Tuesday May 28 was sunny until about 2:30 p.m. and then it started to rain for the rest of the day. It only cleared up at about 6:30 p.m. High of 21C.
We had decided that we were going to take a leisurely walk around Lake Bled. It is a 6 km walk. It was about a 25 minute walk from the Pension to the Lake.
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| Great shots of Bled Castle and St. Martin's Parish Church |
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| Just getting to the lake, with the view of the Castle |
There are no motorized boats allowed on the Lake, so it is very peaceful. The path is either right on the Lake or slightly behind some of the hotels and other facilities that dot the shore. Lots of folks doing the walk in either direction.
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| Ski hill on one side of the lake |
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| First part of walk was very close to the Lake |
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| Mountain views |
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We passed Bled's swimming pool- looked good enough to jump in and it was warm enough,
but didn't look open yet. |
As we walked, we started to get closer views of Bled's little island called "The Island". The Church of Assumption dominates the Island and is 99 steps up from the dock. It is possible to visit, but Katja didn't think it was worth a trip.
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| Starting to get views of the Island |
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| One could rent a row boat to row out to the Island-- tempting, but rain was in the forecast |
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| Horse and buggy |
We passed the Olympic Rowing Centre where a number of Slovenian Gold Medalists trained.
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| Olympic Rowing Centre |
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| A few swimmers on docks in front of rowing club, a popular place to swim |
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| Slovenia's Olympic Rowing Medals-- Iztok Čop won medals in 4 Olympics from 1992-2012 |
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| A few swimmers today |
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| Lily pads |
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| Little fish in turquoise water |
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| Reflection in the lake |
When we were about three quarters of the way around the Lake, we decided to take a break at the Café Belvedere. It was a steep climb, but well worth it. It is part of the former summer residence of Marshal Tito.
There is the main mansion, which is now the Vila Bled Hotel, and then the smaller pavilion building (now the Café) where Tito often entertained visiting rulers. Jože Plečnik designed plans for a new royal summer residence for King Alexander, the owner of Villa Bled at the time. However, by the time of the King's death in 1934, only the stone pillars had been constructed. One of Plečnik's students incorporated the columns into the Pavilion where Tito hosted tea parties or served cognac and cigars to important visitors.
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| Approaching Café Belvedere |
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Framed pictures of Tito with world leaders in the 1950s and 60s (Nasser, Willy Brandt, Haile Salasie, Helmut Kohl). He also entertained many film stars, including Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton,
Sophia Loren and Gina Lollobridgida. |
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| Tito |
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| Two Fantastic mosaic murals with workers and farmers |
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| The second mural and lovely old chairs below it |
We decided to get a table in the outside section with a wonderful view of the Lake.
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| Room with murals and some tables on way to the outside section |
We had coffee and ordered a piece of the legendary Lake Bled cake called kremšnita (light as air custard pie with whipped cream).
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| Allan with the amazing pie--- (I took two lactaid pills to try it). |
We had a nice chat with our waiter, who once we told him we were from Canada, told us he had taken a road trip from Las Vegas to Prince George, B.C. a few years ago. He also told us that the Cafê and the Hotel are owned and operated by the State and that it is a protected cultural property. It started to rain just as we were about to pay our bill. The waiter told us that it rains in Bled almost everyday, but usually just for a short period. However, today it was going to rain for a number of hours, which it did.
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| Mosaics on the floor in the outdoor section |
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| Ducks enjoying the rain-- the weather changes very quickly- sunny and warm to start the day and cooler and rainy later in the day. |
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| Passed a number of Villas on this part of the walk |
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| Nearer the main part of town- fancy hotel with Lakeside chairs and a swimming area |
There is a small commercial centre in Bled, with a number of shops and restaurants. We stopped at an interesting jewellery store. The jeweller had won a "Olympic Art gold metal" for her work in a competition held in 1989,
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| Signage |
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| Allan bought a beautiful pendant--- The artist signed a card for him outlining details of the piece. |
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| Writing the card-- I also bought a small interestingly shaped silver ring (mine didn't get a personal card) |
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| Town Hall |
It was pouring rain and we had made a reservation for an early dinner at a recommended restaurant near the commercial centre.
After our strenuous walk to and around the Vintgar Gorge on Monday, we decided not to visit Bled's cliff-hanging castle-- we just admired it from afar. The castle has existed in one form or another from 1000 years ago and was the seat of the Austrian bishops of Braden, who controlled Bled in the Middle Ages. It is a steep 20 minute walk up the hill. Our guide book said the sights at the castle "are more cute than interesting" but the real reason to visit was the view over Lake Bled and environs. We already had some fantastic views from our visit to the National Park and the hill looked exceptionally daunting to climb in the late afternoon rain. However, we still had some time before dinner and decided to wander back near the bus station to visit St. Martin's Parish Church, whose spire we had taken pictures of earlier in our visit.
Outside of the Church
St. Martin's Parish Church is a Gothic Revival structure built between 1903-1905 by an Austrian architect. The Church contains a number of frescoes painted in 1930 by the Prešeren Award-winning artist Slavko Pengov (1908-1966), a Slovene painter.
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| Beautiful interior |
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| Frescos |
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| More details |
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| View from square in front of Church up the cliffs |
We stopped at a fun shop called Trešpank run by a husband and wife. The husband, who makes wire jewellery and sculptures as well as rubber items was there. There were some T-shirts with "I am King of Nothing". He didn't have a T-shirt in Allan's size but dressed Allan up in some of his creations.
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| A fun store |
We went for an early dinner at Oštarija Peglez'n (the Old Iron). There was an outdoor area, but we had reservations for inside as it was still raining.
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| Inside the restaurant-- our table in the foreground |
The restaurant specializes in seafood and has many Slovenian dishes on its menu. We had a very nice waiter. I had wanted to order the seafood risotto which did not list dairy in its ingredients on the menu. The waiter said the kitchen had just changed the sauce to a cream one, but he would ask if I could have the tomato (non dairy) sauce. Often menus will have a code listed with each item indicating if it has dairy, nuts, shellfish or other products that people might be allergic to or have food intolerances.
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| One last photo of St. Martin's and Bled Castle |
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| Lovely view of the cloud lifting over the mountain after the rain stopped |
We really enjoyed our time in Bled. Very peaceful, incredible greenery and lots to see and do. The walk along the Vintgar Gorge was a highlight of our trip so far and the walk around Lake Bled was also very enjoyable.
On Wednesday we head to the third country on our trip- Italy. We take the bus back to Ljubljana and then catch a Flixbus to Trieste for a late afternoon arrival.
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