Well, it’s finally here: The eighth and final post wrapping up the fantastic road trip Guillaume and I took back in April. I’m terribly sorry it’s taken this long to share, but better late than never, right?

Our last full day began with an easy hike through Vintgar Gorge, which is just a short drive from Bled. If I’m being totally honest, neither Guillaume nor I was particularly impressed after visiting Plitvice Lakes — the gorge seemed quite small and unassuming — but it was still a relaxing way to spend the morning.

Afterward, following a tip from the Bled shopkeeper who sold us the camera memory card the day before, we drove to the small town of Radovljica to partake in its annual chocolate festival that happened to coincide with our visit. We purchased eight coupons that could be traded for chocolate samples and then headed toward the chocolatier stalls, using the universal language of pointing to indicate which truffles — or in Gui’s case, chocolate beer — that we wanted to try. Eventually, we realized that most of chocolatiers spoke English and were happy to use it, so we could inquire about the more daring looking options. Everything we sampled was delicious and the event had a very fun vibe, so I would definitely recommend a visit if you find yourself in Slovenia in April.

After a quick pit stop in Bled for one final slice of cream cake, we spent the rest of the day in Slovenia’s capital — Ljubljana — which it turned out I had been mispronouncing for months and proved to be a tricky habit to kick. The city is very pretty, sort of a mix of Austro-Hungarian and Swiss architecture, and notably was not invaded by busloads of tourists. The 2 Euro cab service we used from our hotel took us straight up the hill to the castle where we checked out the viewing tower, the jail and a cute informational movie that mentioned that the castle was inhabited until 1986 but left us hanging about by whom or why. Afterward, we walked down the hill to see three of the city’s famous bridges — dragon bridge (aptly named for the dragon statues at both ends), butchers’ bridge (which is covered in locks) and triple bridge (named for being three bridges in one).

That evening we had an absolutely fantastic dinner at a downtown restaurant called Robba, which was complete with Slovenian wine, a delicious sweet potato, pumpkin, beet, feta and couscous salad, veggie ragout with potato mash and nutella cheesecake. It was the perfect way to close out our road trip, which officially ended the next morning when we drove our rental car back across the border to Zagreb for our flight to Brussels and then Geneva. I hope you’ve enjoyed tagging along!