Slovenia Day 5

Was a beautiful day when I woke up in Bled - not hugely hot but nice all the same. Walked through the town and then up to Bled Castle after breakfast - it's quite a hike! The castle is set on a rock which is surrounded by woods and there are quite a few ways up. Thank goodness I inadvertently chose the easier one and saved the steeper one for my trip down! Spectacular views from the top of the lake, the mountains and villas and houses dotted around the countryside. There's a museum there that wasn't very interesting but there was an old printing press in another section of the castle. There was little printing museum and a man was printing examples for us - he'd put your name in and he even got me to turn the wheel on the press - difficult! So I have a little souvenir of Bled now.

Walked down the cliff face and then walked around the lake which is about 6km in circumfrance and took a couple of hours including stops. It was truly spectacular - took loads of photos, pretty much all of the island in the middle of the lake! There are quite a few expensive looking villas dotting the surroundings. The villa where Tito used to host summits is now a 5 star hotel, Villa Bled.

Back in town, I caught a gondola (I think they're called Pletna) out to the island in the middle of the lake which has a church and a few buildings on it. I shared the boat with a group of very giggly Austrian pensioners! They couldn't speak any English so conversation was difficult. The gondola was powered by one man rowing - and there were 14 of us on board! Journey took about half an hour each way. St Mary's church on the island is designed in a Baroque style and has a 'wishing bell' in it - ie you ring the bell and wish! It was actually quite difficult - it felt really heavy to ring! One of the Austrian dears, who must have been about 4 foot 10, nearly got carried away!

The lake is absolutely teaming with fish - they were jumping out of the water all over the place! It's also a very popular lake for rowing regattas and there were crews training in the morning and late afternoon. No motor craft which made the whole place feel really peaceful. Settled down for a beer after all my exertions and wrote some postcards!