Bled, Slovenia

We spent the day in Bled.

After getting ready for the day, we went downstairs for breakfast. What a faboulous breakfast. They had fruit, meats, cheeses, juices, breads, cereals, crepes, coffee cake and more. It was the best selection so far.

After getting some tips from the staff, we drove over to Bled and found some parking.

Joze Hudecek wrote: "When a foreigner, a traveller, comes to Slovenian land, people say to the one accompanying him: Take him where our land is most beautiful, richest and where our speech is at its most sincere, most generous with the truth. There he should make up an image of where we are and how we live. Take him to Bled." Once in Bled, travellers are advised to go and see the Bled Castle.

Perched atop a steep cliff rising 130 meters above the glacial Lake Bled is a symbol of Bled and Slovenia - Bled Castle. The image of the castle forming a dramatic backdrop to the romantic island and the church on it.

Our first plan was to hike up to the castle. We walked down the lakefront and headed up the path to the castle.


Lake Bled



Views of the castle

I'm not sure what was wrong, but I wasn't feeling all the well. My stomach had been bothering me for a couple of days. Maybe it was all the eating out. Anyway, we hiked up to the castle and I felt hot and nausaus. I decided I would just sit on a bench outside the castle while Katrina and Brandon went in. Brandon decided to join me, so we just sat, watched people and rested.


Brandon being goofy while we wait for Katrina.

Katrina had a nice visit inside the castle. She said it was different from many of the others and offered some nice views.

We headed back down the hill, with me starting to think that they should just take me back to the room. It was a tough decision. I felt pretty bad, but didn't want to miss anything.






Ultimately I decided to stay and just take it easy. Brandon decided it was time to walk over to the alpine slide.

While the first slide was 2km long, this one was only 500 meters long - 1/4 of the length. I decided to just watch and not push it. Brandon and Katrina bought passes for 3 rides. I waited at the bottom and took pictures. I think this was Brandon's first time on an actual ski lift.






Alpine slide






Views from the top


Brandon heads down

They rode the slide three times and had a great time. I took a couple pictures with my camera, then took a bunch with Katrina's much faster camera.


One happy speed racer

Katrina and Brandon were hungry for lunch. We walked back into town and found a cafe. We all ordered tuna sandwiches. I was feeling brave and though I would try some food. I was starting to feel a bit better by afternoon.

After lunch we took a boat ride out to the church on the island. The boats, seen in pictures above, are rowed out to the island, usually with 10-12 passengers. It took about half an hour to get to the island.

The church is a favorite place for weddings. From the boat landing, there are 90 steps up to the church. Traditionally the groom is to carry his bride up the 90 steps without setting her down. They say about 3 out of 4 make it. While we were on the island, there was one wedding going on in the chapel. There was another bride and groom in the cafe waiting their turn.


Boat ride to the island


The church on the island.


Brandon found this duck inside a hole in a tree.

We rode the boat back to town and wandered through the market a bit. Katrina found a necklace and we both sampled some honey brandy. OH MY!..that was good. We bought a bottle to take home. The Bled area is famous for its honey production.

We were tired and felt it was time to head back, but once in the car we decided to make one last stop, the Vintar Gorge. It was about a 10 minute drive outside of town. Once there, we parked, paid the admission fee and started walking through the gorge.

The Radovna river cut the Vintgar gorge deep between the hills of HOm and Borst. The gorge is flanked by steep slopes overgrown with beech forests. it was discovered in 1891 by Jakob Zumer, mayor of Gorje, and Benedikt Lerget-porer, a cartographer and photographer from Bled. In 1893 the gorge was opened to the public. Constructing a secured tourist trail through the gorge was a demanding and and extremely dangerous task.

The roar of the Radovna river echoes along the 1600 meter long gorge, full of waterfalls, rapids and erosion potholes. Trails, narrow passages and bridges lead visitors to the end of the gorge, which is marked by a magnificent 16 meter high waterfall Sum, the hightest fluvial waterfall in Slovenia.


Brandon makes another cat friend near the entrance.













By the time we reached the waterfall and turned around to head back upstream, the skies were getting cloudier and the gorge was beginning to get misty. We hiked back to the entrance, bought some ice cream and it began to rain. We ended up eating our ice cream in the car.

By the time we arrived back in town we were hungry, so we stopped at a little restaurant and had a Slovenian meal.

Another late night with heavy rain and high humidity. I was feeling mostly better by evening.

Tomorrow we head to Lublijiana for the day.

Salt in the Mountain

First off, there was a sign in our hotel that we spotted last night and it made us really laugh. I don't know if its because we live here and understand it a little more, or if its just funny in general:

Heaven is where -
The police are British
The cooks are French
The mechanics are German
The lovers are Italian
and all is organized by the Swiss.

Hell is where -
The cooks are British
The mechanics are French
The lovers are Swiss
The police are German
and all is organized by the Italians.

We are heading to Slovenia today, via Hallstatt. We got ready, ate breakfast in the hotel and hit the road. Our route initially took us through farm country with mountains in the distance. This quickly changed to mountains and highway tunnels.

Our first destination, Hallstatt Austria. Halstatt is a tiny town nestled on the shores of Hallstattersee Lake and a steep mountainside. The town can be toured in 15 minutes, its that small. It is one of the oldest towns in all of Europe, dating back centuries before Christ. The symbol of Hallstatt is two adjacent spirals, a design based on jewelry found in Bronze Age Celtic graves high in the nearby mountains. Hallstatt's charm is its village and lake. Tourists go there to eat, wander and paddle. The lake is famous for good fishing and pure water.

Extra tidbit: We learned that 80% of Austria's waters are drinkable 'as is'. They have some of the purest water in Europe.

One of our goals while driving to Hallstatt was to find an alpine slide. We read about them in the Rick Steve's book and saw brochures for them in our hotel. Brandon really wanted to find one.

About 20km before Hallstatt I spotted one. We pulled in, bought our tickets and rode the tram to the top. This alpine slide boasts one of the longer tracks in the area - 2 km. It looked steep and fast! I was a little nervous about Brandon. He can tend to be cautious with many new activities. He seemed fine, but I was nervous for him. The rules state that you should not stop on the track or use your break very much. I could just see him riding his break all the way down.

After checking out the view at the top, we got in line for boarding. Me first, then Brandon and Katrina. We had to wait for about 10 minutes, inching up slowly to the stoplight they used to spread out the riders.




Views from the top.


Brandon gets buckled in for the ride.


Ready for some high speed fun.

Finally it was my turn. The light turned green and I was off. What a thrill. At first you start heading downhill and around the first curve and realize just how steep the mountain is. Then you relax and just go for it.

Near the bottom I got stuck behind a family taking it slow. The next thing I know Brandon is speeding up behind me. He loved it and is a little speed racer.

We all had a great time. We wanted to do it again, but it was a bit expensive and we needed to get to Hallstatt. We promised Brandon we would try it again if we passed another one.


Many of the Alps look like this - folded rock.

We drove on into Hallstatt and found some parking near the salt mine. Hallstatt is famous for its salt mining. There are indications that salt was mined here as far back as centuries before Christ.



The salt mine claims to be the oldest in the world. To get there, we first had to ride a steep funicular high above the town. Then we hiked 10 minutes to the mine, past excavation sites of many prehistoric tombs and a glass case of 2500 year old bones. Once our tour was called, we put on miner's clothes then hike another 200 yards higher to meet our guide.


The steepest funicular we have ridden so far.



The guide then escorted the group down a tunnel dug in 1719. Inside the mountain we walked through several salt caverns, watched a slide show, learned about salt mining techniques over the last 7000 years, watched a cheesy laser show, saw some early miner 'scenes' and rode a mine train back out of the mountain.


Tunnel from 1719.


Salt



The highlight of the tour is sliding down two banisters to lower levels. This was a blast. The second slide actually clocked out speed. I hit 30kph. Brandon hit 29kph. Katrina hit 27kph.





The mine train followed a very narrow and low tunnel.




View of the lake from the salt mine.

After the tour we headed back down the mountain in search of lunch. We found a little Italian cafe. We had a nice lunch outside, although it was threatening rain.




The skies were getting darker as we finished lunch, but we decided to walk around town a bit anyway. We walked through a couple lanes with homes, Katrina taking lots of pictures. When we got to the main part of town, we only made it about 100 meters before the skies opened up and we got dumped on. Everyone was scrambling for cover. It even began to hail a little bit. We skipped back and forth down the street, running for different covered locations as we headed back towards our car. Finally, we ended up under an awning near the traffic zone. I decided to go get the car and come back to pickup up Katrina and Brandon.


Hallstatt


Rain and hail

By the time I arrive with the car, the rain had stopped, at least temporarily.

We were now heading for Bled Slovenia. The drive took about 3 hours and we arrived at our hotel, the Pension Kovac, a little after 8pm.

What a wonderful room. This was definitely the best of the trip. Big and roomy, nice and modern...and also the cheapest of the trip.

We were tired and ready for bed. Tomorrow we go into Bled for the day.