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Slovenia: Cycling around Bela krajina (White Carniola)

Bela krajina (White Carniola) is a region of Slovenia that you really shouldn't miss. Located in the south east of the country, it has a different look and feel to other parts of Slovenia. White Carniola offers you a warm welcome with an open and relaxed way of life. There are plenty of natural and cultural attractions worth seeing and with Nada we visited some of them.

National border is very close at every step

Our first attraction was in Rosalnice, known for its three pilgrimage churches. Unusually, the three churches are built within a single walled enclosure. The northernmost church is dedicated to Our Lady of Sorrows. It was built in around 1383 and its nave was vaulted in the late 17th century. The middle church is called Ecce Homo and was built in the early 16th century. It was restyled in the Baroque in the 17th and 18th centuries. The third church is dedicated to Our Lady of Lourdes and has a Late Romanesque nave with a 15th-century Gothic sanctuary, but was extensively rebuilt in the following centuries.

Snow White next to Kolpa and Lahinja rivers in Primostek

The aged DC-3 plane of the Yugoslav National Army was set years ago as a memory of the provisional partisan airport during the war in a settlement called Otok. The English and Americans used to fly the injured from Bela krajina, which was liberated territory, to Allied hospitals in Italy during World War II as well as send weapons and other materials to the partisans.

White stork (Ciconia ciconia)

A pond in Prilozje, where even the most experienced learn about the disadvantages of the SPDs

Castle in Gradac, first mentioned in written documents in 1228.

 

Beautiful karst source of the river Krupa, that is also infamous because of its extremely high pollution with PCBs due to improper handling of PCB waste material.

Welcome to Bela krajina

KARAMPAMPULI with schweppes @ Gostilna Badovinac, where you can also get a White Carniola passport

Sunday ride in nice Slovenian region

The trip was finished and we returned to Nada's friends in Bereča vas, where we received another portion of hospitality and then it was time to go to Metlika and return to Ljubljana with a quick train, that is just barely quicker then we were on a bicycle yesterday.

Quick stop on the Wine festival (Vinska vigred) in Metlika with a walk inside the castle