Bled, Slovenia 9/12-9/15

Jaka told us that Bled was beautiful, and that we can hike around the lake, and to the castle, and to another lake…  We were super excited to go, and it turned out to be everything Jaka said.

As soon as we arrived we went for a walk around the lake.  The lake is not huge, and you can circle it in a couple of hours. It is by far the prettiest lake we’ve ever seen with a castle on a cliff and a little island in the middle with a church. It looked like something out of a fairytale.

The weather was mostly cooperative - on a couple of occasions we had to hide under a tree from the rain, but it was warm, so little rain did not present a problem.   We also took out a boat to visit the church on a small island. There are steps that go from the water all the way up to the church. It was amazing.

After thoroughly photo-documenting the lake and the church we headed up to the castle.  It’s located on a small mountain (can’t really call it a hill), and is very picturesque.  It doesn’t have an extensive history though – nobody tried to conquer it.  But since they need to collect money for something, instead, the castle houses an ethnographic museum, which is interesting if you like that kind of stuff. 

On the way down from the castle we stopped by the desert place recommended by Jaka, and gave them a bit of business.  Later that day we went to the pizza place also recommended by Jaka, which was so good that Julie (who doesn’t like pizza) insisted we go there again the following day.

On the 2nd day in Bled we went to another local attraction – Vintgar gorge.  We’ve both been to Yosemite many times, but we were still very impressed.  The waterfall at the end of the gorge is of course not something to fly to Slovenia for, however the gorge itself is very beautiful.  They’ve built little bridges that go along the gorge a few meters from the water, and at times cross it.  While it was very, very hot on the surface, the weather down by the water was very enjoyable.

I talked to Marik after our trip to Bled and told him how much we enjoyed Slovenia. His response – “of course, there are lots of Jakas there”. Jaka, thanks again for this wonderful part of our trip.

2011.09.12 Bled