Day trip to Bled

Today we went to the village of Bled, which is about a ninety minute bus trip from Ljubljana. Bled is really only famous for two things; Lake Bled and Bled Castle, both of which we managed to see. Lake Bled is a glacial lake, a remnant of an earlier ice-age, and you can walk the entire six kilometre circumference in about ninety minutes, which is exactly what we did. Although the weather was not kind to us today, with low fog at times almost closing visibility of the lake at times, the sun did shine through once or twice and it was a lovely walk, despite the conditions. Fortunately, there was no wind so it was never really too cold.

Lake Bled has a very small island in the middle which has a very old church - very picturesque 

Beautiful Lake Bled in cloud

Bled Castle is reputed to be the oldest castle in Slovenia, and may well date back to the eleventh century. The walk up to the castle from the lake is very steep, although you can actually drive there. We didn’t have a car, so driving was never an option, however, even if we had I think we’d have walked – driving so how seems like cheating. The view from the castle is certainly spectacular, even if clouds obscured some of the surrounding hills. 

Bled Castle

The other thing Bled is famous for is a particular cake which, of course, Alison just had to try (thanks for the tip, Imogen). Although Bled claims it as their own, to us it seemed pretty much a vanilla slice. We didn’t have the heart to tell the locals us Aussies had been eating vanilla slices since the time of the pyramids; it was nice, but no better than what we get back home. 

Bled cake, what we Aussie's call a vanilla slice

Tomorrow we leave Ljubljana and Slovenia for Innsbruck, at the base of the Austrian Alps. Although our weather wasn’t great for our stay, we really enjoyed Slovenia. It was far more modern and progressive than I expected it to be, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Ljubljana becomes a very popular tourist attraction for those wanting something a little different. The people seemed very nice, and we never felt unsafe. We certainly owe Imogen a debt of gratitude for insisting we put it on our itinerary – she can be very persistent.