Snežnik

This was my first visit to Snežnik, a mountain in the southwest of Slovenia. It was a nice two hour hike to get to the top through mostly wooded areas. While I was glad that the weather wasn't too hot, it was unfortunately also quite cloudy so I didn't get any of the beautiful views that should have opened up in all directions. I did see the field where the Cerknica lake is supposed to be if it weren't underground at this time of the year. I was there last week, it is visible as the light green region in the photo below:

And here is where they tell me the Adriatic sea would have been visible if it weren't obscured by the clouds:

 

Cerknica

Cerknica is another of those places that is relatively well known as a day trip destination in Slovenia but is too close to our home to merit our attention. So when Marko and I looked for a place to go on a bicycling trip we discovered Cerknica on the map. It took us just under two hours to get there so it really is not that far away. The only issue with getting there is that there is a hill in between so it was a gruelling hour of cycling uphill in order to descend on the other side. Of course we could have gone around that hill, but who wants to take the longer route on a hot summer day?

The most famous sight in Cerknica is the lake which is actually of the sort that sometimes you see it and sometimes you don't because it disappears into underground channels during some parts of the year. We didn't see the lake this time although I can't say for sure whether it wasn't there or whether we just didn't cycle far enough.

There is a statue of Martin Krpan on the main square in the town of Cerknica. Martin Krpan is a Slovenian folk hero, a well known character in children's stories and poems and is extraordinarily strong. He is supposed to originate from nearby, at least the stories say so.