Jezero Bled (Lake Bled)

We had a jam packed day of fun today - rowing out to the Island and touring the church - there has been a site of worship there for at least 1200 years - but possibly more. We took a dip in the lake too - cold at first for a couple of Floridians, but one adjusts quickly. On the way back to shore, Lisa wanted to try out her rowing skills. How many summers in Michigan, with all of those lakes and I have to teach her to row?! In Slovenia! Did she just swim everywhere? (She picked it up pretty quickly)

We had a great pizza for lunch. Slovenia has historically had a lot of Italian influence and even has an Italian speaking minority near Trieste and a large Italian tourist influence so Italian cuisine is omnipresent.

In the late afternoon, we stormed the Castle Bled (and had fun). According to our book, there are 3 paths to take to the castle. The book describes them in the sort of general detail that makes one say "I'm sure we'll figure it out - there are probably a bunch of signs". There is one sign, with a vaguely upward pointing arrow that says "Grad 1" - it's on a rock 500 feet above the town, the up arrow is only helpful if placed near a stairwell. We found our way to the 3rd path - having dismissed what we later learned was the second as merely someone's driveway (it is both). If we'd missed 6 paths, the view at the top would have still been worth it.

The Castle is not content with just the view - there is a museum, a restaurant, a print shop (?) and a bar (of course). The museum is small, but chronicles the history of the area with artifacts from each age - spear points, arrow heads and Roman coins. There is a cool mix of old and new style exhibits - short videos on flat screens in the same room as an accurate model of an Ostrogoth female. There were several replicas of people - sometimes that is wierd but I really liked it here.

We came down the hill to enjoy The first night of the "Bled Days" festival.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]