Lake Bled

On Saturday, September 3rd, the group did a daytrip to Lake Bled, another of Slovenia’s most-touristed sites, with good reason. The lake, at the edge of the Julian Alps, has terrific scenery. First, we visited Bled Castle, high on a cliff overlooking the lake.

Then we went to Villa Bled, Tito’s summer palace on the shore of the lake. Inside the villa, now a hotel and restaurant, we saw a room painted with large, socialist-realism murals relating to the Partisan war against the Germans. Then, out on the terrace, we had the local dessert specialty, the Lake Bled cream cake.

We then took a “pletna”—a boat rowed by a man standing at the rear (ort of like a gondola, only bigger and using two oars)—across the lake to the island. The island is small enough that you can walk around it in less than fifteen minutes, but most of us first went up the 99 steps to the church. Outside, some wedding pictures were in process (it’s an in-demand wedding venue), though we didn’t see any grooms carrying their brides up the 99 steps, as tradition requires. But we followed another tradition: inside the church, in front of the sanctuary there is a rope, a bell pull. If you ring the bell three times, your wish will come true. Unfortunately, I was so busy taking pictures that I forgot to make a wish.

We walked around the island and back up to the plaza in front of the church, where there was an ice cream stand. We got cream cake-flavored ice cream, then went back down to our boat.

The bus took us to the nearby town of Radovljica. We visited the Gingerbread Museum in the basement of our restaurant, Lectar, then had a very nice lunch. Afterwards, out on the street, our host (the proprietor?) gave us a harmonica concert, including “Orange Blossom Special!” He plays very well. In the church, the organist was practicing, which Mary Joy appreciated.

That evening, back in Ljubljana, we had dinner at pizzeria by the river, that we had been told was the best in town. The pizza was indeed very good.