Lake Bled

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Today we had a good look at Lake Bled and visited the main sites. First up we hired a row boat and rowed to Bled Island. Everyone had a go at rowing which was good fun. The lake has a laid out rowing course and history of producing Olympic medal winners. On the island there is a picturesque church and surrounding buildings that house a cafe and souvenir ship. The cafe has a beautifully designed wood interior. We had some very nice walnut cake.The Pilgrim Church of the Assumption of Mary dates back to the 15th Century. There has been a church there however since the 9th Century. Like many churches in Slovenia, there are fragments of the church over different periods and there is glass flooring in parts to see the original church.There is a tradition that if the bridge groom carries his bride up the 99 steps to the church and rings the bell then the couple will have good luck. Dion rang the bell as did a number of other tourists.The other means to get to the island is a pletna which is propelled by the skipper gondola style with two oars. Dion had me race one back to the mainland. We won but as the pletna was carrying a dozen people it was an unequal contest.We then walked the six kilometres around the lake. The water was incredibly clear with quite a few fish in the shallows searching for bugs and Other food. The walk offered great views and differing perspectives of the church and the castle. We returned to our apartment for a rest before tackling the castle in the late afternoon.The drive up to the castle saved a couple hundred steps compared to walking up from the lakeside. Evan rated this as the best castle on the trip. It dated back to the early 11th century and is complete with towers, drawbridge and ramparts. The Museum has an excellent collection of Stone Age and Bronze Age artefacts from the local areas. This included a Bronze Age sword. In the medieval section there was a folding calendar for people to carry with them. There was also a ironsmith who pressed out castle coins for the boys the old fashioned way. He also had some ornamental ironwork included some nice pieces of winged dragons which is the symbol of the Ljubljana castle.After the castle we drove to the neighbouring town of Lesce to the Spar supermarket to get dinner. The prices of most things are cheaper than Australia although the choice and range is much smaller. As with the Italian supermarket it is clear the diet is less international in nature.

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