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It’s beauty overwhelms you as you drive around the lake, if someone had been asked to paint a picture from their imagination and make it as pretty as pretty could be, they may well have painted this scene. They may have thought to paint a small lake with blue water and a mountain that rises up behind with lush green sides and a high barren peak. A small castle perched on a cliff sets the scene. To give the picture depth they may have painted more peaks in the distance with a hint of white on the summits giving the viewer a glimpse of an airy alpine world beyond. Then if the artist sought the advice of a colleague about painting an island in the lake with a small fairy story church and spire surrounded by firs, the colleague may have said, “That’s in a bit over the top! Keep it real!” The painter added the island and the church anyway.
Well this was the scene that greeted us as we arrived in Bled, northern Slovenia. Our good friends Dave and Wendy had visited here back in the 90’s told us about it and we had seen You
Tube clips of the place but the descriptions and films couldn’t do it justice. Of course it helps that the weather was just perfect as we arrived, 27 degrees and bright blue sky. After setting up camp we walked down to lake and stood staring at this scene. Like a cross between Middle Earth and Hans Christian Anderson land, we fully expected a fairy princess to lean out of the top window of the tower and throw her long golden hair down for a handsome prince, who had just slain a dragon, to climb up and free her!!
You may have gathered by now we are quite impressed with Lake Bled!
The journey here from our last blog has been a story of beaches, swimming, food, wine and general good times. The Island of Krk was a delight, the weather was perfect and it was like a holiday within a holiday. We found little bays a few minutes walk away where we could swim and sunbathe, sleep in the afternoons, chat to the other people on the site and life takes on a rhythm that calms and relaxes. Some sites have an official siesta!
They ask that noise be kept to a minimum between 1.00pm and 3.00pm, time for an afternoon nap.
We vow to come back to Krk again but for longer next time. How many times has we said that about places, Thailand, Canada, Portugal and many more? Have we been back? No!
We stayed longer than planned in Krk and not wanting to have to drive like crazy through northern Europe to get back, we have discussed missing our ferry and staying away longer. Don’t tell Dean, our neighbour, who is currently head of security and master fish feeder at Vaughan Villas! He’ll have stopped reading this by now so we’ll tell him later. Anyway it be an outrageous thing to just stay longer than our six weeks, I mean we have things to do like……………….. well actually we can’t think of anything that would stop us from having another couple of weeks. Well there is the Big Sing Thing and we wont improve our ballroom dancing on the beach, will we?
So we leave Slovenia today heading for Hallstatt in Austria and saw the other side of the weather here. We
survived the most almighty thunderstorm last night, it lasted most of the hours of darkness, the thunder and lightning were straight from the special effects of a hammer horror film. We would not have been surprised if Dracula’s face had appeared at the window during a lightening flash. Being in a small valley by the lake, the sound of the thunder physically rattled the caravan. I’d like to say we were warm and dry but unfortunately a window sprang a major leak and had to have an emergency gaffer tape session during the start of the storm! The temperature during the day had risen to a muggy 29 degrees and we had opened all the windows to try and cool down. Unknown to us one of those that had not been opened before did not shut properly and loosened the hinge. Thanks to those who came to help from the campsite in the downpour we kept the leak to a minimum, but still took a lot of water in and my bed is damp to say the least.
Two days ago we climbed the hill (it was a mountain I think but we’ll be modest!) behind the
site and the view from the top you can see in the pictures. It took a couple of hours to get up and Horace helped on the steep bits but getting under our feet and trying to trip us up! We found some sturdy wooden sticks for support to help us get down but again Horace thought they were tug of war sticks and would grab them at the crucial point! We made it though and felt good about ourselves for taking on a physical challenge for once.
On the walk we met an English couple, Jim and Liz who we immediately seemed to get on with and we had a beer and maps session that evening swopping stories of our travels. Last night they cooked us a meal in their campervan and we ate, drank and talked and probably overstayed our welcome not wanting to face the rain walking back to our van! Hardened campers us lot? Thanks Liz and Jim for entertaining us.
Whilst writing this the planning committee have agreed to make it to the ferry on the 24
th, so that’s alright then.
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Dean
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please stay away as long as you like
We vow to come back to Krk again but for longer next time. How many times has we said that about places, Thailand, Canada, Portugal and many more? Have we been back? No! because there will always be an England and England will be free as England means as much to you as England means to meeeeeeeee. By the way the thunder storm was God punishing you for talking about one of his deciples (me) Annd by the way again please stay away as long as you like we are living in your house and renting ours out , and the people from the big sing have asked me to keep you both away for as long as possible while they try to repair thier reputation since you joined, and you both probably stink by now, TTFN