On Vacation - Slovenia

I have not blogged for over two weeks and that is because we have been on vacation.  The past three summers we have vacationed in Spain but this year we decided to do something different.  This year we traveled to Slovenia and then onto Italy and Austria.  We started our trip off by heading to our friends house in Slovenia.  We packed the kids in the car and headed out at 4am.  We wanted to avoid as much traffic as possible and we also wanted to catch the car train.  We did get off on time but we hit some rain and then traffic around Munich but we made it just in time for the car train. 

We did not want to miss the car train because it would mean driving over the mountain on some narrow winding roads which would make the eight hour trip even longer.  We also did not want to miss it becuase we had really talked it up with the kids.  Fortunately we made it with a few minutes to spare and there were only two cars behind us on the train.  We were breathing a sigh of relief that we were not the car that was turned away because the train was full.  If you are waondering what a car train is, it is a train that you drive your car onto, turn the car off and pull the emergency break.  You then sit in your car as the train travels along the tracks.  This car train brought us through the mountain rather than over the mountain so the majority of our time was spent in a pitch black tunnel.  It was really fun and the kids enjoyed it.  The train that we caught only brought us part way through the mountain pass though so instead of having a five minute drive to our friends house we had a forty-five minute drive down the mountain.  I didn't mind this part of the drive though and just enjoyed the scenery as much as possible while driving down a windy mountain road.  The eight hour drive was well worth it.  My friends house is absoultely beautiful even in the rain.  The kids were excited to see their friends and quickly separated from us and off they went for a fun filled weekend.  I was also happy to see my friend Beanie since I hadn't had a good chat with her since school let out.  Another set of our friends, Colin and Kim, were staying for the weekend as well with their son, Bryn, so we had a lot of fun just hanging out.  We chatted, had great lunches and dinners and shared a lot of laughs. 

On Saturday morning we all went out to the pool since the sun was shining.  Our friends have a natural swimming pool which is now on my wish list of things to have in my yard.  A natural swimming pool doesn't require any chemicals and makes you feel like you are in a beautiful pond.  There is no fiddling with chlorine and Ph and there is no concern of the kids eyes stinging or their skin getting irritated.  It was great!  After time playing in the pool we headed in for lunch.  During lunch the clouds rolled in and the rain started.  That didn't stop the fun though. 

We all headed into a nearby town for the boys to do a bit of bridge jumping.  I did not take part in the bridge jumping since my bikini would not have stood up for the jump (9 meters or 29 feet) into the water and even if I had a one piece I'm not sure I would have the nerve to actually make the jump.  I'm usually nervous about jumps into unknown water but our friend Guy had made this jump before so I knew it was deep enough but also the town had a platform installed on the bridge for this specific purpose.  The Soca river is a beautiful river that is torquise in color and even in the height of August it is still very cold.  Jason guesses it was probably about 60 degrees (15 C).  I did my part and took pictures of Guy, Jason and Colin making the jump.

We all had a great time visiting with friends and seeing Slovenia.  Slovenia definitely tops my list of one of the most beautiful places in the world.