After a trip up in the gondola to Vogel, the local ski resort, and hiking in the mountains of Triglav National Park we returned to Bohinj. There we met at the Tourist Information Center to join up with some Slovenians from Ljubljana to go on a torch walk. The torches were wax-embedded cardboard on a stick. We walked to a climbing rock that is +2 to 7 difficulty. In the summer you could climb until you are exhausted then jump into the lake! Too cold tonight. There were frozen patches on the lake.

We then walked to the Golden Horns or Zlatorog and learned about the legend of the white stag and how the mountains surrounding the lake became so jagged.

The next stop we doused the torches in a pale of water and entered the Church of John The Baptist. There we learned all about mangers, or what they call Christmas cribs. A docent for the church also sang a beautiful Christmas song in Slovenian.

Hiking back to the start we were excited to find out they had blueberry schnapps and hot tea for us to drink and Christmas cookies to eat. We had a great time talking with the guides other members of the walk. We were told that we HAD to visit their home city Ljubljana also. It was a treat to see how proud they were of their city. Marna and I have put it on our list of places to visit in the coming year. They said it is like Prague was twenty years ago. We can’t wait!