After leaving Budapest, we drove to Ljubljana in Slovenia. This place was a real surprise to us. We weren't sure what to expect, and so I guess it wasn't hard for Ljubljana to exceed our expectations. And this it certainly did.

Driving into Ljubljana was very picturesque, with green mountains all around.

The city itself is really quite beautiful. The city centre is very old with no skyscrapers or modern buildings at all. The architecture is simple and old school. A canal runs through the city centre, with restaurants and bars lining each side. A medieval castle sits on top of the hill overlooking the city.

Bridges of varying ages and designs dot the canal, some with very strange bronze statues on them. The final bridge in the old town is adorned with dragons on each end.

We checked into a tiny hotel, the Adora, which is in a fantastic location in the old city. The rooms are tiny and the shower so small that I almost couldn't wash my hair or armpits because it was difficult to raise my arms in the tiny space. I nearly had to call for a crowbar and a tub of butter to get me out of it.

Despite this, the staff are amazingly friendly, in particular Leonard, who has bent over backwards to make our stay as welcome as possible. I particularly like him because he laughs at my jokes. He recommended a restaurant called Julija's. He said that it was across the road from Romeo's café, so we should remember it, ie: Romeo one side, Juliette on the other. I said that we wouldn't eat at Romeos anyway because they probably put poison in the food. Well, he thought this was hilarious.

On the first night here, Tania and Michael met us for dinner. They are staying close by with their friends, Stanko and Nina, who joined us for dinner as well. They are a lovely couple and Stanko was a wealth of knowledge, first choosing traditional meals to have for dinner and then sharing lots of information about Slovenias history and culture. We ate at a restaurant recommended to us by Irene and Alan where some of the waiting staff have down syndrome. They were very keen to please and did an excellent job of the meal and service. The amazing thing was that all 6 of us ate and had drinks and the total bill came to 60 euros.

The next day we took the car out to Lake Bled. This is a beautiful lake with a castle overlooking it. The weather was perfect and the views from the castle and then of the castle from the lakeside were truly breathtaking.

After driving back to Ljubiljana, we went out for a walk in the old town then had dinner at Leonard'd recommendation, Julijas. The meal was really good.

There is a music festival going on here at the moment and we sat and listened to a salsa band for while who setup on stage in the street. We will be going out again to enjoy the festivities a little later.