Prague and Central Europe 2017: Amlach

Leaving Ljubljana this morning, had to do our washing before we left town. Found a laundromat about 4 kilometres away from the centre of town and got SatNaved straight to it. It was open and working, miracles do happen. It’s another scorcher today and as luck would have it there was shopping centre (not just a shopping centre, I think the largest one in Slovenia) right next door, and it was air-conditioned. Had a nice time until the washing was finished, came back folded it and headed out of town heading for Amlach about 2.5 hours away. Bought fuel, and a sandwich for lunch on the way and stopped at Ossiacher Lake for lunch hoping to get a seat by the lake, have lunch and go. It’s not possible because all the foreshore is privately owned and unless you were in a caravan park, camping or renting a unit there was no getting to the lakeside. The lake is about 10 kilometres long so we thought we’d get lucky – not so. We had lunch in the car in a carpark of a doctors surgery and were on our way.

Got to Amlach which is a small (think smaller than Meandarra) about 2 kilometres outside Lienz, also small (think smaller than Dalby) and being a Sunday everyone seems to be having a day off and all the pubs seem to be shut. Looks like we will have to make do for tea. The place is in a valley squeezed between the Dolomites in the south (Italy is 40kms away) and ranges to the north, stunning scenery of jagged mountains on one side and tree covered mountains interspersed with ski runs and chair lifts on the other.

Went for a walk about 4 and in true Holcombe style a thunder storm rolled over the mountains, we walked back without incident to sit it out in our room which has a very good view of the Dolomites.
Waited half an hour and nothing really eventuated, went for a drive into Lienz, thought we would go a have a look at the chairlift up the mountain. It goes straight up the mountain till you can't see the chairs. When we left the car park Pam made the mistake of saying, "Wonder what's up here?"
It was the road to the top of the chairlift, incredible angles up the mountain and amazing number of hairpin bends. The higher we got the less use of any sort of safety barriers. We got about 3/4 the way up and I stopped for a photo, when I got back in the car Pam was shaking with fear, I did the right thing and came back down the mountain. To thank me Pam bought me a beer at the bottom. I suggested I could drink 5 and we'd go up again. Pam ignored me.
We did get down just in time for the thunder storms to start. Had a drink and tea and drove the 2 kilometres home. We did get lost a couple of times but got there in the end. Walked out to the balcony and watched the lightning strikes between the mountains and the Dolomites. Nice way to end the evening as the clouds wrapped around the peaks and light rain fell. That was till the wind picked up, the hail started and we watched as the mountains disappear behind a huge rain storm. Another day in the life of European holidays!!!