July 12: Bled Day 2

After breakfast this morning we met in the lobby at 9 and said goodbye to the Kim's and then got on the bus to go to Vintgar gorge, which was only about 15 minutes away from Bled.

Vintgar Gorge

The walk through the gorge was about 1.5 km on a wood boardwalk that was built right along the river bank. The river is protected throughout the gorge so we could see all kinds of brown trout throughout the scenic walk.

The End of the Gorge

After the gorge we hiked up out of it and then walked to the parking lot where Nemanja was waiting for us to take us to Bled Castle. It is located on a 100 meter high cliff overlooking Lake Bled. Ksenja told us that the castle was made up of two courtyards, an upper and a lower, with the nobility living in the upper courtyard and all the employees living in the lower courtyard.

Upper Courtyard

The lower courtyard had a printing press that was hand operated, and they printed some neat souvenirs, and the upper structures housed a nice little museum that had a lot of the archeological history of the area. The view from the top was pretty breathtaking and definitely a highlight of Bled.

Admiring the View

When we were done at the castle most of us walked down from the castle to town, but Christal, Maddy, Yeh-yeh and Ni-ni all rode back to the hotel on the bus. Those of us that walked found some food stalls along the lake to eat at and then I went and found the ones that had taken the bus and we all ate next to the lake.

Time for Lunch

I ended up ordering a Bled hot dog that was really good. It had coleslaw, aioli and good bread for the bun.

The Bled Hotdog

After we finished with lunch we went back to the hotel for about 45 minutes to rest. After our short rest we got back on the bus and rode a few minutes down to the lake to catch a boat out to the only island in Slovenia and to see the church that was built there. Once we got on the island Ksenja told us there were 99 steps to get up to the church and there was a tradition of new grooms having to carry their new brides all the way up to make sure they were fit to be a husband.

In the church they had a long rope that was connected to the "wishing bell" and the legend goes that you ring the bell three times and make a wish and it will come true.

LB Was Almost Too Light to Ring the Bell

After the church most of the group went to climb the bell tower, but I had bookmarked the cafe on the island, called Potičnica, because they were supposed to have good potica, which is a traditional Slovenian cake, so Christal, the kids and my parents went to the café to try some.

Carob Potica

We got a slice of hazelnut and fig and a slice of carob. They probably weren't my favorite pastry or dessert we had, but I'm definitely glad we got to try them.

Hazelnut & Dried Fig Potica

After our snack we had to go down to the boat to ride it back to shore and then we took the bus back to the hotel.

The View From the Boat

From the hotel most of the group walked over to a small ski hill that had a toboggan mounted on a rail to ride on in the summer, while Christal and Maddy went to the hotel pool. 

Waiting Patiently for the Slide

There was a pretty long line to ride the toboggan but it was worth it. LB was pretty cautious going down and Megan ended up kind of catching up to him, and Wyatt lost his hat on the second turn, but we all had a lot of fun. After we were done Wyatt ran up the hill to get his hat in what seemed like record time and then we walked back to the hotel to retrieve everyone.

Hurry Up LB!

While I was getting Christal and Maddy from the pool Julie happened to go down to one of the restaurants I had bookmarked and luckily they had room for all of us. It was called Old Cellar Bled and it was one of the better meals of the trip I thought. Some of the highlights were the mushroom cappuccino soup, my beef cheeks and a local pasta called pljukanci, with beef, leek, porcini and sundried tomato.

Pljukanci

After dinner the big kids wanted to go to the pool before it closed, so I took LB with them. Christal took Maddy back to the room and the rest of the adults walked around town a little bit. While the kids were swimming I walked down to check out a couple of souvenir shops and came back up to the pool right as they were finishing, so I took LB back to the room and we got ready for bed.