Euro Day 25 - Bled

Thursday, 18 July 2019

I was in two minds about Bled after our short visit to the town last night - on the one hand it was really pretty. On the other hand it seemed really busy with backpackers looking to be entertained.

We couldn't get into the campground, so we're in a small apartment in someones roof in a little township 2k or so out of Bled. Jon and I drove to town early this morning to run a lap of the lake.  It was really nice.  

 

I'm not saying we ran slowly but on our 6k loop some guy passed us in the opposite direction 3 times! 

 

Once we finished we stopped by the local bakery and got a huge loaf of bread for a couple of euros. Then we went home to wake the kids. 

Once we all got going our first tourist stop for the day was Vintje Gorge - again just a few k away.  The parking was filling up as we got there, but that was actually quite good as we parked in overflow parking which gave us a pleasant 1k walk through the country side before we even got to the official attraction.

 

Once we made it the gorge was lovely - it had amazing clear green water.

    

 The path through it was around 2k long and sometimes so narrow you had to wait for oncoming people to pass by. It was great.

    

After the gorge we drove back to town (parking in the handy places on the outskirts - and funnily enough using the same EasyPark app that Hobart has to pay for it!).  We had a couple of  other 'must-dos' for Bled . The first was to row to the island in the middle of the lake.  Actually we would have preferred to paddle-boat it, but that option wasn't available. So rowing it was. We all took turns on the oars:

    

The island has a church that people can visit and ring the bell for good luck.  We figured we've had a fair bit of good fortune already so we decided just to circumnavigate the island rather than go ashore to ring the bell. Also, it seems that good luck isn't free, so we saved ourselves 5 euro too.

  

 

Back ashore it was time for lunch and a swim. Bled seems to be a bit more controlling about the water activities than Annecy so the only place to swim at this end of the lake was somewhere you had to pay to enter.  This was annoying but we duly forked out our euros and ate our packed lunch on the shady grass before cooling off in the lake.    The kids played on the aqua park inflatable objects:

 

Once we were all refreshed we walked up to the other compulsory tourist attraction - the castle that sits on a hill above the lake.  The walk to it was steep but lovely.

 

Once up on top we looked straight down onto where we'd just been swimming.  We could  even see the dark shapes of the bigger fish cruising around the lake.

  

 

 

 

By the time we'd done all this it was getting on to 4pm, so we headed back to the car then went to the supermarket on our way home. I'm loving Slovenian supermarkets. The huge areas given over to pasta in the french and italian supermarkets have been replaced with a much more diverse range of foods including finally some indian offerings.  They also have a chilled drinks section - bliss!  And it's not too expensive either - Croatia and Slovenia have been noticably cheaper than France and Italy. 

So after today I'm in one mind about Bled - it's lovely and actually a lot more chilled than my first impressions.  It would be easy to stay longer and do some of the other activities that are on offer - rafting, horse riding, zip lining, mountain biking etc etc but we're heading down the road to Bohinj national park tomorrow.

2017List
Euro Day 54 - Not a rest day Friday, 16 August 2019
Euro Day 52 & 53 Thursday, 15 August 2019
Euro Day 51 - Drammen & WOC Tuesday, 13 August 2019
Euro Day 50 - Hello Norway! Monday, 12 August 2019
Euro Day 49 - SOW Day 6 Sunday, 11 August 2019
Euro Day 48 - SOW Day 5 Saturday, 10 August 2019
Guest Blog: Today's tip for aspiring young uncles Friday, 9 August 2019
Euro Day 47 - SOW Day 4 Friday, 9 August 2019
Euro Day 46 - SOW Rest(ish) Day Thursday, 8 August 2019
Guest blog by Paul the favourite uncle Thursday, 8 August 2019
Euro Day 45 - SOW Day 3 Wednesday, 7 August 2019
Euro Day 44 - SOW Day 2 Tuesday, 6 August 2019
Euro Day 43 - SOW Day 1 Monday, 5 August 2019
Euro Day 42 - Switzerland to France to Switzerland to France.. Sunday, 4 August 2019
Euro Day 41 - Sweden to Switzerland Sunday, 4 August 2019
Euro Day 40 - Island Idle - Part 2 Friday, 2 August 2019
Euro Day 39 - Island Idle - Part 1 Thursday, 1 August 2019
Euro Day 38 - If it's easy, it's not worth doing Wednesday, 31 July 2019
Euro Day 37 - What Next? Wednesday, 31 July 2019
Euro Day 36 - Back into the forest Monday, 29 July 2019
Euro Day 35 - O-Ringen - Race Day 3 Sunday, 28 July 2019
Euro Day 34 - O-Ringen, Race Day 2 Saturday, 27 July 2019
Euro Day 33 - O-Ringen - Race Day 1 Friday, 26 July 2019
Euro Day 32 - O-Ringen Thursday, 25 July 2019
Euro Day 31 - Hello Stockholm! Wednesday, 24 July 2019
End of Part 1 Wednesday, 24 July 2019
Euro Day 30 - Salzburg! Tuesday, 23 July 2019
Euro Day 29 - Hello Austria! Tuesday, 23 July 2019
Euro Day 28 - Even more Bohinj Sunday, 21 July 2019
Euro Day 27 - More Bohinj! Saturday, 20 July 2019
Euro Day 26 - Bohinj Friday, 19 July 2019
Euro Day 25 - Bled Thursday, 18 July 2019
Euro Day 24 - Hello Slovenia! Wednesday, 17 July 2019
Euro Day 23 - Plitvice Lakes National Park Tuesday, 16 July 2019
Euro Day 22 - Hello Croatia! Monday, 15 July 2019
Euro Day 21 - Dolomites to Trieste Monday, 15 July 2019
Euro Day 20 - Dolomites 3 Day - Day 2 Saturday, 13 July 2019
Euro Day 19 - Dolomites 3 Day - Day 1 Thursday, 11 July 2019
Euro Day 18 - Venice to Predazza, Sea to Mountains Thursday, 11 July 2019
Euro Day 16 & 17 - Part 2 - Venice Wednesday, 10 July 2019
Euro Day 16 - Part 1 - O-Nerding in Venice Tuesday, 9 July 2019
Euro Day 16 - Thunder and Lightning in Venice Tuesday, 9 July 2019
Euro Day 15 - Thunder and Lightning in Florence Monday, 8 July 2019
Euro Day 14 - Pisa and San Gimignano Sunday, 7 July 2019
Euro Day 13 - Cinque Terre Saturday, 6 July 2019
Euro Day 12 - Transition Day Friday, 5 July 2019
Tour Du Mont Blanc - Day 4 Friday, 5 July 2019
Tour Du Mont Blanc - Day 3 Friday, 5 July 2019
Tour Du Mont Blanc - Day 2 Friday, 5 July 2019
Tour Du Mont Blanc - Day 1 Thursday, 4 July 2019
Euro Day 7 - Annecy to Les Houches Sunday, 30 June 2019
Euro Day 6 - From St Etienne to Annecy Saturday, 29 June 2019
Euro Day 5 - Heading towards Lyon Friday, 28 June 2019
Euro Day 4 - Castles Castles Castles Thursday, 27 June 2019
Euro Day 3 - Goodbye Paris hello Loire Valley Wednesday, 26 June 2019
Euro Day 2 - Sore Feet! Tuesday, 25 June 2019
Euro Day 1 - Paris - so French!! Monday, 24 June 2019