Yesterday I caught a train south to Villach, and then changed there for a Croatian train en route to Zagreb, which took me into Slovenia. My destination was Lake Bled, or Bled Jezero in Slovenian, just a little bit south of the border with Austria.
The main train line runs somewhat east of the lake, so I would have to take a bus a few kilometres once I got off the train at the stop called Lesce-Bled. But, railway work prevented the train from carrying on past its first Slovenian stop at Jesenice. I knew buses ran from Jesenice to Lake Bled as well, but I decided to simply get on the train replacement bus to Lesce-Bled and catch the bus there as I originally intended. Lesce is about 15 kilometres from Jesenice, so not far, and the bus took about 15 minutes. Outside the Lesce-Bled train station, I went to board a bus, but the driver told me "next bus." So, I asked the ticket taker of the next bus if his was the bus that went to Bled, and he said yes. Once we got going he sold me the ticket, but let me know that we were going to Jesenice where he wanted me to catch the local train to Bled!
So, my trip ended up going like this: Salzburg-Villach-Jesenice-Lesce-Jesenice-Bled. Moreover, the Bled Jezero train station is sort of a quarter of the way around the lake from the main area where I am staying, which mean I had about a two kilometre walk, whereas if I had caught the right bus from Lesce it would have been more like 500 metres. Oh well, I made it!
Although I was amusingly frustrated, the reality is that my two kilometre walk was mostly along the lake and pretty quickly I realized why this spot is so famous. It is an idyllic scene.
I am staying at a place called Rooms Jani where my host, Jani, is quite something!
He literally ran towards me when he saw me walk in and was excited to share with me that he had very much upgraded me from a single room with a shared bathroom to an entire apartment to myself!
He also gave me some recommendations for where to eat, where to walk, and so on. He was extremely hospitable. It was now nearly 16:00 and I had yet to eat lunch, so I went down to the lake and ate mushroom soup and cheese dumplings. Then I hurried off to walk around the lake before sunset as Jani had suggested.
I started first of all by climbing up to Bled's castle, which is high up on a cliff with this view of the lake.
The sun was setting faster than I hoped it would as I reached the far side of the lake, but I was eager to climb up another spot Jani had suggested and get a good view of the lake. Jani implied that traveling around the lake, plus climbs to the castle and Mala Osojnica, would be a relaxed two hour walk. He apparently deemed me a very strong walker and climber, because I did not find this easy! I will note that Google says this about Mala Osojnica: "Hilltop viewpoint, reached by a steep, challenging hike, offering iconic panoramas of Lake Bled." Note the "steep" and "challenging" pieces. Touche, especially at sunset. In one spot the trail is so steep that this ladder/staircase has been installed:
But, whilst challenging, there is no doubt that it is an exhilarating hike and that the views are incredible. Moreover, you feel like you earned them!
Sun had set by the time I was back down and coming back around the lake's south shore.
Once I was back at the town site it was dark, and the castle was lit up up on the cliff.
In all, I had walked over 10 kilometres on that trek alone, and over 19 for the day all told!
I had planned on Sunday (tomorrow) to climb Slovenia's most famous and tallest mountain, Mt Triglav, which is a little north of here. As I write this on Saturday evening the climb has now been cancelled due to rain/snow, which is very unfortunate, but this morning I planned my day assuming I would been climbing a mountain tomorrow. In other words, I was not going to walk another 19 kilometres today! I did, however, still have lots I wanted to see, so I rented a bike instead, figuring cycling would mostly save my climbing muscles!
This is more or less the route I biked from about 10:30 to 13:00.
It all looks flat on the map, but it sure is not! Mostly this involved riding between villages and especially the village churches, which tend to be fairly small and plain, but quite old in most cases.
I learned through observation that a significant (perhaps primary?) source of heat in these villages comes from burning wood, and many of the farms have these types of structures to store firewood in. This one is especially large, but you can see a little bit of wood in the bottom right.
I passed at least three homes where wood was being actively chopped or cut and stacked in these structures. At the first a man was chopping using an axe and a boy was stacking. At the second a man was using a chain saw. And at the third a man and a woman were using a much more elaborate system that involved a large saw mounted on wheels. I found this all quite interesting. I am also not clear why the storage structures are not closer to the houses, but in many cases they were like this, just out in the middle of a field. Granted, the fields are small and the houses not especially far, but I would assume you would want the wood quite handy for winter. You can see another of the structures down the path to the left in the photo below.
At this church . . .
. . . I especially enjoyed these plaques. If you are motivated I believe they can be read if you zoom in, but the best line for me is the last line of the second one which says: "All this has now changed. Only the people remain similar to those of long ago - simple and kind-hearted." There is also a comment in the first one about "the expulsion of Protestants from our lands," which made me laugh as well.
Eventually I ended up at the edge of Mt Triglav national park (Slovenia's only national park, incidentally), and despite my intentions to avoid walking, I decided to do a hike into the Pokljuka gorge.
At one point the trail led through this cave and out the other (very much upper side).
Once I had ascended via the cave out of the gorge, I walked back down to my bike using this farmers' road.
I passed this saint on my way down, and I assume it is St Nicholas. I have seen many wayside shrines in Slovenia, but this was the certainly the smallest!
Back on my bike, I stopped about halfway back to Bled for a beer at one of the village bars and a burek from the bakery next door.
With my climb canceled I spent much of the afternoon figuring out alternative plans (I intend now to go to Zagreb tomorrow) as well as doing laundry. I then watched the sunset over the lake before going for dinner.
Mala Osojnica is the hill directly behind the church island, and this photo below gives you a good sense of how high the castle is perched above the lake!
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