We recently spent two nights at a self-sufficient “bio farm” in the north of Slovenia, high in the Kamnik Alps and close to the most beautiful high-alpine valley of Logarska Dolina. The next small town is a 20-minute ride down-hill with one steep hair-pin curve after another and the next neighbor farm is somewhere across the valley.

This national park is just a shout away from the Austrian border and, at the most, 2 hours by car from any point in Slovenia but it is still a somewhat hidden gem even though we would consider it to be one of the most beautiful places we’ve ever experienced. The local people seem to feel the same way and have a lovely sense of appreciation for their heritage — not in a nationalistic way but by carefully and lovingly preserving the old ways — building methods, farming, gardening, bee-keeping (apiculture), wholesome food preparation and crafts related to wool, wood and marble. The area has all kinds of tourist attractions from fly-fishing, to hiking, biking, paragliding and climbing but it’s all offered in a sensitive way that assures that the precious eco system does not get damaged.

Eating at a “bio farm” where everything is farmed organically is a true adventure. Breakfast consisted of home-made bread, cheeses, patés, thinly sliced smoked hams, yoghurt, jam, quark curds and sour milk (a local specialty that tastes just like it sounds). We loved everything except tomorrow we’ll order tea instead of coffee, Seattle coffee snobs that we are.

For dinner, our host Martina served nettle soup (nettles harvested by her with rubber gloves and long shears), boiled smoked sausages, sauerkraut, potatoes seasoned with thyme, an undefined mass of finely ground, seasoned and baked innards (actually very tasty), a heavenly desert of sweetened quark and apples baked between layers a fine noodle dough and blueberry snaps.  And as a background to all this, we look at snow-covered peaks across the expanse of a rolling bright-green alpine meadow dotted with an ocean of wild flowers and watch the rain and fog slowly creeping up from the valley. A true “Sound of Music” moment (but I think I’ll give up eating for a few days).

This was the view from our room at one of the tourist farms on the high road above Logarska Dolina, Slovenia. It is one of most breath-taking and tranquil locations that I have ever experienced. We discovered this farm on a day trip in 2012 and vowed to return to stay for awhile. Two nights here was not enough.

“In Slovenia, it is commonly associated with the town of Bled, an Alpine tourist destination in northwestern Slovenia. The recipe cake was brought to the local Hotel Park in 1953 by Ištvan Kovačevič, chef of the hotel’s confectionery store. He came to Bled from Serbia where a similar cake was already known. As of October 2009, 10 million cream cakes have been baked at the hotel’spatisserie since its invention.”

A friend just sent a link for a recipe for the ambitious ones among you. If you make it, we’ll come and eat it.  http://blog.vantagetravel.com/blog/vantage-program-managerss-blog/bled-cream-cake-recipe

We just spent the most magical two days in the Kamnik Alps in northern Slovenia. The place is called Logarska Dolina and is one of the most amazing places that we have visited. We stayed at a high alpine farm above the valley Logar in a tourist farm where each morning we were served fresh ingredients directly from the farm. Here is the view from our room.

If you get a chance I would suggest that you take the time to get off the beaten path and experience Logarska Dolina on your next European trip.

We are back in Slovenia this year, spending 1.5 weeks finishing our research that we started last year for a 2014 photo tour offering. Although I got the shot of “St. Primoz” last year, I could not resist visiting this majestic vista again.

We just spent 3 days exploring the Soca Valley of NW Slovenia and now have retreated north into Austria to spend some time with Magrit’s family in Austria. We will head back into Slovenia on Saturday when the weather improves. Yesterday as we left Slovenia at 6pm we entered Italy and at 6:20pm we entered Austria! This is an amazing area of Europe to explore and photograph.

Evening blue hour at Manarola, Cinque Terre, Italy. Two nights before full moon. I think that Manarola is the most photogenic of the 5 villages in the Cinque Terre and perhaps one of the top 50 vistas to photograph in the world.