Monday, August 25, 2008

Lake Bled and the Surrounding Area


This past Thursday, we went to Hertz, rented an Opel, and drove out to Triglav National Park. Triglav National Park is about an hour away from the center of Ljubljana. It is the home to Lake Bohinj, Lake Bled, and the one and only, Vintgar Gorge.

The first sight we saw, was Vintgar Gorge. Through it flows the Radovna River, which leads into the tallest waterfall in Slovenia. You walk along a wooden pathway/bridge all the way down the river to the small snack bar and the Waterfall at the end. All along the way are small sections of river rapids and calm waters accompanied by small 2 foot falls. Large rocks with moss and mini trees will stick up out of the water; very pretty.


After the Gorge, Siena and I saw a sign for an Alpine Slide. We went and found it, a humongous steep slope with a metal track for the cars. We each went down twice, it was nothing like the other alpine slides we have been down.


Because of all the excitement and used up energy from the slide, we walked to the main street, to have lunch- A Sacher Torte, A classic Bled Cream Cake, a piece of chocolate cake and another Bled specialty. Don't worry, we got one piece of each and split them into fourths. The Bled Cream Cake was best, it's like their version of a Napoleon. We then headed to find a place to rent a boat.

You see, Lake Bled has a small island in middle of it. It's the only island that is part of Slovenia so they just call it Otuk which is 'Island'. We found a place to rent row boats and rented one for an hour. Mommy and Daddy sat there while Siena and I did all the rowing to and from the Island.

We got off for a minute or two, then went down to the dock and dipped our hot sweaty feet into the nice cool water. It's not as cold as you would think it would be! You can also see to the bottom, except it's soooooooooo deep that it's sooooooo blue that you can't see the bottom unless it's reeeaaaaaally shallow. I hope that made some sense to you.


After we went boating, we headed towards Vogel Mountain. Vogel Mountain is this high mountain in the Julian Alps that has a cable car on it so you can go to the top. We went up and spent an hour up there, having a drink at the mountain "lodge" and taking photographs of the wonderful panoramic view. (We couldn't capture the panoramic view in our cameras though!) Then, we took the car down again and headed toward Ljubljana.


After we hopped in the car, we were only 10 minutes out before Mom saw a restaurant and she decided to check out the menu. When she came back, she announced that there was food for everyone. Plus, the restaurant had a playground, moon bounce, rock climbing wall (on a cliff), and a trampoline! We stayed there for an hour or two before heading back to our apartment here in Ljubljana.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

So, which was better...the alpine slide in Zankopane or the one near Lake Bled? Sounds like it was a really fun day! Wish I could have been there!

Anonymous said...

WOW| I always knew I had great granddaughters, but you're getting toooo great. You can geton a rowing team, but the day sounded wonderful. Just keep up the great journey. Mmmmmmm Bubie