Slovenia

Monday 5th November 2007 An apartment in hotel in Bled, Slovenia
We left the B&B having chatted with Ivanka, the owner about Slovenia. She said one of the biggest problems is the subsistence farming. People have between 3Ha and 56Ha of land, but the area could be in 10 different blocks varying from 1/3Ha upwards, and no-one will sell their land for sentimental reasons as it has been in the family for generations. We encountered a similar thing in Holland when we were there. So driving along we see little patches of maize 8m wide by 100m, which is one of the sections. So nothing can be farmed on a commercial scale. They have small tractors, mostly old like Massey Fergusson 35. The crops we have seen is mainly maize, rye grass, vineyards and orchards and many, many little vegetable gardens. She said there is very strict control of everything. The cows all have to be numbered, and if they don't have a number the owner is heavily fined. The villages are double-storied, free standing, quaint, clean, old but well maintained with geranium flowers in pots on the balconies. There are no fences or walls between the houses, the dogs are caged and the cattle are in small barns. A group of farmers form a co-op and milk their two cows each and pool their milk. She says the co-ops don't work too well as some farmers don't care about quality so they all get a lower price averaging R5/l. The farmers are poor, most leaving the land to try to find jobs.
A nice house, double storied with central heating for R400,000. She says half the population of Slovenia work outside the country.
We skirted the capital, Ljubljana, which is smaller than Pietermaritzburg, where there were lots of blocks of flats for residents. We went into a giant 4-story furniture/electronic/home store, where things cost a bit more than in SA.
Diesel costs R10/l and long-life milk R8 to R10/l. Meat is about 50% more than in SA. We are struck by the picturesque beauty of the place with little villages in green valleys set against the backdrop of distant snow covered mountains.

Sunday 4th November 2007 Logar B&B, Cercnika, Slovenia
Woke up, looked at the map and we had to decide whether to go to Amsterdam via France, Switzerland or Austria so we chose Slovenia.
The rest of Italy was flat agricultural land with mainly grapes, fruit trees and a bit of maize, wheat and lucerne. The Alps were on the left of us all the way with snow in the distance, we were only 300m above sea level.
At the border the officials didn't quite know what to do with us because the Schengen visa didn't cover Slovenia and Africans don't go through that border. Eventually they just gave us our passports back and let us pass without stamping them. We were surprised that he could speak English as hardly any Italians outside the tourist area could.
The country became more hilly with smaller valleys and the farms looked very 'bitty' like subsistence farmers, small patches of maize or rye grass or vineyards etc. All the hillsides were covered in beautiful trees full with their Autumn colour. We came across a toll in the freeway and worried about the currency, luckily it is Euro so we proceeded without problems. We have never entered a country so blindly and un-researched. We are now exploring again and are much happier than being a tourist.
The pretty little villages dotted around, some consisting of only ten houses, with colourful flowers outside in the yards, a bit like Scotland, but less inhabited.
After 100Km we came across a sign to Postjana Caves so we impulsively decided to investigate. They were like Cango X50!!! We went via a little electric train for 2Km into the mountain, walked around for 2Km and then went out by train again. We just kept saying Wow round every corner at the magnificent stalagmites and stalactites. The lighting lit up the formations to perfection. We always explore caves, and they are by far the best we have seen. The river (size of the Mooi) that made the caves is now running 50m underground underneath the existing caves which run 20Km into the mountain.
So far this country has good roads, the houses are more free standing than in Italy, and people can speak English! In Italy the women are very fashion conscious and all dressed the same, and if you look different from them, they look you up and down quite blatantly. They lack smile muscles, and we joked that anyone we saw smiling could not have been Italian. Here they are far more down-to-earth.
We found this B&B as it is getting too cold to camp comfortably.