My Travel Guide: Slovenia: Day 3

At 11:00 am, we headed to our intended place of stay at Kranjska Gora. On the way, we stopped at Kranj, the fourth largest city in Slovenia. We visited a tunnel that the Germans had built using a local contractor in 1944 to protect the population from air raids during the Second World War. The tunnel could house 6000 inhabitants and was designed to reduce the bomb blast pressure waves. Through a simulation exercise, we relived a similar air raid as the ones during the Second World War and heard the raid siren and the thunder of passing attack fighters, and felt the shock waves underneath our feet.

Then, we went for lunch at the Gostilna Pr' Matičk. This Gostilna was unique in every aspect. The atmosphere was comfortable, the staff were very friendly, and we felt that we were at home. We had mountain white flower juice – a special drink in Slovenia. We also had freshly squeezed grape juice. We started with a cold starter consisting of five slices of different types of tomato that had been grown in their back garden along with mozzarella cheese and tomato jam, all produced locally at the Gostilna kitchen and their garden. We followed this dish with salmon and white fish carpaccio. The hot starter consisted of three-grain rice risotto with seasonal mushrooms and cheese, presented in a jar. The main dish was chamois leg with yellow cabbage, carrot paste and cottage cheese dumplings. It is important to mention here that chef Matičk himself hunts these animals and cooks them for the menu. The sweet dish was a plate of chocolate cake with ice cream and wild berries with sour cream. After lunch, Mr. Matičk took us around his place to show us the animals he hunted such as wild goats, bears, gnu, caribou and birds.

After lunch, we continued our trip but there was a heavy rain that slowed traffic and cancelled our planned leisure biking at Kranjska Gora. Once we arrived, we headed to our two apartment houses, each consisting of three floors with one bedroom and a bathroom in each floor. This beautiful accommodation was called Berghi. Because we needed some immediate necessities to put in the apartments, we went to the Mercator in the village center opposite the Ramada Hotel. The rain stopped at that time.