The main goal of the trip is to visit Lake Bled in Slovenia. Family and friends who have visited have had amazing experiences here. Lake Bled – Wikipedia
Around Lake Bled
We have been lucky enough to spend a whole week in this lovely place. The colour of the lakewater changes with the weather, and the walk around the lake is very lovely. We have our best pitch yet-
and we decided on the full awning. This turned out to be the right decision as in the middle of the week we had heavy rain, thunder and lightning. It was epic, but the awning held (which was more than can be said for others – a leaking awning was later dragged past us to the bins).
Visit Ljubljana (Sep 3rd)
Ljubljana is about 40 mins away from the campsite in Bled. The city symbol is the dragon – 4 of which are sited on the “Dragon Bridge” over the River Ljubljanica. There are many toy dragons for sale in the shops.
It was another hot day and it was quite an effort to get the car parked, and walk to the city centre (no thanks to Google maps). After all that we needed cold drinks…
Preseren is a locally famous city architect, memorialized here with his semi-naked muse above him.
This is the famous “triple bridge”. The older bridge is in the middle, and two extra ones were added later, designed by Preseren, as the city grew.
These two characters are either side of the choir, looking at each other with some meaning, we felt!
We took a tourist boat up and down the river Ljubljanica.
Ljubljana is a small Roman city, with lots of lovely squares. We had lunch inside a restaurant, saw a big teddy on a swing and spotted Rosalind’s house.
Cycling around Bled (Sep 4th)
The next day we hired e-bikes and set off on a 4 hour tour of the area. This was a really good way of seeing the local countryside, and especially the beautiful River Sava. The Bike hirer recommended a good chocolate shop enroute, but we decided to go back the next day so that the chocolate wouldn’t melt in our backpacks.
I enjoyed the electric bike – especially going uphill!
We were starting to feel the need to a rest and reset day, so the next day we cleaned out the caravan and awning (after the epic thunderstorm) and then made our way back to Radovljica, the town with the chocolate shop. We bought some chocolate for gifts, and then Steve decided to get himself an ice-cream. Well, once I saw his ice-cream being assembled, with liquid chocolate being poured into and around the cone, then blueberry and vanilla ice-cream poured into it (not mixed, but a bit of both) , then more liquid chocolate drizzled on top, then a chocolate pastille, I had to have one. It was the best ice-cream I have ever had, and that includes lemon ice-cream in Sorrento! No photos I’m afraid – too delicious!
It rained a bit…
Postojna Caves (6th Sep)
As recommended, we drove south for 90 minutes to see these world famous caves. You have to travel 1.5 km into the mountain on a small train, to then join a tour around the caves. They are truly huge and very impressive. My photos won’t do them justice. Apparently they stalactites grow 1cm in 100-400 years. So 4m high columns could be 100,000 years old.
Trieste, Italy
Having driven from Bled to Postojna, we couldn’t miss the chance to pushing on just a little bit further to see the Adriatic. We drove to Trieste, passed a roman amphitheatre, had a delicious Italian lunch and then wandered along the docks. Trieste felt a bit like Venice – lots of stone paved squares lined with high buildings, lots of church spires and lots of delicious smells.
On the map, the borders look as if they don’t make any sense. However, once we were there, the border made complete sense as it tracked the top of a very sheer mountain range. We drove though it in a tunnel.
Views around the seafront in Trieste:
A lot of the city was quite industrialized, but the old town area, where the huge cruise ships dock, was lovely. (And whose is that superyacht, with 3 masts, moored just out to sea?)
Some final atmosphere pictures from around Lake Bled
Janet and Steve's TRavel Blog 