Rail route of the month: Slovenia’s ‘garden of Eden’ from Sežana to Jesenice

Good to know it exists. Have been in the Socca Valley this year and it is a super beautiful place.

This is the best summary I could come up with:

The Simplon-Orient-Express used by James Bond hasn’t run since 1962, and the border antics on the frontier between erstwhile Yugoslavia and Italy disappeared with the accession of Slovenia to the Schengen zone in 2007.

The most exotic departure of the day is the early-afternoon Eurocity train that rumbles east along the main line to Ljubljana, eventually reaching Vienna in the evening.

I travelled the route as part of a four-day journey from Rijeka in Croatia to Ribe in Denmark, relying entirely on slowish trains where there was no need to make any advance reservations.

It’s not long before we reach Nova Gorica, where a 15-minute scheduled stop gives ample time to set foot on Italian soil; the international frontier bisects the neat piazza in front of the station building.

From Bohinjska Bistrica, the railway station at the north end of the Bohinj Tunnel, it’s a superb 20-minute ride on the slow train down the valley, with a touch of drama as Slovenia’s famous lake suddenly appears off to the right.

Later we continue for the final 15 minutes on to the terminus at Jesenice, where this secondary rail route joins the main line from Ljubljana to Villach in Austria’s Carinthia region.

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