Lake Bled is Spectacular!

If you haven’t watched the latest version of “The Grand Tour,” then I suggest you do!

Surprisingly we were both feeling reasonably fresh this morning which was a good thing as we were planning to bus it to Lake Bled.

We had a very quick breakfast, packed our bags and headed to the bus station; all being well, we would be in Bled around 11am. A few things to note, have cash for the bus ticket, arrive early as everyone wants a seat on the bus and remember sun lotion and mosquito spray!

The bus station was a 12 minute walk from our hotel, and we made it in plenty of time. The journey to Bled took just over an hour as it starts to queue back as you get into Bled. The bus station is a 2 minute walk from the lake, which on arrival is spectacular. We decided to walk around it as it was only 6km, and reasonably flat.

But first things first, we needed to rent a boat to the island and Iain was going to chauffeur me across to it. The boat was 25 Euros and it was quite relaxing, although not so much for Iain! It didn’t take long to get to the island, the problem was finding a place to dock the boat; thankfully, a very kind kid helped us out! I just made it off without the boat tipping! We walked to the church, then around the island; it was already 36 degrees so we decided against climbing the church tower.




We managed to get back off the island, then dock back into the place we rented the boat from. I’m not sure he will make the British rowing team, but we didn’t capsize at least! He definitely deserved a beer after that so we found the nearest place.


We continued to walk around the lake, taking lots of pictures of the castle and the island, and decided we really should walk up to the castle. It was ice-cream time first but I don’t have any pictures because it was so hot, wee demolished them..









After devouring the ice cream, we started the assent. Now it’s not particularly far or high, but in that heat, we were both dying. The sweat was dripping off us when we finally got to the top. Now that we were there, it made sense to go in but it felt like 15 Euros each was a bit steep; we did it anyway. There wasn’t too much to see but the view was worth it.





It was nearing 4pm, so we thought we better think about getting back to Ljubljana; we walked down from the castle to the bus station and we were just in time for the next bus. There was a girl seeking tickets, and we decided to buy another bottle of water for the ride. It took us over an hour, we decided to walk back to the hotel and have a shower before going out for dinner. It’s amazing how you forget to eat when its so hot!

My ankle was killing me as the mosquitoes seemed to feast on them, so I didn’t fancy walking far as I was wearing new sandals. There were two Slovenian  restaurants near to our hotel although we weren’t sure which was best; the first one seemed empty so we walked to the second. It was so busy, we had to sit inside, but considering the heat still, I was quite happy.

Iain ordered Goulash followed by traditional Slovenian Dumplings (kind of like ravioli), whereas I ordered “Compe” potatoes (potato with ricotta style cheese) followed by Ljubljan’c na obroke (fried pork with ham on top and covered in sheep cheese sauce). Neither of us finished the heavy food, but the beer and wine went down well.





We were both stuffed, and knackered. There is a Spar not far from our hotel, so we wandered there for a couple of beers, water and coke; I don’t know where everyone comes from, but the place was buzzing and had come alive again, but it was time for our bed!


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