Time for a final town or two - 28 May 2007

The disadvantage of spending a night in a small, cosy, farmyard is that the animals like to greet the morning early.

After a rustic breakfast, we set out for Brežice, which has an attractive town centre, complete with castle and stunning towers on the church that gleamed in the sunlight.

En-route, at Kostanjevica na Krki, we detoured to view a monastery now converted into an art gallery with an impressive array of huge wooden sculptures in grounds outside. The twin pink and white guardhouses (from the days of the Turkish attacks) look like something from Disneyland. We poked our noses through the archway to have a look at one of the largest Renaissance courtyards in Europe, and left.

After Brežice we took the scenic route along the Croatian border. This is lovely countryside with yet another distinctly different look-and-feel to the villages and architecture.

Another short detour off our route took us to the spa town of Rogaška Slatina where Liszt once played his waltzes in the ballroom of the Grand Hotel.

We figured that we had time for one more stop before having to head back west to the airport so drove on to Slovenske Konjice, which the guidebook accurately described as “absurdly twee” with its pastel colours and stream gurgling down the main street, crossed by little toy bridges.

On the way, we had to make a stop as we finally saw a stork and nest. Although common in Slovenia we had only seen one other pair and then at a distance.

It is a delightful country to drive through, but our time was running out, so we set off for the airport, taking the scenic route over the Kozjak Pass to finish our 4000km loop through Slovenia and Croatia.

Final Slovenian impression: The houses dotted all over the hillsides: they have ranged from ‘Mediterranean’ to ‘Swiss/Austrian’ and what I guess is ‘Slovenian’.