This summer our family holiday took us to Slovenia via rail from Norwich, via London, Brussels on a sleeper train to Salzburg, and our final train to the capital, Ljubljana. Once in the Slovenia we hired a car and spent a few nights in a few different regions to explore what the country had to offer. We ventured from high in the Julian Alps with the mighty Triglav mountain and lakes, to Idrija, famous for lace making and mining mercury, through the Karst region and towards and along the Croatian and Hungarian borders in the south and east.

We walked high in the mountains under blue skies and sometime above the ravens, through hillsides and woods of wild flowers, butterflies and birds. It was good to watch through binoculars from a neighbouring summit as climbers ascended Triglav, the highest mountain in the country and a few days later catch a glimpse across to the Adriatic Sea.

We enjoyed visiting towns including Ptuj, Idrija and Maribor, learning about local industries and histories. Ljubljana was a very manageable city, with walks beside the river and through the parks and gardens, a climb to the castle, wandering through pretty streets and catching site of the parliament building. We ate well throughout the fortnight, sampling national dishes of dumplings and meats, and for puddings the famous Gibanica cake and Bled cream cake. I can thoroughly recommend sampling the wines from across the country too.

Highlights of museums:

National Museum of Contemporary History of Slovenia in Ljubljana Fascinating introduction to Slovenian poet Srečko Kosovel, as well as C20th history or war and peace.

Slovenian Ethnographic Museum There was an excellent exhibition about Ukrainian traditional dress, as well as many rooms of Slovenian crafts, traditional trades and folk artefacts. The textiles was fabulous to see, with lace, embroidery, weaving and printing to admire.

Ptuj Clock Tower The longest wooden pendulum in action in Europe

Idrija for lace and mercury A town with a lace school and fascinating mercury mine and museum.

The weather was hot, above the average for a summer, with temperatures above 35 degrees Celsius for our last few days which was pretty hard going. I loved the Ljubljana weather system – a cold spray of water in the city centre.

We returned home with a sleeper train from Ljubljana to Stuttgart, on to Paris, London and home to Norwich. Here are a few shots of the beautiful country – I can thoroughly recommend it!