The Hotel Alpina refuses to serve ordinary tap water with our dinner. This is a major source of irritation to me because you know that they are just trying to generate extra income by making you buy water. The tap water in Slovenia is pure and drinkable (Saso told us that their bottled water is nothing more than regular spring water put into bottles and sealed.) It is extremely annoying and such nonsense.

There are buckets of rain coming down today in a steady downpour, but we are here to hike and are going out no matter what. When the going gets tough, the tough get going…yadda, yadda. A fast purchase of waterproof rain pants helped a lot!

Fully waterproofed, we set off to the Planica Valley. Today’s suggested hike was going to take us past Planica’s famous ski jumps. A World Record Ski Jump of 231 meters set at Planica still stands. View image

This entire area is in the Triglav National Park, the only National Park in Slovenia. When we got to the foot of the longest ski jump, we asked a man (unloading his car) some questions about the jumps. Not only did he answer our questions in perfect English but then insisted we have some wine with him. He pulled paper cups out of his trumk, opened a bottle, and we toasted each other. From there, we walked about 300 feet to a little practice slope where some 7-10 year olds were practicing their ski jumps in the cold and rain.

We asked their coach a few more ski-jumping questions. One answer was they like to start children ski jumping by age six. Even though the entire day took place in a downpour, the Slovenes took their time to stand out there, getting sopped to talk. By far, these are some of the nicest, friendliest people we have ever met. You can wave a car down on the road to ask a question, and they’ll stop – answer you – wish you a good day – and drive on. People, you have to visit this country before they become impatient like us!

From today on, our bags will be transported from place-to-place…no more local buses until Piran. Kranjska Gora would be a lovely place to spend a week just day-hiking through the mountains. Tomorrow we walk to Zgornja Radovna…