We made a smooth transition by train from Ljubljana to Lesce Bled (about an hour) and then by bus to Lake Bled, our next destination. The bus trip should have taken 15 minutes, but due to heavy traffic, took an hour too. This area is in the Julian Alps and we expected cool weather. However, Europe’s heat wave caught up with us here. The first few days were in the mid-90s with pretty high humidity. We focused our explorations in the cool mornings and spent afternoons in the apartment. By late week, temperatures dropped into the mid- to high-80s…much more comfortable for all-day sightseeing.
Our AirBnB was just 10 minutes from the bus stop and 20 minutes to town. We checked in early (about noon), got unpacked and then walked to town for a Thai lunch and a little exploring. The lake is a beautiful blue, aquamarine color with a 3.5 mile walking/bicycle path around it. Surrounding the lake are hotels, villas, restaurants and natural areas—a little more developed than we expected. There were no car-free areas and it seemed congested. It felt like Tahoe…with lots of European visitors.
Our compact apartment was on the first floor, maybe 400 sq feet, a dorm-room-size refrigerator, no microwave or coffeemaker. But it did have a 2-burner cooktop and access to Netflix on the 52” TV! We watched the new season of Virgin River while we were there.
Our first full day, we took a bus to larger (7 miles around) Lake Bohinj just 18 miles away through picturesque, lush countryside and tiny villages. We hoped it would be less peopled and it was, although only marginally so. I expected pine and fir forests. Instead, the forests around Lake Bohinj and Lake Bled are largely hardwood, deciduous trees with only a smattering of conifers. Even though this is the “alps,” the elevation here is under 2,000 feet. First we hiked to Savica waterfall (520 steps up), unique in the world as the water flow splits from underground streams and appears to spout directly out of the rock. Then we walked around Lake Bohinj, getting off-track several times as we followed maps.me. We definitely got in our 10,000 steps in addition to climbing many, many “floors” for the day on Roger’s FitBit. We exceeded his fitness goal and he said he would have to readjust his goals upward as a result. Hmmm!
Our bus trip back to Bled was remarkable in that the driver was having a bad day. A woman tried to get on when we did, but he wouldn’t let her on—a language barrier prevents our knowing more. We think she wanted to go somewhere that he didn’t want to go OR that her method of payment (a card of some sort) was not acceptable. We left her standing angrily at the stop. At the next stop, a group of 22 French scouts (who spoke no Slovenian) with huge backpacks tried to board the bus. Initially the driver (who spoke no French) said no (we think because there were so many of them), but then he relented. He asked the first one how many tickets he wanted to buy. The scout indicated with 2 fingers on each hand, indicating 22 scouts, but the driver thought he meant 4 and sold him 4 tickets. When the 5th scout tried to get on, another “discussion” arose (with little understanding on either side) about how much more money was owed and who was going to pay. Once everyone was on board, we all had to show our tickets before we could proceed. About 20 minutes later, with backpacks and scouts stacked everywhere, we headed off. It reminded us a little of that scene in one of the Raiders of the Lost Ark movies when Harrison Ford threw the bad guy off the blimp and told the other passengers it was because he didn’t have a ticket.
We returned to the apartment hot and sweaty after our 16-mile walk, looking forward to a shower, a soft chair and something to eat. Instead, we found the lock to our apartment had been damaged—our key just turned around and around without undoing the lock. Rog had his iPhone, but our reservation with AirBnB had been made on my iPhone which was in the apartment, so we had no way to contact our host. Also, we didn’t have access to the apartment’s wi-fi. So we gave the situation a think. Soon our Czech neighbors appeared and said we could use their wi-fi. We then connected with AirBnB through a chat asking them to contact our host for help. They refused saying we had to send passport photos or some other government ID so they were sure it was us. But all this was locked in the apartment. Finally, I was able to contact our host by contacting him on Roger’s iPhone for information about a future reservation. He understood the problem and said he would be right there with a locksmith. Unfortunately, he was in Ljubljana and it took a couple of hours for him and the locksmith to arrive and do what was necessary to let us in. New keys in hand, we entered our apartment at 9 pm. A very busy day.
The next day, we took an e-bike trip to nearby Vintgar Gorge. The e-bike part of the trip and the walk through the gorge were fantastic. However, no one told us that there was a very steep trail out of the gorge and back to our e-bikes at the end…although we might have deduced that if we had thought about it long enough. On our way back from the gorge, we biked around the upper part of Lake Bled, returning our bikes to the tour company about 4 hours after we picked them up.
We returned to the apartment for a shower and lunch. We tried our key in the lock and found that someone had jammed a toothpick into the lock and broken it off. It was clear now that someone was sabotaging the lock. Once again, however, only Roger had his cell phone. I didn’t take mine because I reasoned that this situation couldn’t happen two times in a row, right????? And I hate to carry my phonhe with me everywhere. We were able to connect with our host much faster this time (after all, we figured out how to get around AirBnB the day before, so we could do it again). Our poor host drove up from Ljubljana and had a locksmith remove the toothpick while we had lunch in town. He explained that other owners of apartments in the complex didn’t like that he was using his as a vacation rental. He suspected who the culprit was and had a friendly discussion with him about the “old people” who spent 4 hours sitting on the floor two days in a row waiting to get into the apartment. He guilted them into leaving us alone for the rest of our stay. I don’t know if future younger visitors will be so lucky. Sometimes it pays to be old.
The following days, we climbed to the castle perched high above Lake Bled. It is my idea of a perfect castle—well defensible simply by its position and with lots of fun room and spaces. My favorite castle so far. We swam in the lake—the water is crystal clear, deep and pleasantly cool. We walked the part of the lakeside path that we hadn’t done on the e-bikes, explored the little town and treated ourselves to Lake Bled’s famous cream cake. To our relief, the keys opened the apartment door for the rest of the week.
On day 7, we packed up, took the bus back to Lesce Bled and boarded the train to Austria. It was crowded with scouts due to a jamboree. (That’s probably where the scouts on the bus from Bohinj were heading eventually.) The conductor took pity on us (probably because we are old!) and let us sit in 1st class—very comfortable. Our destination is Villach, a town of 60,000 jam-packed with Austrian flavor. The scouts remained on the train for a later stop. Maybe we’ll meet up with them in Vienna.
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