Slovenian Alps & Klagenfurt, Austria

5 min readSep 15, 2019

I was ready for a mountain drive this morning so I headed north from Tolmin up into the Julian Alps in the extreme northwestern corner of Slovenia.

The mountain pass I drove up was guarded by Kluže Fortress. It was originally built in 1472 but Napoleon’s forces destroyed the fort in 1797. The current structure was built in the 1880s by the Austrians and served along the front line of World War I.

You could still look out the gun slits today and imagine the Italian army desperately trying to break through this pass into Austria and on to Vienna.

They never made it this far. After the Russians collapsed in revolution in 1917, Germany moved troops from the eastern front into this area to reinforce the Austro-Hungarians entrenched along the mountains. The Germans used poison gas to obliterate the Italian lines.

Futher up the pass I came to the tiny village of Strmec. The houses clung to the narrow road. I couldn’t imagine living here in winter but what an incredible view down the valley.

I soon cross over the Italian border and came across another crumbling military outpost. This time I peered out the window to get an idea of the view for the Italian army.

Countless stone fortifications like these are scattered throughout the mountains. They’ve been left to explore and quietly crumble in place.

Just a few kilometers further north and I crossed another border, this one into Austria. I dutifully added another road vignette to my car’s windshield.

The speed limit was 130 kph (about 81 mph) on this section of the Austrian autobahn and I motored to the city of Klagenfurt. It was quite a contrast from the remote Slovenian mountain villages I’d recently passed through.

The weather has been perfect over here for the past few days and I enjoyed hiking around the old town in the warm sun. I kept seeing references to a dragon so I studied up on the city’s origins.

Legend has it that Klagenfurt was founded after a couple of brave men killed the abominable “Lindwurm”, a winged dragon in the moors adjoining the nearby lake. So there you go…

It was great to be able to speak a little German and read the signs. Slovenian and Croatian words look like someone took letters and put them in a blender. There never seem to be enough vowels between the consonants.

I soon found the local Hofbräuhaus. A little taste of Munich here in southern Austria. Ausgezeichnet!

Klagenfurt was a pleasant surprise. I enjoyed walked through the quiet squares and parks this Sunday.

I took a different route on my drive south back into Slovenia. The Vršič Pass is the highest in the country with more than 50 hairpin turns. Dramatic mountain formations and pine trees tower over you.

This treacherous road was built during World War I by more than 10,000 Russian prisoners of war to keep the Isonzo Front supplied. An additional monument beyond the road itself remains to these soldiers.

In March of 1916 an avalanche buried a POW work camp, killing more than 100 Russians and their Austrian guards. The remaining prisoners built a small wooden chapel as a memorial, now called the Russian Chapel.

Further down the road, I pulled the car over and hiked across a small wooden suspension bridge. I put my feet in the freezing stream which represented the start of the Soča River.

The tiny church in the settlement across the street had a beautiful painted ceiling of blue and gold angels. It was completely silent except for the sound of rushing water.