Highway 61 Revisited
We set off early to give ourselves time to do a bit of shopping at the local supermarket in Gozd Martuljek and also to sample the coffee and local speciality cake, Kremsnite, at its bakery/cafe as recommended by Barbara and Clive.
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| Kremsnite |
Then on to Bled. As we neared the town there were some disputes between Satnav and Google maps about the route. Satnav warned us of a 2.5 ton weight limit which never materialised. We headed along the north side of Lake Bled and almost got to the site when an attendant at a car park warned us not to travel down the last section as it was very narrow and vans were known to get stuck if they met another coming the other way. So we turned around, travelled around the lake on the south side, ignoring Google maps, which suggested the road was closed. There was, in fact, a barrier, but it was only to control the traffic into the site and as soon as we provided our camping reservation, we were allowed through. What a palaver!
The campsite (Camping Bled) is close to Lake Bled, a very picturesque location, but is unfortunately at the opposite end of the lake to the town, so we did a lot of walking. First port of call was the castle, accessed by many steps from the lakeside to the top of the cliff. The castle is mostly a museum now but there were some good views over the lake.
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| View from the Castle |
From there we continued into the town and found a nice restaurant for a meal to celebrate our wedding anniversary. Our waiter was quite a character which made the evening more memorable. I had suggested we got a taxi back to the site, but the others were happy to walk back to the site, so that's what we did, despite the fact that it was dark. We hadn't realised that sunset would be quite so early here.
Lake Bled is obviously a very commercial place but one of the things you "must" do is hire a rowing boat or take a gondola to the island. It took 15 minutes for us to be taken across the water and we had 45 minutes to ourselves before being picked up for the return journey. We opted not to go into the church, which demanded further outlay, but amused ourselves by walking all around the island, admiring the views and having coffee.
On Saturday there was a triathlon around part of Lake Bled so it seemed a good idea to head a little further afield to the Vintgar Gorge, 1.6 km long and very pretty, with rushing torrents at the beginning, then more peaceful water later on. The walk was supposed to take 45 minutes, but photography made it much longer. Some birdspotting also featured - we saw dippers and a grey wagtail. There was a choice of route to get back and we opted for the King of Triglav Trail (4.1 km), through woods first of all and then past St Katharine's church and onto an open ridge with lovely views. We saw plenty of butterflies along the way and five hang gliders also caught our attention.
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| Vintgar Gorge |
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| View from the ridge |
Next stop was Ljubjlana, only 34 miles away, along the same E61 motorway that had brought us all the way through Austria and into Slovenia. We travelled in to the city by local bus and there was plenty to see - the old town with its interesting buildings, bridges and squares, the cathedral of St Nicholas and the castle. Despite the warm weather we had Bograc for lunch, a typical Slovenian stew.
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| Cathedral of St Nicholas |
On our second day John and I got off the bus a couple of stops early to see Metelkova Mesto, an area known for its street art, but we didn't stay long due to a small group of intimidating men. Back in the centre we covered a few more points of interest in the old town including the peach-coloured Franciscan church, before having another traditional meal of pork steaks, bread dumplings and cabbage. After that we headed a little out of the centre to the Orthodox church on the edge of Tivoli Park where I noticed the absence of chairs and which Google advised was because standing symbolizes being a servant in the presence of God. Tivoli Park covers a large area but we confined ourselves to the main drive leading to the mansion and where there was an outdoor art exhibition.
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| Metelkova Mesto |
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| Serbian Orthodox Church |
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