Pretty much the last of our trains today. Bid farewell to Ljubljana, which was pretty hard to do, and wandered down to the station to catch the train back where we’d come from – Zagreb.
Ljubljana joins a very elite group of cities that I’d like to come back to in the future. Very clean, thoughtful, progressive and forward looking. And the scenery is stunning, though I guess it might not appear so attractive in the middle of Winter.
Only second class carriages on our train this time, but there was bundles of room – there was nobody at all in the front carriage.
Very civilised border crossing here. The Slovenian and Croatian immigration dudes walk through the train together, arm in arm. If they are both happy, you get two stamps in your passport. None of this nonsense doing it all at the station one side of the border, then doing it all at the next station the other side. Had the train done in 20 mins, and then they wandered off to drink some Schnapps together.
The train seems to ply back and forwards from Zurich in Switzerland, through Ljubljana in Slovenia, and Zagreb in Croatia, to Budapest in Hungary. Seems to be clean and on time at one end of it’s journey, and not at the other if you get my drift.
Wandered around Zagreb for a couple of hours and got some lunch, then walked down to the main bus station, and caught the afternoon service south to Plitvice Lakes National Park. Back to wall to wall Eurovision songs.
Arrived at the National Park late afternoon, and hauled our bags down the track to the Jezero Hotel, one of the small number built in the park itself when visitor’s numbers were manageable. Now there are hundreds more outside the park gates. We guess it was built in the 1960s, and hasn’t been renovated since. Clean, but not very functional. For example, it has a bidet, which would have been the height of sophistication in the 60s, but only one powerpoint for the room, behind the couch, to charge all of the families devices. Quaint, old dining room, but nice food. Order a bottle of coke, and the waiter carries it from the bar almost to your table, puts it on a trolley covered in a white table cloth, pushes it two metres to your table, then hands it to you.
Lovely view of the lake from our window and, yes, the pianist in the restaurant can play ‘Memories’.
Ljubljana Station
Hotel Jezero