After having seen photos of Slovenia's incredible landscape pop up all over the place, I decided last autumn to check it out myself. Although I spent only 8 days there and hardly scratched the surface yet, I can already say that Slovenia really is a (landscape) photographer's dream. Squeezed in between the fabulous Alps and the Mediterranean Sea you can find a lot of variety in the landscape and very diverse cultural influences.

You might recognize this motif. It is Lake Bled with its famous island, topped by the Pilgrimage Church of the Assumption of Maria. For any Slovenia visitor it is an absolute must to spend a night in Bled. The beautiful valley with its quiet lake and the small city hugging its shore is the perfect place to relax and take some nice photos. What I like most about the shots I took there, is the autumnal mood, which stands in contrast to most photos I have seen of this place.

Just half an hour's drive from Bled is yet another mountain lake: Bohinj . It is less well known, equally incredible and very different. Not only is it significantly larger, it is also a lot less accessible and not as optimized for tourism. That does, however, turn it into one of the most serene places I have ever been to. Rather than walking around all day, I felt compelled to just sit down for a couple of hours and soak in the calmness.

Around the lake, there are a couple of hotspots worth visiting, especially the Savica waterfall and the mountain plateau Vogel , which is a vast hiking region and skiing resort. The latter provides a great view over the lake, but can be shrouded in fog.

The next leg of my journey brought me down to the coast. On the way I stopped at the Škocjanske jame , one of Slovenia's famous cave systems. While absolutely incredible and well worth a visit, the conditions in there are very difficult in terms of photography. The photos you see above were taken in the dolines that can be explored freely after the guided tour through the actual cave.

In the next post I will continue with photos from a very different region (i.e. the Mediterranean coast), which is only 50km further to the West.