We're in the Alps!

The Julian Alps to be precise, named after Julius Caesar. We are in the area where Slovenia, Italy and Austria all come together. Now that they're all in the European Union, there's some speculation that all these borders will be erased. The concept of nationalism is a relatively new idea in the course of history, according to our guide. There are much stronger loyalties between ethnic and cultural groups no matter where the political borders fall. We'll see.
We started the day by bidding farewell to Ljubljana, a city we came to know and really like. Picturesque, walkable, friendly and clean, we had a great time exploring.
But we proceeded on to Lake Bled (blayd). Beautiful, picture postcard views. Unfortunately, fog obscured the mountains on every side, but we visited the castle and walked all the way around the lake, watching both the swans and the swan boats. Two of our fellow travelers are newlyweds, and they tried to follow the tradition of him carrying her up the 99 steps to the church on the island. (They almost made it, and provided great photo fodder for the Japanese touirists!)

 These are the steps!

Leaving Bled, our bus went up and over Vrsic Pass which consisted of 50 hairpin turns up an extremely steep ascent and descent on a narrow little road. Several times, one vehicle or the other had to back up to make room. Montana frriends - this made Going to the Sun look like chid's play. Our guide served us blackberry brandy at the top - to celebrate our survival, I think! We applauded our driver, Peter. Man, that took some skill!

We are now in the village of Kobarid for our last night in Slovenia. Tomorrow, we will enter Croatia. As we move south, and lower in elevation, the weather should get warmer and sunnier.