Lake Bled - Part 1

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http://www.heygo.com 6th February - Lake Bled

Lake Bled - Slovenia
The lake is 34 miles from the capital city Ljubljana, we visited Bled on one our cruise holidays back in 2016 when the sky and lake were a different colour to the grey skies today but it was so interesting learn more about the Lake from virtual guide Neza.

This was her first tour but it sounds as if she has more plans including hopefully a trip to the small island that we could see.

The lake is a Glacial lake that surrounds Bled Island. The island has several buildings, the main one being the pilgrimage church dedicated to the Assumption of Mary built in its current form near the end of the 17th century.

The church has a tower and there is a Baroque stairway dating from 1655 with 99 stone steps leading up to the building. The church is frequently visited and weddings are held there regularly. Traditionally it is considered good luck for the groom to carry his bride up the steps on the day of their wedding before ringing the bell and making a wish inside the church.
Neza showed a photograph of her own wedding with her groom carrying her up the steps.

Neza is hoping to arrange a boat trip another time to the island. The traditional transportation to the island is by a wooden boat known as a Plenta, borrowed from Bavarian German Plätten 'flat-bottomed boat'
so I hope we can take that trip!

Across the lake high on the hill we could see Bled Castle
The castle's history dates back to 1004 when the German king Henry II conferred the estate of Bled on Bishop Albuin of Brixen. At that time, only a Romanesque tower protected by the wall stood at the place of the current castle.
The first castle was built by the bishops around 1011 for defensive purposes. The bishops of Brixen never lived in the castle; therefore, it did not have any exuberant rooms.
In the Middle Ages additional towers were built and the fortification system with the wall and lifting tower above the ditch were upgraded.
In 1511 the castle was strongly damaged by an earthquake, but it was rebuilt in the image as it is today.
The castle was restored from 1951 to 1961.

As we continued our walk along the lakeside we came to The Grand Hotel.
In 1850, Hotel Luisenbad was built on the site of today's Hotel.
It became a meeting point for Austrian elite as well as a vacation destination for wealthy foreigners. In 1894, it featured thermal baths, a casino and an oriental coffee house.
After the dissolution of Austria-Hungary of in 1918, the hotel was renamed to Grand Hotel Toplice by the new owner.
In 1931, the hotel opened again after it was renovated by an Austrian architect.
It certainly looked very grand on the photo that Neza showed us.

I remembered when visited Bled in 2016 sitting by the lake eating the speciality Cream Cake & thus was mentioned today during the tour.

Cream cake, characterized by delicate puff pastry on top of layers of light vanilla cream and custard, it can be dated back to the height of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the 18th and 19th centuries. Almost all the countries under the Hapsburg’s former reign still have a version of the cake The Slovenian version of cream cake is kremna rezina or Kremsnita & thanks to a recent granting of protected designation of origin status it only comes from the patisseries at Lake Bled.

Our tour came to an end at Vila Zora, ithe oldest villa in Bled which was built in 1853.
Today, it hosts the head office of Bled Municipality and also the wedding room where wedding ceremonies are held in Bled.
Overlooking the lake in front of the villa a large heart frame just right for those beautiful wedding photos.

I’m booked with Neza for part 2 of the tour of Bled.

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