Lake Bled

Yesterday we headed off to \lake bled where we have now stayed 2 nights. Lake bled was billed as one day perhaps 1/2 day by Rick Steves so I thought we could spell out the day by stopping in two towns on the way to visit these museums which Steves had given 2stars. The first town we stopped at was Kropa known for centuries of iron working. It was about 1/2 way between Ljubljana and Lake Bled. It took us off the main highway into a pre-mountainous area and was it ever pretty. It was a holiday Saturday and there were tons of cyclists out biking the steep hills. Kropa was an incredibly pretty little as all of these towns are with Bavarian-like buildings and Hapsburg churches with the interesting Austrian style spires present on all of these churches. It felt very Austrian/Swiss. There was a stream running through the middle of town. Kropa's claim to fame was that it was the supplier of wrought iron nails to much of Europe for hundreds of years. We went to the Kropa iron works museum and it was a little lame but they did have an interesting collection of hob nails. Hobnails were a nail used historically on hiking boots to give them better traction. The head of the nail sticks out from the boot. Now the really interesting thing about hob nails for pathologists is that this term is applied to describe malignant cells in a clear cell carcinoma of the ovary. After Kropa we drove farther up hill to a town Jamnik that has a church set out on a peninsula looking down at the rest of the valley. We ate our lunch at the valley and looked down on the surrounding valley. Our next two star museum after the Jamnik church was Radovljica known for having a famous bee museum. Yes bees. Slovenia is known for Carniolan Bee and for many developments that let to the present day field of apiculture. Short of having live beens it is difficult to have an exciting static display about bees. There was a lot about the history of apiculture and the scientists who had led to the developments but it was alittle boring. the town itself was very beautiful and the museum was housed in the town hall where they were having a piano concerto festival so for mmuch of our time in the museum and wandering around town we were accompanied by piano playing.

We headed onto Lake Bled. the closer we got, the worse the traffic became. We arrived about mid afternoon and after checking into our Air BnB we headed down to the lake. The principal things to do at Lake Bled are to wander around the lake admiring the surrounding mountains and forests and the island in the middle of the lake that has a very picturesque church located on the small island. The second thing to do is to take a boat out to the lake. We got inn a line to take an electric boat out to the lake but by the time it showed up there were innumerable people waiting and we couldn't get on. Getting on the boats was not very organized and it seemed that we could wait all afternoon and never get on the boat. We walked around the lake admiring everything and taking endless photos of the island and the little church. It was extremely beautiful. and extremely touristy. It reminded me of Lake Louise in the summer and the ironic thing was that it supposedly is busier here in the summer. Andrew insisted that we walk up to an overlook overlooking the lake for even better views. I was starting to flag but Andrew is quite the taskmaster so up we headed. It was nice as we avoided the tourists and of course had even better views of the lake. After returning to the lake we hit a park with beach access and tried to go for a swim but it was freezing cold. The lake is fed from alpine waters so obviously this time of year it was very cold. We did cool off in the park with a cool breeze blowing off the water before finishing our loop of the lake. It took us about 3 hours as the lake loop is about 6 km. We went out again for supper as of course all of the grocery stores are still closed to Pizzeria Rustica where Andrew enjoyed a pizza and I had a pasta with Bolognese sauce and a salad. We were both quite tired so called it an early night.

Today our second day in Lake Bled we decided to head to Lake Bohinj. Lake Bohinj is billed as a smaller less touristy Lake Bled. I think anywhere maybe even Las Vegas would be less touristy then Lake Bled. When I have been in Lake Louise in the summer, I always try to do some hikes away from Lake Louise and I find they are often just as scenic and almost as beautiful. My initial plan was to drive to Bohinjsko jezero a small town by the lake and hike a gorge to a waterfall. It was supposedly a 3-4 hour hike but we made very good time getting up to the waterfall in1 hour and 20 minutes. What is great about hiking in Slovenia is that there are restaurants along many of the hiking routes. We stopped at one by the waterfall and had a drink and decided what we should do. I wanted to return to the car but Andrew had noticed a second trail which had an elevation of approximately 600 metres that commanded beautiful views of the lake and from which hang gliders embark. I think Andrew has forgotten that I am much older and frail then him but he was able to talk me into doing the hike. Was it ever steep as the climb was over 3km. Just as we made it to the top, a hang glider took off. Thankfully there was a restaurant at the top which after going to the look out we stopped to sit and buy a lunch of sausage, saurkraut and some type of starch perhaps cornflour that tasted a little unusual. It took us an hour to the top. I though it was pretty hard however we did meet one fellow carrying a child and a couple who had walked their Chihuahua dog up the steep path. We chatted with the couple who were locals and they told us that the lookout was a common place for couples to come and get engaged. Curiously when we were coming up the mountain a couple was coming down and Andrew though that the woman was admiring her ring. By the time we made it back to the car we were exhausted. We gave up on visiting the rest of Lake Bohinj as we expected to incur parking problems. We stopped for some groceries at a very expensive small store which was probably the only store open in Slovenia today and headed back to out apartment to chill out. I think Andrew was even more tired than I was.Read more