Bled and the Triglav National Park Slovenia 17 to 19 July 2013

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Bled and the Triglav National Park Slovenia 17 to 19 July 2013

After the car was serviced in Ljubljana (we have done 9,800 kms in 67 days) we drove along the A2 NW to Bled. This is holiday town is nestled next to Lake Bled and is as pretty as a picture. It has an island in the middle of the Lake and perched on a big cliff is the Bled Castle.

We drove to Camping Bled and the foreshore of the Lake was PACKED! We found a spot and set up our Camper – awning out, windows opened, table and chairs out, bikes taken off, microwave set up, and, depending on the time of the day and how hot it is, open our local beer. We have got into the practice of putting one can of beer into the freezer at lunch time so we have an icy beer when we stop for the day.

We got on our bikes and road around the Lake. It was beautiful. The bike path was almost all in the shade. We stopped frequently for photo-taking. We watched the rowers practicing (great lake for this), people boating, swimming, playing volleyball, archery, jumping on a trampoline, running, walking etc etc. It’s about 5km around.

The next day after breakfast, we rode the bikes halfway around again, to a lake-side restaurant in the town (our campsite was the opposite end of the lake to the town) and had a coffee and Bled Cake (see photos) YUM!

After that we had a VERY active day in the Triglav National Park.

1. Drove and walked to the Savica Waterfall – the double waterfall looks as though one of the sections comes out of the rock…and it does!!!

2. Vogel Ski Resourt – no snow of course – when up a cable car and saw the magnificent view

3. Drove to the start of Voje Valley and Mostnica Gorge – it’s hard to capture the 10-15m depth of the gorge by photo. We saw Devils Bridge (man-made), a natural bridge, countless erosion features, and right at the end of the Gorge the Okrepcevalnica Waterfall. This walk took 2 ½ hrs. Tom went part of the way. Along the track there is a little restaurant so he stopped and had mushroom soup and tea….WHAT!!!! I ran ½ of the way to the waterfall.

4. Drove back to Bled, showered, hopped back on our bikes and rode ½ way around Lake Bled, tied our bikes to a pole and walked up zig-zag steps for 15 minutes to the Bled Castle. During summer, Bled has a big Festival with special events. This night at the Castle they put on an Opera which also included a magician and a couple of skits. They were all dressed in their Elizabethan outfits. We had a lovely dinner up there before the Opera started and while the sun was setting – beautiful. I had Deer steak and Tom had beef steak – YUM.

About 2/3s through the opera we all of a sudden felt tired (for some strange reason!!!), so we walked down all the steps, and rode our bikes back to the camper……and ‘died’. Heck, did we sleep well.



A little bit about the towns in the Triglav National Park: they were built for the snow with steep sloping roofs. Nearly all of the houses have flowers growing in hanging baskets at their window-sills. Their bus stops also have hanging baskets of colourful flowers. It was really beautiful.



The next morning we were off to Vrsic Pass, also in the Triglav National Park. This is one of the most magnificent drives we have done. There were 25 hair-pin bends going up and another 25 hair-pin bends going down. We stopped frequently, taking photos and soaking up the views. It took up 2 ½ hrs to drive 35 kms. There was a bit of 1^st gear work and a little more 2^nd gear work going up the Pass but the camper went well. Tom & I had a discussion on who was going to drive the Vrsic Pass and because I take better photos (!!!!!) Tom drove.



We saw a lot of cyclists and later learned there was a race being held through the Pass – you ought to see all those big thighs pumping hard!!! This area is also a hikers dream as there are lots of track to choose from.



So after an amazing morning, and at the bottom of the mountain range we stopped for lunch then it was time to say goodbye to beautiful Slovenia. The only must-see features of the country we didn’t see were some caves, but one can’t see everything (although we are trying hard!).



We were now on our way to Austria via Tarvisio in Italy and then to Villach in Austria.

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