Day 39 – Tuesday 16 June

We had a great sleep in our ‘rooms’.  The place is not classed as a hotel or a pension – it is ‘rooms’ above a restaurant.  They do not service them or provide breakfast etc. So we ordered it from a delivery service, on the basis of a suggestion card in our room.  Bled Breakfast deliver gourmet boxes of local produce and then pick up the wooden ‘basket’ and recyclable containers the next day.

It was quite tasty with items of quality cheese, salami, jams, bread, pastry, boiled egg, muesli, yoghurt, organic butter, juice, milk and fresh fruit. We have a travel picnic cutlery set, sharp knife and importantly bottle opener, and were well equipped to enjoy.

It reminded me that we did quite a few picnic meals on previous trips, yet we have eaten out every night on this one and only self- catered a couple of breakfasts.  Crazy, so little planning went into this travel adventure, including meals. Part of it is that most of the accommodation included breakfast in the standard rate – much like a B&B, and more often than not we do not eat lunch when we have a larger buffet breakfast. So in effect we are only eating out once a day.

Having said that, we will self catered tomorrow (yoghurt, fruit and muesli) especially as there is a good supermarket just across the street.

Agenda item today was Triglav National park walk. On deeper research I discovered it had some challenging steps, and whilst there was possibly a less challenging access to the waterfall, we both concluded that neither the waterfall or gorge one were really anything unique to us. 

For example we had seen the river and it was not as blue as some pictures, I am presuming due to the main alpine melt being finished. The waterfall also was nice, but plain compared to the numerous ones we have at home. Again we are very fortunate to live in a country and area of great natural beauty, so we skipped that (also a fee to enter – btw NZ is usually free to swim or hike in most places unless you use national park huts etc, and a couple of the major ‘walks’).

Instead we moved on to agenda item 2 and visited Lake Bohinj a 30 minute drive away.  This is reported to be more natural environment that Bled and many prefer it.  Our experience was different in that we found it rather underwhelming.  It is a dark green lake with only a few shore line areas of lighter green. It is fringed by some higher peaks of the Julian Alps and has an historic church at one end.

There are a few camping grounds and lots of water kayaking activities and cycle tracks following the tributary river and water ways.  It would be a fabulous place to camp with families or for the outdoor activities as mentioned, and indeed relaxing compared to the very touristy Bled.

There is a statue of the golden horned deer, apparently based on a legend that everyone wants to take a photo of (including myself).  I wondered if these photo ops are something more manufactured from a legend and then promoted so loads of tourists come and spend their money.   

Moving from my cynicism, I did pay a 3 euro entry into the small 700 year old Church of John the Baptist. Primarily to view the good examples of Slovenian medieval architecture and fresco paintings. The art inside is a mixture of Romanesque, gothic and Baroque styles dating back to the 13th century.  Outside archaeologists have found items dating back to 1st century ancient Roman times .

The church is reportedly the most photographed in Slovenia and I can see why. It is charming with the intimacy that comes with these smaller and historic churches. I enjoyed my visit there, especially as I was the only one inside at the time. Very peaceful, spiritual and humble colourful art.

We were in need of a smoko and toilet break so enjoyed a Vienna coffee and local beef and vegetable soup with noodles whilst enjoying lake views alfresco and the activity of the tourists before heading back to Bled and parking at a different end to commence an evening walk around the opposite side of the lake under the castle before dinner.

The drive between the lakes is scenic with green valleys, meandering rocky pale green water ways, bike trails, and tiny settlements neat as a pin, all with good sized wood stacks and animal barns. Small herds of up to 10 fat brown or brown and white cows chewing their cud in the sunshine with flowers and insects flittering in abundance. 

At Bled we paused for about 20 minutes, sat on the edge of the lake and dangled our legs in the water whilst spotting fish and viewing the comical ducks with a feathered head.  Fish are in abundance, including trout, char.  The largest we saw was about 6 kg.  People were set up fishing for the evening and being successful. At one point we met a woman who we found had just retired and was here for her dentist, her normal residence is Ljubljana.  She was very articulate and called Trump an idiot. She had met a kiwi couple a week ago and was also looking forward to visiting NZ next year – therein she thought it curious and wonderful to have met two separate kiwis in a short space of time.  

After our legs had enough wandering we went home for a quick cuppa before dinner 350m up road at an upmarket Italian and local flavours establishment as Vern wanted a Carbonara. 

I was delighted to find cevapcici on the menu (a favourite from Croatia). Both were delicious and complimented by a local orange wine.

We meandered back the short distance to the hotel, stopping by the supermarket to grab our breakfast.  Oh, we even have a bath in our ‘rooms’ which is the first one on holiday so that is a treat we are relishing.