To Bled and Back Again

Well, we're starting the long process of getting back home. The first step was getting to the airport outside of Ljubljana where we will take a short flight to Berlin and spend the night. I've got about an hour to scab some free wifi before we start to board.

Tuesday May 3rd: We woke up early to the soothing sounds people stomping around up and down the stairs on the other side of the wall and of construction right outside our windows. Despite my hopes the scaffolding was there for a purpose. It seems things are always in various states of construction and I imagine there's a booming business in erecting and tearing down scaffolding all over the greatest cities of Europe. We got dressed and headed down for breakfast, which was a fairly simple spread and had a little pan where you could boil your own eggs. When we left the building we saw that they'd even pulled a huge crane up right in front of the stairs to the entry.

Our bus to Lake Bled was leaving around 11:00 so we had a little time to wander old town. We strolled through the market again and it seemed a bit busier and with a few more booths than the day before. The weather was nice and it was supposed to be even nicer at Lake Bled so we were in our warmest weather outfits with our legs and arms bared. We slathered ourselves in sunscreen and then again when we got to the bus station to wait.

The ride to Bled took about 1.5 hours. There was construction on the main road where they seemed to be replacing the entire bridge along one section. The delay was only 15 minutes though. The country side was awe inspiring with fantastic views of the mountains as we got closer and closer. We arrived in the tiny village of Bled around 12:30 and soon started our climb up to the castle. We had made reservations at the castle restaurant at 13:30 because Rick Steves had given us the great tip that if you had reservations at the restaurant you could avoid paying the castle admission. The climb consisted mostly of a long series of switch-back staircases with views of the lake peeking through the trees. We reached the top around 13:00 and the admissions person reluctantly let us in when we told her we had reservations.

We wandered the castle grounds and oohed and aahed at the spectacular views of the mountains and the lake from the top of the walls. Lake Bled was breathtakingly beautiful from just about every viewpoint. I was so happy we had made time for it in our travels. We got seated for lunch a bit early and enjoyed a couple glasses of wine, some pasta with truffle sauce, and I had something called sea devil tail with saffron and smashed vegetables. It was good, although a bit overpriced, but getting free admission sort of made up for it.

After lunch we went back down to the lake and found a couple bikes to rent. It was about 16 euros for the rest of the day. Kat's bike was a little too big for her and she had to lean far forward to reach the handles. It was also built like a man's bike so she had to be careful of the crotch bar, which she wasn't used to. As for me I felt like my bike was a tad too small and that I couldn't fully extend my legs with the peddles. That along with the big squishy tires made the bike feel slower than I'm used to when riding at home. It was probably a good thing though since I needed to set a relaxed pace so I didn't leave Kat behind.

We worked our way back to the lakeside path and started our circuit of the lake, stopping to take pictures along the way. Rick Steves had mentioned an interesting bee farm in the neighboring village of Selo that sounded interesting and Kat wanted to go check it out. It would be a small detour off the lake, but we felt like it would be fun and we had plenty of time. We climbed a long hill and reached some open farmland growing young green wheat and with several of the iconic hayracks you see everywhere in Slovenia. The road dipped toward a cluster of farm houses and we coasted past a sign next to a dirt track that looked like it might be the bee place. We didn't really know where the bee farm was supposed to be located so we turned around and took a closer look. From the road we could see the brightly colored bee houses that Rick mentions so we guessed this must be it. After wandering around for quite some time in what felt like private property and not finding anyone there to talk to I decided to just take a few pictures and call it good.

We climbed back up the hilly road and took a water break where it leveled off. There were plenty of mountains, farm fields, and hayracks to look at and the whole area had the earthy smell of cow poop. After our break we peddled back to the lake, coasting all the way down, and continued around. About halfway around the lake we got to the closest spot to the island where you can rent a rowboat. We locked up the bikes and rented a boat for an hour for about 15 euros. Kat climbed in the navigator's seat at the back and I took up the oars for the trip to the island.

It was a cute little boat. I've never been much of a seaman and getting the hang of the big awkward oars was difficult, especially since I kept hitting my knees with them. I eventually had to stick my legs straight out in front of me. Thankfully it wasn't very far to the island. We floated a little bit to take some pictures and then Kat guided me into a spot between the other boats at the tiny dock on the far side of the island. A large swan followed us all the way in, climbed up on the dock as I tied up and then stood watch over the boat as we went to explore. I didn't even tip him.

The island is very small and the church takes up most of it. We wandered around for a bit, took some pictures, and had a gelato break at the little stand at the top. We read that you could go ring the church bell and you were supposed to make a wish or something, but it cost like 5 euros or something like that and that was just too much for a wish.

When we were ready we back to the boat and the swan was still there. Someone else threw him some bread so he was distracted enough that we managed to sneak past it, into our boat, and shoved off the dock. This time Kat was driving and I got to give directions. She thought I made rowing look so fun that she wanted to try too. She learned pretty quickly that it wasn't all that fun, but we got to shore without too much trouble, and with plenty of time left on our rental.

After returning the boat we hoped back on our rental bikes and completed the rest of the loop around the lake. At the start we had considered extending our outing and maybe riding out to a nice sounding gorge for a hike, but by the time we reached the turn off we were already feeling pretty beat. We'd already had a great day so far so we didn't feel too bad about skipping the hike. When we were almost back at the bike rental place Kat nearly crashed her bike. There was steep concrete ramp and a slightly less steep dirt track right next to it. I was behind her and thought she was going to take the dirt track that I was aiming for too, but at the last minute she gunned it for the ramp. She got about halfway up before stalling out and started to tip over onto the dirt path. I slammed on the brakes so I wouldn't collide with her and she managed to jump safely off the bike before it fell over. She was a bit embarrassed by the mishap but otherwise seemed fine, although she managed to tweak her neck the following morning which might have been aggravated by her sudden reflexive leap off the bike.

In any case, we made it back to the rental place in one piece and turned the bikes back in. It was nearly 17:00 and we knew there would be a bus going back to Ljubljana soon. We felt like we'd done everything we'd wanted to in Bled and decided we wouldn't mind having the rest of the night back in the city. First though we had worked up quite a thirst and a beer was in order.

One of the recommended places was just called "Irish Pub" which sounded interesting. It was well hidden under an ivy covered stone embankment and didn't look anything like what Kat and I had imagined when we found it. We had our beers outside on the raised deck and I managed to drop some coins down through the cracks when I went to pay the bill. It was only about 20 cents so I didn't bother to go scrounging around under the deck.

When we'd finished our beers we had a few minutes left to get to the bus station, which was practically across the street. There wasn't anywhere to buy tickets at the station, but that was okay because we knew we'd just have to buy the return ticket from the driver. Our bus arrived a few minutes late and we climbed aboard. The total came to 12.60 euros. I tried to hand the driver a 50 and he rolled his eyes at me and shook his head because he apparently didn't want to make change. The rest of my small cash came to only 12.45, because I had dropped the rest of it under the pub deck, and I handed it over saying it's either that or nothing. He rolled his eyes at me again and waved us onto the bus.

We got back to Ljubljana around 19:00 and went straight back to the room for a break. I think I fell asleep for an hour or two. Then it was time for a late dinner again. We got ourselves dressed up and hit the town. This time we ended up at a place called Cafe Romeo, for some margaritas and chicken burritos right on the river. It was very romantic. After burritos we had dessert at Fetiche Patisserie where we had two different slices of cake. I had mine with an espresso, but they told Kat that they only serve hot chocolate in the Winter, which seemed odd.

We finally went back to the room and Kat went straight to bed while I stayed up late blogging that night. It had been one of our greatest days on the trip so far and the trip was almost at an end.