Monday 30th September 2024

Around Lake Bled

Another stunning day greeted us and we enjoyed breakfast on the terrace overlooking the island.

No plannned hike today other than walking up some steps to the church and a circuit walk on the path around the lake, sucking in the views from every direction.

We organised our cab ride to the station for tomorrow and in doing so found the front door of the hotel obviating the need to traverse that staircase.

Worked our way down to the foreshore and picked up a ride in a gondola to the island. The gondolier pushed the craft along with relative ease despite the 20 passengers on board. As he explained it’s all about body weight – might be a chance for me yet with a second career.

The trip over gave us a different perspective of the lake and our hotel and its cafe. The latter was originally going to be a castle, which connected to the hotel, but funds dried up. It had hosted many world leaders under Tito’s rule with walls decked out in pictures, including Ethiopian leader Haile Selassie. The two countries apparently had strong diplomatic ties and similar views on leadership.

The gondola pulled into the wharf and all and sundry tackled the circa 100 stairs to the top and the church.

We soon found out that the incessant tolling of the bells had nothing to do with the time of day. Essentially everyone who reached the top of the tower had the privilege to ring the bell in acknowledgement of the feat. 

We decided we had climbed enough stairs and while I did the grand tour high and low, Santa’s Little Helper was in the Gift Shop.

Down where the hired row boats arrived there was chaos as the amateurs attempted to anchor and disembark at a less than stable platform. Rather than giggle I played boatman for a while.

Back up the hill we took in the sights with yet another perspective , including back across the lake to our hotel.

Even though its end of season it was still pretty busy and the boats were regularly criss crossing the lake ( a full boat earned around €350). Two gondoliers with boat loads of school kids were even staging their own regatta to the cheers of the kids.

Whilst on the island we ran into three English ladies doing the same trip, but a couple of days ahead.   The story  they recounted  about their trip through yesterday flooded section made us glad we were behind. 

They walked through knee to thigh deep water for a long way and several other walkers needed a lift in a camper van- thankfully the bridge was open but they faced the same dilemma on the other side.  How soft were we complaining about a few puddles.

They also mention the walk through the Soteska Vintgar  Gorge which we had thought about but declined. After their glowing reports we were off the boat, which conveniently docked at our staircase , and up kitting out for the walk.

A 20 minute cab ride had us at the entry and with a 50 minute wait before our designated entry time we had a quick bite to eat and a little thirst quencher.

For a very cheap entry fee you got the privilege to wear a brightly coloured,one size fits all, helmet. I looked like a reincarnate of Sargeant Shultz. 

On a brighter note you got to wind your way down and across this amazing gorge on wooden boardwalks and bridges above a waterway juiced up by the recent rain.

It was supposedly a one way walk, but a couple of elderly people passed us about a third of the way in, heading in the reverse direction- someone must have tipped them off about the steep walk back on another route. There was also a clueless 20 Something Yanky lass arguing  with staff that nobody told her  it was a  one way walk – perhaps reading the conditions of entry might have been a good idea  and fact she passed nobody walking in the other direction might have been a clue.

The waterway ran though a gorge  which was sometimes 20 metres wide and at its narrowest just a couple. The rapids would have had kayakers salivating, though the 15-20 metre drop at the end would have been a challenge.

At the end of the walk were stairs down to bottom of the falls and a sign to start of the longer flat track back to Bled- the latter sign read ‘ track closed for maintenance”. That meant only one thing – up a couple of hundred steps to meet the steep trail that wend its way back to the start of the walk. A 1.5 hour waddle along some nice paths halfway up the Gorge was our domain.

Read about  shuttle to Bled Central, but missed the bit about Parking 1. Hence we got dropped off at the very central parking lot and had a 4 km walk back home.

Was a nice walk passing the cliff top castle and then following the lakeside path for a fair bit of the way by the more modern hotels.

Those damn hire row boats were a challenge for a young Japanese man and his crew of 3. Trying to emulate the gondoliers is one thing, but progress is much simpler if you have the pointy end aimed at where you are going. People swimming were passing him and guessing in his hour hire he went about 200 metres. Made me think of my old mate and rowing coach Peter Staunton who could have been of assistance like he was in 86 getting his Masters rowing team a medal.

Having worked up a thirst we stopped at our now favourite hotel and dined on an ice cream concoction (shared) and a gin and tonic with that many floral garnishes you could have made a floral wreath.

At least it limited the amount of ice they could put in.

A bit more knackered than intended we headed home and got our head around tomorrow’s travel plans to Croatia’s west coast to start our next adventure across the Istrian Peninsula.

Brushed ourselves up and headed out for a late dinner . Turned out that everyone else had the same idea. As fate would have it the ‘now favourite hotel’ was the only one available. Only had a light dinner and then tried to snap some night time shots.

I was mesmerised by the lights of the castle which appeared to represent a dog on the rock face. Less than convinced Jane thought effects of walk and alcohol may have played tricks with my imagination. Only by publishing the photo might I garner some support.

Back to hotel for our last sleep in the lap of luxury.