We step off the train onto the platform, squinting into the stark sunlight. No-one else gets off the train and there’s no-one at the station. Tufts of weeds sprout in the dusty ground between the railway line and a single storey building with one bench placed alongside its outside wall beneath a sign that reads ‘Plave’. If there was any breeze I imagine clumps of tumble weed would come sailing past.
We leave the dusty station and drive along a narrow winding lane through dense woodland. Emerging from a junction, we find ourselves stuck behind a large truck which is completely obscuring the road ahead as it makes painfully slow progress along the undulating, serpentine road, brushing leaves from low-lying branches and sending them raining down on us through the dappled sunlight.
Article
Commissioned by Inntravel to showcase its Best of Slovenia, 7 night rail journey
Publication
Slow Lane
Published
July 2020
“I ring driver to ask him to pull over…”
A short conversation in Slovenian ensues and he hangs up. A couple of moments later the truck in front of us pulls into the side of a slightly wider section of the road and an arm comes out of the driver’s window to wave us past.
“I ring driver to ask him to move over,” beams Bogdan at us in his rear view mirror. “I see number on back of truck and I ring. Luckily, is driver’s number.”
We left Bohinjska Bistrica in the Triglav National Park just over an hour ago, departing the platform amidst Alpine splendour and within moments, disappearing into the Bohinj rail tunnel, emerging 6.3km later in Podbrdo on the other side of the Alps. The final link in the Habsburg’s rail connection between Vienna and Trieste, this rail journey is considered one of the most picturesque in Europe.
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