Slovenia and Croatia

Nick Knowles travels from the Alps to the Adriatic in another entertaining railway adventure as he journeys by train through the breath-taking scenery of Slovenia and Croatia.

His first stop is stunning Lake Bled. Always the good sport, he takes to the crystal-clear waters on a paddleboard (with a watery stumble or two). He tells how Lake Bled became famous due to its resident radical Swiss naturopath Arnold Rikli. Nick is joined on his next train journey by an expert who sheds light on Rikli's visionary ideas, which included a vegetarian diet and nudism.

Next, Nick arrives at Postojna caves, a cavernous underworld full of extraordinary gothic stalagmites with names such as The Skyscraper, The Turtle and The Curtain. There he finds a full railway system, a concert hall with wondrous acoustics and a strange dragon-like creature!

In Slovenia's capital city, the impressively green Ljubljana, Nick scales the rooftops to delve into one of the city's most popular pastimes, urban beekeeping, and rides the funicular to the city's magnificent castle on the hill, built to defend from Ottoman invasions.

Following the route of the Orient Express, Nick travels to Zagreb where he luxuriates in a sumptuous hotel frequented by wealthy passengers and celebrities alike, and enjoys a signature Orient Express cocktail.

In the morning, he heads to a shunting yard where he learns about Croatia's tilting trains – and then boards one, bound for Split. On the way he jumps off at a secret and beautiful wood, joining a local truffle hunter in search of "black gold", Croatia's highly prized - and priced - black truffles.

In the city of Split, Nick is thrilled to join a team of archaeologists at the Roman site of the city of Salona in the Roman Empire's region of Dalmatia before going from ruins to the riches of the emperor Diocletian's retirement palace, one of the best-preserved examples of Roman architecture in the world.