Slovenia, June 2003

Slovenia is a small country - about half the size of Switzerland or Denmark - or a quater of the size of Ireland. Slovenia achieved its indepence in 1991 as it separated from the former Yugoslavia. The population is fairly small; only a little more than 2 million.

When Roger realised we were going to Slovenia on a charter flight, he nearly had a heart attack. But as he realised we were going to stay at a five star hotel - The Grand Hotel Emona - he felt better.

Piran, June 2003

The only problem we had was how to get onto the bloody sun beds at the beach. Soon, however, we developed a technique: Being an athlete, Roger climbed the sun bed, and McBear though small can be rock hard (he's got Taurus rising) and worked as a stair for Tom, and Roger helped Tom to get up. Then the rest was a piece of cake...

Ah, the sun beds were lovely. Being a polar bear Roger, however, found the heat too much and took off his sweater. But he regreted it after the first day in the sun: He got terribly burnt because he did not use sun tan lotion!

Piran, June 2003

Piran is a lovely town with a midieval town centre. Parts of the old town clearly show its history and its relationship with Venice for centuries.

We walked to the harbour from where we had a great view of the town centre. The church tower on top of the hill in the background really resembles the tower at St. Mark's square in Venice.

Piran, June 2003

Roger went to have a chat with the local fishermen.

We also went to the nearby town of Portoroz. Here, Roger had another chat with the captain of the ship Portoroz. Some of us got a bit bored with all these talks and chats with captains, sailors and fishermen ... Angus claimed he wants to be a desert rat in his next life!

Piran, July 2003

We wanted to visit Triglav National Park, so we hired a brand new Ford Ka.

On the way to the capital of Slovenia; Ljubljana, we did a detour to visit the famous castle Predjama. It's built beneath a tall cliff, and it's got caves as well.

Bled, July 2003

Our first stop at Lake Bled was Bled Castle, which was built on a rock high above the lake.

The view from Bled Castle overlooking Lake Bled was stunning.

Bohinj, July 2003

From the beautiful Bohinj at the centre of Triglav National Park we were able to see the peak of Triglav, the highest mountain in Slovenia (2864 m).

We went all the way around the Triglav National Park, and on the way we reached Vrsic - a pass at 1611 meters!

Piran, July 2003

McBear gets peckish now and then - in fact quite often - and he loves ice cream. Roger claimed ice cream isn't good for your figure, but McBear went straight over to the ice cream shop. When Roger saw the ice cream, he couldn't resist, so they shared a huge ice cream...

Finally, Slovenia was over, and the Travelling Bears returned to Dublin to get ready for the next flight...