It’s been a fabulous week thanks to the glorious weather. Whilst I’ve never been one for lying on a beach in the sun, I do love being out in the sun hiking and biking. I’ve been out a lot this week as I just want to make the best of every minute of the summer while it lasts. You won’t find me complaining about the heat, especially since living here where the winters can be very long.

A trip that I do at least once a year, is to the many mountain highlands up above Lake Bohinj. It’s quite a long hike but not overly strenuous. I was walking for around 8 hours with only one quick break to eat, but because there’s so much to see it never feels like hard going and is well worth the effort. My route, which started from Stara Fužina in the valley, took in Planina Blato, Planina Laz, Planina Dedno Polje, Planina pri Jezerju, Planina Viševnik and Planina Vogar.

Planina Laz (seen below) is the oldest of the mountain highlands in Slovenia and, in the summer, is still very much and living and working highland where the herdsmen live and produce and sell cheese and sour milk. It is also part of the Tourist Cheese Route (Turistična sirarna pot). The route leads across the many highlands in the Bohinj area where cheese and other dairy products can be sampled and bought. The route, which is marked with yellow signs as seen below, also leads past numerous natural features of interest such as gorges, waterfalls, museums, churches, archeological sites and more. The path covers a very wide area so its not possible to walk it in its entirety (at least not in a day) so it is best to just choose part of it and visit one or two of the highlands and dairies.

It is also possible to drive up to Planina Blato from Stara Fužina via the toll road so even for those who don’t wish to walk so far, it is still possible to visit some of the highlands and enjoy the fantastic scenery. This picture (below) shows Planina pri Jezeru – these are certainly lucky cows!

This week I also finally got to meet some of my blog readers face-to-face. It was so nice to know that reading my blog helped them to finally decide to come to Slovenia and to go walking in the Julian Alps and I was more than happy to show them around my home town of Radovlijca. I’m always willing to try and help with advice on planning hiking/biking trips to Slovenia, so don’t hesitate to get in touch!

Last weekend it was the annual Bled Days Festival in Bled. There were numerous events taking place across the weekend including concerts, an air show, a large market, a fireworks display and on Saturday evening candles on the lake. It’s a very popular weekend and Bled was packed but fortunately, since I live only 7kms away, I was able to walk there via the Sava river, so I didn’t have to worry about parking. The highlight of the weekend for me was the air show where acrobatic planes were swooping down low, almost skimming the surface of the lake, before performing dramatic aerial climbs and nose-dives – quite a sight against the backdrop of Bled Castle.

In Radovljica this week there will be live music in the Old Town Centre on Thursday from 8pm with Nula Kelvina and on Friday at 9pm the open-air cinema on the terrace of the Mansion House will be showing the film Cowboy.