Day 12-13 Bled (pronounced BLEED) Slovenia CVETKA SAVES THE DAY

Hello Slovenia

Not a very comfortable night of sleep on the night train from Zurich but nevertheless, at precisely the scheduled time of 0947 we arrived at Celje, Slovenia train station. After snagging one of several taxi guys hanging around outside and five Euros later (Bill gave him a ten because we felt guilty pulling him from the taxi line for a five Euro fare) we were in a brand-new VW Polo provided by Sixt Rental Cars. We made a quick stop at McDonalds for biscuits and coffee and then we headed for Bled. We are at the Rickli Balance Hotel. This hotel overlooks Lake Bled, a simply spectacular, picturesque lake surrounded by the towering Julian Alps. Thanks to an Expedia special, we have a room with a balcony overlooking the lake. Sweet!

 

We started the afternoon with a stroll around the lake 

First view of the most photographed church in Slovenia

Our hotel, the tall building in the back 

Happy hour from the hotel balcony 

Looking dapper for happy hour 

Vineyards on the way to Bled. 

Day 13 (and Memorial Day in the U.S.) began in Bled, Slovenia at the Rickli Balance Hotel with an outstanding breakfast buffet. This hotel overlooks Lake Bled, a simply spectacular, picturesque lake surrounded by the towering Julian Alps. In the middle of the lake sits a small island with a beautiful old church that is probably the most photographed scene in all of Slovenia. If you Goggle “Slovenia” ... this is likely to be the picture you see. Since the tenth century, The Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary is the latest iteration of church structures to have stood on this little island. The current church was built in 1740. Did we mention that the only way to reach the island and church is by boat?

The “Pletna Boat” is unique to this lake and throughout the day, they ply the waters from the shore of Bled to the little island. So, us and fifteen other tourists crammed into a Pletna Boat powered by a muscled young man with two oars standing in the stern of the boat and we all took the trip to the church and walked around the island grounds. Fascinating.

Our boat “captain” 

Working that new knee

In the tower was a bell you ring for good luck, we should have done it..

Paying the man! 

Don't ask…

Next up was a car trip to the Vintgar Gorge which is located in Triglav National Park...Slovenia’s only national park and only about five km’s from Bled. Warning: this was our trip’s first major boondoggle! To wit:

The older Slovenian lady manning the ticket office was having a pre-occupying and lively conversation with a gentleman with a serious case of unpleasant breath. After paying, we were just handed two admission tickets with no other instructions so we struck out on foot towards what we thought would be the gorge nearby. Problem was...after about a mile, we realized that the gorge was nowhere to be found and we were flat in the middle of nowhere with an approaching thunderstorm. Fortunately, we passed an English-speaking hiker who told us that we should have taken the BUS that was included in the admission. What BUS?? So, we retraced our steps back to the ticket office and after raising hell with the old lady, got some detailed instructions on how to get to the gorge (On the BUS).

Once there, the gorge and the river were really spectacular. The gorge was cut by glaciers over 10,000 years ago and the rushing, powerful river color is a stunning color mix of blue, green and turquoise. There is a wooden one-way path along and above the river for 1.6 km.

Helmets were required, we were told “insurance purposes”. 

This is the prettiest part of the gorge, called Hell, where the cliffs are so high that the sun never touches some of the canyon walls. A woman also died here picking vegetation and fell over the edge. It is tragically named Dead Woman’s Cliff. 

One of the largest fully preserved single-arch stone railway bridges in Slovenia 

Unfortunately, upon reaching the end, we discovered that the route back was a steep up and down 2.5 km gravel path estimated to take ninety minutes. Or, we could take the flatter wilderness route for three hours. With late afternoon upon us and also the thunderstorm and rain nearly upon us, AND Bill’s new knee beginning to protest the abuse of the day, for seven Euros we bribed an elderly maintenance worker with a tiny car to haul us to parking lot #3. There, hopefully we could a plead with a tour bus to take us to parking lot #1 where our ticket allowed us the transportation to get back to our car. So now we are standing under a bus stop shelter, thunderstorm\rain starting and Bill really needs to pee. Alas, in the distance we spot a porta pot and a ticket lady under an umbrella so we high-tail it there as the heavens unleash a MAJOR rain storm with lightning darting around us. The ticket lady offers to share her umbrella to wait out the storm. So now, we’re under an umbrella with lightening. Once it becomes obvious that the storm is going to outlast us, the ticket lady ... now introduced as Cvetka ... offers for us all to get into her tiny car besides the umbrella and the porta potty; Bill in the driver’s seat, Cvetka in the passenger seat and Andrea in the rear. After a while, here comes the tour bus and we are facing dilemma: (1) get completely soaked running to the bus or (2) gamble on the rain letting up before the bus leaves. Cvetka saves the day by handing me the keys and instructing me to drive us all to the tour bus during the full-blown frog strangler! This act of Slovenian kindness surely won the hearts of these two American travelers. This whole waiting game too, over an hour and we were pretty wet. 

 

Turns out, the tour bus was full of Asian trainees learning to drive the bus and talk the language so we were able to hitch a ride back to parking lot #1 with no problem. The only remaining issue was a shivering Andrea waiting thirty minutes on bus #1 back to our car in partially wet shorts and T-shirt in a temperature that has dropped twenty degrees during the storm. But, in another amazing show of kindness, a VERY nice Hungarian couple magically produced a spare, dry fleece from their backpack and offered it to Andrea to wear until we got back to our car.

After a quick stop at the Mercator (grocery store) for provisions, needless to say happy hour was on in full force back at our cozy room overlooking Lake Bled.

During the extended happy hour, we reached two conclusions on the events of the day: (1) we were idiots for not researching the hike and the weather, and (2) there’s a lot of kind people in Slovenia who helped prevent an even worse day for us. 

 

Nighttime in Bled