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23 April 2015 Thursday. The weather forecast for Friday in the Lake Bled area was for rain, so we drove directly from Rovinj to Bled so as to be able to walk around Lake Bled when the weather was good. This meant we missed Piran and the Predjama Castle along the way. To save time we had breakfast and lunch at rest stops along the highway.
We got to Bled about 2 pm and checked into our sobe. The landlord was an interesting character. He had been an airborne ranger with the Yugoslav army at the beginning of the 1991-95 war, but switched to the Slovenian army shortly thereafter. It's normal for a sobe host to share a glass of wine with the guests when the first arrive, but in this case he shared his bottle of scotch whiskey which he drank directly from the bottle...hmmm. He continues to live an adventurous lifestyle, mountain climbing, rock climbing, long distance biking, sail boating, etc. . After I showed him my Travelblog website and noting my interest in recording my travels, he dropped off a pile of albums for me to peruse. He has traveled the world to include South and Central
America, southern Africa, and Asia. Upon returning his albums I suggested that he digitize his pictures and write blogs about his travels.
We then went to the lake and proceeded to walk the three and a half miles around it…in just under two hours. Along the way we met Bobi, resident artist and all around character. He had some nice water colors of the lake, castle, and church on the island. I asked how much, and he said four euros. All I had was two two-dollar bills, which was all the US money I could find in my night stand drawer to bring with me...I don't travel with much cash, which he accepted. Then, rather than just giving me the water color, he proceeded to paint another picture on the back of this picture of me sitting on the wall overlooking the lake. Mike and I didn’t have much time as our parking meter was about to expire, so I gratefully accepted his art and proceeded at a brisk pace to finish the circuit.
By then it was time for dinner which we ate at a restaurant we had passed on our way around the lake. As we
finished the clouds were rolling in and the first sprinkles of the forecasted rain began to fall. European weather forecasts seem to be much better than those in Colorado, or the States for that matter. So we returned to our sobe for the night.
24 April 2015 Friday. The next morning as forecasted it was raining. So we decided to tour the castle and its museum. Fortunately, there is a road that goes nearly to the top. The views of the lake from the castle are magnificent, even on a rainy day. The castle, over a thousand years old, was deeded to the Bishop of Brixen by King Henry of Germany. The museum was interesting…something to do on a rainy day. We descended from the castle and drove to the side of the lake where the boats (called pletnas) would take us to the island to see the church. It was still raining hard, so we had lunch to see if the weather would improve in an hour.
It did, so we took the pletna to the island. A pletna is like a gondola, except with two oars that the pletna-eer uses to propel and guide the pletna.
At the island there are 99 steps leading up to the church. A newlywed husband is supposed to carry his bride up these steps. I’m not sure what the consequences are if he fails...perhaps annulment and a suggestion to either bulk up or find a lighter wife. We walked around the church with Mike visiting inside while I looked through the souvenir store. We shared the pletna with a man from Australia and a woman from New Brunswick, Canada and then a cup of coffee afterwards while waiting for the rain to taper off.
By mid-afternoon the clouds started to breakup so we drove to the nearby Vetnar Gorge. There is boardwalk attached to the cliff on one side that runs through the gorge for about two kilometers. By then the sun was going down, so the shadows defined the scenery, although it was still very beautiful. We walked the roundtrip in about an hour.
We returned to town and ate at a restaurant recommended by the tourist information office. Again, the food was great.
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Slowfeet
Slowfeet
Bobi Still Going
Bled is indeed a lovely part of the world Bob. We met Bobi, although I had forgotten his name, on a similar walk some time in 2009. I think that the deal was similar.