Monthly Archives: April 2015

Wine Tasting and other Activities in Radovljica

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Gorenjska, the alpine region of Slovenia, isn’t exactly known for its wine, but fortunately here in Radovljica we have the Sodček Wine Shop where wines from all the wine-growing areas of Slovenia can be found under one roof. Sodčcek is located right at the entrance to the historic old town centre and offers something for all wine lovers. Though not a big wine drinker myself, I love this place for its really homely atmosphere, there’s no wine snobbery here, and you are made just as welcome whether you just pop in for a relaxing glass of wine or a coffee, to enjoy a wine tasting session with accompanying karst ham and cheese, or to peruse the wide selection of wine to take home or to buy as a gift.

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Last week, to mark the dual occasion of Sodček’s 20-year anniversary and the opening of a new private tasting room, a private party was held in conjunction with Fine Food Bled. Guests enjoyed some of the best Slovene wines presented by winemakers from around the country, as well as being treated to amazing food prepared by Fine Food Bled who operate a seasonal restaurant at Penzion Berc in Bled. The presentation of the food was top-notch as well as it being extremely tasty too, and all the more remarkable for it being prepared outside on an open grill.

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For anyone who missed the 4th Radovljica Chocolate Festival last weekend (there were 50,000 of you that didn’t!), and/or for those that came and would like to relive it, you can watch this video to see some of the highlights. Watch carefully to find out the date of next year’s festival!  https://youtu.be/c9FEVPtUCaU

As you can see from this article –  http://www.siol.net/trendi/odkrivaj_slovenijo/kam_cez_vikend/2015/04/radovljica_v_znamenju_festivala_cokolade.aspx

– which is all in Slovene but those reading this outside of Slovenia should at least get the gist from the pictures, there really is plenty to see and do in Radovljica for lovers of all things outdoors. I was having a quick tot up over the weekend and all these activities, and probably more, are available in, or within the immediate vicinity of Radovljica:

  • Hiking – The Jelovica Plateau, the Karavanke, the nearby Julian Alps
  • Walking/Running – from short strolls by the Sava river or in the forest to long rambles and runs
  • Cycling – of all types, mountain biking, road biking, endless possibilities
  • Fishing on the Sava river
  • Watersports – rafting, kayaking
  • Other adrenalin activities –  paintball, zip line, zorbing
  • Winter sports – skiing, cross-country skiing, ice-skating, snowshoeing
  • Caving
  • Climbing
  • Swimming at the Olympic size swimming pool – open-air in the summer, covered in the winter
  • Parachuting and Panoramic flights over the Julian Alps from Lesce Sports Airfield

That’s just the outdoors things of course – many of which I enjoy and am able to take advantage of since they are all just on my doorstop – but there’s plenty more to see and do too!

The 4th Radovljica Chocolate Festival

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No prizes for guessing what I’m writing about this week!! Yes, of course – chocolate AGAIN!!!

The weather didn’t exactly play ball, in fact after a week of beautiful warm sunshine, the rain arrived almost simultaneously with the start of the festival on Friday, and on Saturday it was wet and windy with near freezing temperatures. Sunday, however, was much better with bright, though cold, sunshine and mostly clear skies. But the rain didn’t dent the spirits of the exhibitors or the crowds, and a fun-filled, chocolate-filled weekend was had by all! And besides, chocolate can be eaten come rain or shine, or snow, or hail, or…… in my case anyway!

One of the highlights of the weekend was the 93kg bar of Gorenjka chocolate, seen below left with Radovljica’s Mayor lending a helping hand to break it up before it was shared among visitors. The giant bar was made especially for the show and to celebrate Gorenjka’s 93rd year of production.

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The Radovljica Chocolate Festival, now its in 4th year, was held over 3 days this year, as well as being spread over a larger area and with more exhibitors and an extensive entertainment programme. The bulk of the festival takes place in Linhart Square in Radovljica’s old town centre, as well as in the beautiful Radovljica Manor (grascina), which houses the Museum of Apiculture, the Municipal Museum, a music school, and is the main venue for the numerous concerts and festivals which take place in Radovljica throughout the year.

I had a hunch that it was going to get mega-busy so, keen to get a head start on the crowds, I was there immediately when the festival opened on Friday for a browse, and of course, a taste or two! There was chocolate of every size, shape, flavour and form imaginable and something for all kinds of lovers of chocolate, as well as ‘non-chocolate’ food prepared by chefs from the Taste Radol’ca restaurants.

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Apart from the pure pleasure of eating it, it’s quite amazing what can be done with chocolate these days. This year there were a number of new takes on chocolate including chocolate beer, chocolate tea, chocolate hamburgers, the new tarragon-flavoured Radol’ca choco-o-bee chocolates, and very colourful and on-trend macaroons. I would be hard pressed to pick a favourite, as I love pretty much all kinds of chocolate – except the really dark stuff which I know is supposedly the ‘healthy’ stuff but I don’t eat chocolate to be healthy – but one of my personal favourite stalls was ‘Pravljicne Pite’ (Fairytale Pies) with their ‘to-die-for’ pies and cakes and the Festival certainly provides a good avenue for these kinds of small businesses.

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Entertainment included a mini-Planica ski jump – which was definitely a hit with kids even in the pouring rain – a chocolate photo booth, chocolate fortune telling, cookery shows and, this year for the first time, evening entertainment with live music, stand-up comedy and an after-chocolate party.

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My weekend was largely spent working, as I have a large translating job on-the-go, so a couple of trips to the festival throughout the weekend to get some brain food(!) just about saved my sanity and I managed to amass quite a large stash of all kinds of chocolate which helped to get me through the weekend.

I also had an unexpected visitor this weekend. On Sunday afternoon my phone rang and the lady on the other end pronounced herself as ‘an old lady from Vienna who is a big fan of my blog and had come to Radovljica after reading about the Chocolate Festival on my blog and because she really wanted to meet me’! Despite not having a mobile phone and not knowing where I live she, Herta, managed to track me down – what a tenacious an amazing lady. It was lovely to meet you Herta, thanks for the chocolate wine, and I hope we meet again some day in Radovljica!

I think everyone that was involved and attended will agree, this event just gets better each year and has now become the main, and most anticipated, event on Radovljica’s event calendar –

There will be plenty more photos of the festival on my Pinterest page coming soon.

Next week, weather and work permitting, I hope to be partaking in some more active physical rather than mental pursuits!

© AdeleinSlovenia 2015

Hiking, cycling and strolling in sunny Slovenia!

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After the excesses of the Easter weekend (see last week’s post), this weekend was devoted to my number one passion i.e. being outdoors, and as a bonus the whole weekend the country was bathed in fabulous warm sunshine. It was certainly a far cry from last weekend’s snowy/windy/cold and very changeable weather and, as you will see below, I managed to squeeze in quite a lot!

  • A stroll amongst the spring flowers in Ljubljana’s Botanic Gardens where even the terrapins were basking in the sun.

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  • A walk up to Ljubljana Castle.

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  • A hike up to the Potoška highland (Potoška planina).

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As you can see, in places there was still some snow. In fact, it is quite difficult at the moment to choose where to hike because the sunny slopes, up to around 1200-1300m, are now free of snow, however, any higher, and particularly in shaded areas, there is still a lot of snow and ice to contend with, so hikes into the higher mountains will have to wait a while yet. These past couple of days though, due to the high temperatures, it is beginning to melt fast so hopefully it won’t be too much longer until I can begin to start venturing further and higher.

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I began from the reservoir in Žirovnica, which I had cycled to from home, then followed the path up towards the Valvasor mountain hut (Valvasorjev dom). On reaching the road forest road, which is crossed in order to continue towards the hut, there is a sign for Ajdna and Potoška planina to the left. I had actually intended to go to Ajdna but there was a training course for mountain guides taking place there all weekend so I instead continued on the forest road up to the Potoška highland (1270m) from where there are far-reaching views across the Julian Alps and along the Upper-Sava valley towards Kranjska Gora, however, it was rather hazy sunshine so the photos don’t really do the views justice on this occasion. From the highland I turned right to continue towards the Valvasor hut but, rather than going to the hut itself, I continued on to the next highland, Žirovniška planina. There are several such mountain highlands that lie on the slopes beneath Stol, the highest mountain in the Karavanke range.

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  • A ride on the new bike path in Jesenice. I love this new path as its traffic-free and now joins up with the bike path from Mojstrana towards Kranjska Gora and onwards into Italy.

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Next weekend, of course, its the Radovljica Chocolate Festival so will once again be dedicated to my other passion i.e. chocolate! All the chocolately fun kicks off on Friday 17th April at 3pm and continues all weekend. The full festival programme is now available here – http://www.festival-cokolade.si/en/programme/

© AdeleinSlovenia 2015

Easter Snow, Easter Food, and Chocolates Galore at Coko-Hram!

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We may not have had a White Christmas, although the first snow of the year arrived on Boxing Day, however, this Easter was marked by abnormally cold and wintery temperatures. In fact, this past few days we’ve really had it all weather-wise; on Friday I was sitting outside a café in the sun drinking tea; on Saturday I was walking in the rain with my umbrella; on Sunday I was gazing out of the window at falling snowflakes and now, as I sit writing this on Monday, there’s another flurry of snow, well almost a blizzard actually combined with gusting winds. Winter certainly had the final say this Easter!

I read an interesting comparison yesterday of the temperature recorded at Kredarica, the mountain hut beneath Slovenia’s highest mountain, Triglav (2864m), where, on Christmas Day the temperature was +2.9 degrees, whilst on Easter Sunday it was MINUS 12, brrr…….. Thus, any plans for long hikes this weekend were scuppered and therefore my next love – food – was high on the agenda instead!

Food is a big deal in Slovenia at Easter. The most common tradition is for a family breakfast on Easter Sunday, consisting of baked ham with fresh horseradish, pirhi (coloured hard-boiled eggs) and, of course, potica (a rolled filled cake). As I have been asked to write as a guest on an American food blog – what an honour – this year I decided to do some Easter baking of my own and am rather proud of my first attempts at ‘šunka v testu’ – ham baked in a bread crust. Here is a sneek peek photo of my Easter table and I will post the link to the full blog when it is published.

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I already knew that April was going to be an indulgent month, and a heavenly one for a chocoholic like me – what with Easter and the Radovljica Chocolate Festival (see below for more details) both on the agenda. However, it just got even better when, on Friday, I discovered the cutest little café where they produce and sell the most amazing cakes and chocolates. Truly chocolate heaven for me! The place in question is Čoko-Hram in the tiny village of Bohinjska Češnjica near Bohinj lake. Blink and you could miss this place which, from the outside, belies what lies within. It is set just next to the road but a lack of good signage (new signs are being prepared!) means one could easily drive past, as I have done many-a-time, without giving it so much as a second look. But to do so is a crime – seriously – believe me!

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Once I stepped inside I was immediately charmed by the cute little chairs, tables, chalkboard drinks menus, and other homely touches; not to mention the glass chiller cabinet bursting full of delicious cakes and truffles, and the corner where home-produced chocolate, of all flavours, shapes and sizes, is displayed and for sale. So, as you can imagine, I had some serious tasting to do!

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Now, I love strong cheese; stilton, extra-mature cheddar – the stronger the better – but I have always turned my nose up at Mohant, a local cheese from the Bohinj area which has an extremely pungent aroma. So, when I was offered a taster of a truffle filled with mohant, I wasn’t overly enthusiastic at the prospect, but I tell you, it works! The combination of the sweet white chocolate and the creamy mohant truffle centre is genius – although I can imagine it might be a bit ‘Marmite’ for some people i.e. you either love it or hate it! Another such daring flavour combinations is dark chocolate with zaseka (smoked minced lard no less!), and others flavours and centres including tarragon, yoghurt, raspberry, honey-lemon-ginger, and many more. And then there were the cakes – oh the cakes! Where should I start? Perhaps it would be easiest to say, don’t just take my word for it, go and try them for yourself!

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Čoko Hram is owned and run by the same family who own the four-star Hotel Kristal in Ribčev Laz, just metres from Lake Bohinj. This is, in fact, how I came to visit Čoko Hram, rather than driving past as I would usually have done, since the chocolates are also on sale in the hotel, which I had visited as I had heard great things about their centre for Ayurveda massage and medicine – Calendula Ayurvedic & Medicinal Clinic – and wanted to see it and try it out for myself. I emerged 90 minutes later and, thanks to the healing hands of the Nepalese masseur, blissfully chilled-out and ready for anything- well almost anything! More about the clinic and hotel, which also features a rich collection of paintings from the annual artist colonies held there, can be found here – http://www.hotel-kristal-slovenia.com/index.php

Tourism Rado’l’ca are slowly tempting us details of the programme for this year’s Chocolate Festival which takes place 17-19th April. The full programme will be made available in the next few days on the festival website (I should know – I’m translating it!) and features such events such as:

  • Mini Planica – Jumping in Chocolate with Franci Petek
  • Culinary Shows by Taste Radol’ca restaurants and 3 of Slovenia’s top chefs
  • Chocolate Fortune Telling
  • Chocolate Adventure through Radovljica

….and much more – http://www.festival-cokolade.si

I have a feeling I will be writing a lot more about chocolate in the coming weeks! Hopefully, though, I’ll be offsetting all the indulgence with some hiking too, well if the weather plays ball that is!

© AdeleinSlovenia 2015