Jelovica Bled

One of Slovenia's most beautiful spots, Lake Bled, with it's fantastic setting by the mountains, stunning turquoise water and picture-perfect little church on a little island in the middle, with a big castle overlooking the whole place. Most of the pictures are ...

Today was a beautiful day--Happy Birthday Chris!! We spent the day hiking around Lake Bled. We got there early while it was still cool. Unfortunately we took a wrong turn hiking down from the castle and ended up coming down on the OTHER side of the mountain. Not a fun walk back around. It's very possible we crossed into Austria in this adventure. At least we got to see a couple small towns in Northern Slovenia. Otherwise, it was a beautiful lake full of swans and big fish.

... item of importance in the area, the Bled Castle is nowhere to be found. Where is it? Oh, up in the extremely low clouds!!! After walking about 45 minutes, I arrived at where the small rowing boats are moored, waiting for tourists. Here I am I shouted (not really), but I was all alone. The rain stop for a bit, the sky cleared and it all came back but in the meantime I got a glimpse of the castle! Finally (over and hour later), one ...

... they have in Bled but it had closed by the time we got there :( Haven't done any adrenelin junkie stuff since being on trip-not even a rollercoaster! Feeling a bit deprived! Might have to do ao bungy when get back home. hehe Had dinner at the hotel. They had some traditional dancers perform which was interesting and funny. Yummy gelato again-and you get to scoop it yourself! hehe

... over 10 years - scary! Glad we did it on the bikes though, (even though we had to get off & walk up some of the hill to the castle as it was soooo steep) as it's so much quicker getting around on the bike than walking & I actually really enjoyed it! We did ask at the castle if we could get a discount for cycling up, as we were wrecked when we reached it, but they were having none of it - miserable people that they were! We also booked the canyoning & ...

... looked Renaissance style. There were bars and cafes lining the river. We came upon a little farmers market and there were some people there playing what Sandra told me was traditional music. They were also wearing traditional clothes. It was very nice, cheerful music. They all had homemade instruments with the exception of an accordion. I didn't even know what one of the instruments was. There was a woman with maracas ...

... and then i checked in and did not see anyone for the next 3 days... the reception hours said 9-22 but there was NEVER anyone there... and nor was there really any other guests... i would randomly see them, but never in the kitchen or sitting room... it didn't make well for meeting anyone, thats for sure! but my last day when i was coming back from Bled, i met Nathan who was staying at another hostel, so we went there to make dinner before ...

... but once again outta town. We were dropped into town where we spent time walking about- we saw there major attraction that the locals are so patriotic about.... three bridges which cross the river pretty much all right next to each other! Wow! so we took a photo and searched for a little place to eat some traditional food- found one which was perfect!

... of gravy. On top was an egg with a runny yolk. Jim took one look at it and wasn't sure what he was in for and after his first bite declared it one of the best things he has ever eaten. You will recognize it from the photo. Lunch was finished and then we walked some more and did some shopping. We stopped back at our hotel to drop off some things and then we went to a shopping center where they had a huge supermarket. We love to visit ...

... try...we are glad we did as it was YUUMMYY! About 50 km out of Rijeka we found a perfect camping spot on the beach in a closed camping ground... but then Gem saw some gardeners in the area and decided to do the right thing and ask if it was alright to stay... we are sorry we did as whilst the guy could not speak a lot of English he said "no, camping was closed and it would be a problem if we stayed".... So we kept driving and as it was now dark we spent a very frustrating few hours ...