terminal, then National Express coach, FINALLY a taxi, huge thankyou to the black cabs of Yellow Cabs and the very nice driver of.

After two days of being home, I am totally knackered, still sorting out, but am getting there, and playing catch-up of my favourite tv shows! 

That brings to a close this blog!

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