Slovenia, you beauty - Bled and Bohinj

After tearing the kids away from the sheep, chickens, tractors and Californian friends, we make our way to the much talked about Lake Bled.

As we pull into the road leading to Bled, we realise that Easter weekend is probably not the best planning to visit this popular destination...but we figure, we’ve got to be somewhere!

After taking in the views of the lake, we find a parking spot and head down for a walk. The lake is pretty, with a lovely church placed upon a tiny island, a castle perched on the back edge and the backdrop of the Julian Alps. But it is also busy! And we still struggle to find somewhere to grab some food!? We do see an amazingly hilarious American attempt to jump into the freezing lake, filmed by his family...he bottles his dive at the last minute and the end result has us in tears, but amidst more calls of, ‘I’m hungry’ (we are honestly not starving them, it must be something in the air), we make a swift exit to our next (and quieter) lake Bohinje to find another waterfall, Savica, and hopefully somewhere to stay.

After meanderings through the valley, we get some glimpses of the lake and head to the waterfall...not quite sure how far up we can drive, once more we take the ‘let’s just see how far the road goes’ approach. This gives us another heart stopping moment, as we meet another Moho on a very tight bend, but inch past and thankfully park up to start the walk. Mental note, we need to start carrying cash when we walk up waterfalls, after 5 minutes, we find a barrier where you have to pay to go up (signs at the bottom would be useful), but the very kind man on the barrier waves us through, and Amelia’s legs power on up the concrete steps towards Savica - about half way, at a bench, we hear a lady asking her husband ‘why didn’t you tell me there were that many steps?’, he replied ‘well I only counted them on the way down!’, so we ask how many...365 from this point up. I don’t think it did Amelia’s confidence much good hearing that, but she just about makes it to the top, Coen by this point desperate to get out of the back pack carrier and attempt to jump over an edge, any edge. We queue for a photo, Amelia then attempts a ‘man overboard’ manoeuvre and we quickly start back down the steps. It was a lovely waterfall. It’s just the sheer drops with a 2 and 4 yr old mean we can’t relax and enjoy the view!!

As we head back down (and luckily meet no more oncoming vehicles) we spot lots of vans parked up by the side of the lake, so head over to find a lovely lakeside campsite. Perfect for a rest stop, a park for the children and great views of the Alps around us. Whether it’s the excitement of an Easter egg, or the multiple van-naps Amelia has had this week, she finally gets to sleep at 10.30(!!). This adventure malarkey is tiring!

Easter Sunday brings Easter eggs (how they lasted this long in the van is beyond me!) and our 3rd day in a row of Slovenian waterfalls...Read more