Around Lake Bled

Bled Island & the Church of St. Mary

Yesterday was our first full day in Bled.  We arrived around 10:30 and checked into our hostel before heading down to check out the city.  As a little background, Bled is the #1 destination in Slovenia.  It's situated in the mountains, about 60 km to the northwest of Ljubljana.  There's a small town around the banks of a crystal-clear lake.  Bled Castle overlooks the lake from a nearby cliff while the Church of St. Mary sits on Bled Island, in the middle of the lake.  The church is the second-most important church in the country and on August 15th, the day before we arrived, they said over 500 people came to the island to celebrate the Assumption of Mary.

The town is quaint.  We spent the early afternoon walking around the entire lake, which took a little over an hour and a half.  The water is unbelievable.  You've never seen water this shade of teal-blue and yet crystal-clear.  The only down-side to the lake is that half of it is dotted with an obscene number of yellow buoys.  We have since discovered that the buoys are there because Bled is hosting the world rowing championships, which is pretty cool.  

After lunch we hopped on a pletna (small row boat) to visit the island and the church.  A giant rope hangs down from the ceiling in the middle of the church.  There's a legend, too long to type now, that essentially states that anyone who rings the bell while making a wish will receive good luck and have their wish granted.

Kati Tobogganing

As amazing as the lake, the church, and the island were, Kati and I agree that the highlight of the trip was the last one of our day.  We went summer tobogganing!  From around the lake you can see the track, winding down the side of the mountain like a steel snake.  The track is 520 meters long (over 1700 feet) and you can reach speeds of 40 km/h (25 mph) while careening down the hill in little yellow toboggans.  While 25 mph doesn't sound very fast, when you're on a little yellow cart that's barely bigger than you and you're streamlining down a massive hill on a single steel rail, it seems pretty fast, and pretty awesome!

The rest of our day was relaxing.  We picked up a bottle of wine (Teran) and a couple of kebaps and went back up to the hostel where we played some Scala 40 for the rest of the night.