We headed off to Lake Bled in the morning and were happy that there was some blue skies about. Garth had asked whether we shouldn’t just walk the 3 kms to the lake but I countered with the fact that we had planned to walk the 6 kms around the lake plus some sites and maybe a side hike or two and he added that yes, just in case it rained later, it would be good to have Betty around (slight foreshadowing). We parked and began our walk around the lakeside trail. The views were stunning, both of the castle on a rocky promontory and the church on a small island in the middle of the lake, supposedly the only island in all of Slovenia!
Our first view of the castle:
Many beautiful scenes appeared as we walked around:
Like this one :)
Half way around the lake we decided to take a hiking trail up to a lookout point. It was only a few kilometres long but it climbed steeply on some switchbacks. Half way up we ran into an older British couple on their descent and they assured us that it was worth the effort with a spectacular view of the lake but there was a big set of steep stairs near the top. We reached the stairs and it was about 50 steps to the lookout, seemed like nothing after the half an hour worth of stairs that I climbed a month before in St. Hillaire. The view was awesome and with a bench all to ourselves we sat down to enjoy a bit of lunch. We took a different path to get down and I was impressed with the fortuity of Holly, hiking in pseudo sandals with a bit of a heel to them.
Starting our hike up:
The final stairs to our lunchtime bench:
The view gets better...
The ultimate view:
Back down at the lake, we continued on our circumnavigation and couldn’t help but stop as we saw this guy reeling in a big fish on the shoreline. He had the full meal deal going on with four or five rods in a holder, a tent for some shade, chairs, a remote control boat (Garth thought it may even be a submarine with a camera) and also a cute blonde assistant, I assumed his girlfriend. The girl had this massive net which seemed like overkill from the size of fish we had seen in the lake. There were plenty of fish in Bled, but none seemed too big. Well we were wrong. He brought in a huge carp and she bagged it with the net. They pulled it onshore, carefully removed the hook, she took some pics of him holding it and then he put it on a small inflatable matt to get it gently back in the water. Then Garth, Holly and I were all impressed with the bigger catch this guy had, his girlfriend, when she took to fish, knelt right down in the lake, getting her pants completely drenched and posed for a photo. I think this one was headed for the illicit pages of Playfisherman!
The big catch:
The centerfold:
We found a rowboat rental place and we hired one for an hour. Garth was the engine to get us out to the island (I did the return trip). We docked and climbed the 100 stairs up to the main area with some buildings including an old church. Supposedly one could make a wish while ringing the bell so you could imagine that the damn clanging went on all day! I felt sorry for those that worked in a cafe just 100 meters from the church. We walked around the island in about 5 minutes and then Garth and I sat down for a beer while Holly did a little more exploring. Suddenly our peaceful beverage was inundated by some spiffy dressed Brits and the obvious (and right) guess was that it was a wedding. We enjoyed people watching for about 5 minutes before having to return to our bateau to head back. I took on the slave position in the boat as we began to circle the island (yes, I already used the word circumnavigation once in this blog...) before heading back to the rental place. We timed it perfectly to see the bride arrive at the base of the massive outdoor staircase. Turns out that the best man was to carry her all the way up with another groomsman helping with the train. We cheered him on (he must have done some training for the task) and from our vantage point, down low on the water, we saw a bit more of the bride than we probably should have, not only the garter belt but a bit more. All I could do was continue to row as Garth contemplated whether to use the regular camera or the HD one. I think he was hoping that the best man might trip and we could have even more of a spectacle on our hands.
The bride arrives:
Feeling like a slave, but a happy one:
Returning to shore we continued to walk around the lake and eventually got to the base of the castle. I think both Garth and I could have taken or left it but Holly inspired us to climb the 1-200 meters up to this 900+ year old castle (at least bits of it). None of us were terribly inspired by the museum inside but again there were nice views and I’m glad that we checked it off our list. It began to rain as we left and poor Holly had forgotten her rain jacket, although she did have her swimsuit with her! We made our way back into town and searched out a place for the so-called famous Lake Bled cake that Marian, the young woman of the couple that we gave a ride to the day before had mentioned. We found just such a place and lo and behold, there was Marion and her boyfriend Fleurian sitting on the sheltered patio! We visited with them and later gave them a ride to their campsite in the pouring rain before returning to our campsite and Camp Sobec. Super cute and friendly
couple.
The view from the castle:
No comments:
Post a Comment