September 30, 2022

September 30, 2022

The weather forecast for Lake Bled, Slovenia is heavy rain. Aimee and I awoke early hoping the weatherman was wrong again. He was. So we had a quick breakfast and walked swiftly along the lakefront. Everything is wet and the trees are dripping and the clouds are low and thick. But the lake is calm letting me get some nice reflection photos with the castle high on the cliff.

We continued further, past Vila Bled, a summer home of Marshal Tito, getting closer to the island that sits on one end of the lake. On it is a pilgrimage church dedicated to the Assumption of Mary. After taking a photo with both the island and clifftop castle in it, we hightail it back to our hotel. We are dripping with sweat by the time we return.

The next stop on our tour is Bled Castle on the clifftop. From this perch we get a great overview of glacial Lake Bled and its little church island.

This medieval castle is in great shape and has a museum and lots of little shops to explore including a winery and bee-house. Our favorite is the printer. It has an original press that was used to make the first bible in the Slovenian language. We liked learning that Upper Case and Lower Case letters started out referring to which box the movable type letters were stored in. The little chapel in the castle has beautiful frescoes on the wall and ceiling.

From Bled, we drove the thirty miles back to Ljubljana, capital of Slovenia. We started our walking tour at the landmark Triple Bridge over the Sava River. It sits on the main city square with a Franciscan Church and a statue to Slovenia’s favorite poet. The bridge was designed by Joze Plecnik. He was part of the Secessionist style and was responsible for many of the iconic structures of Ljubljana. It is a highly stylized form of Art Nouveau. His works here are now a World Heritage Site.

We walked through Congress Square named after the Congress of Ljubljana of 1821 that was held here to decide the fate of European powers after the Napoleonic Era. It had been renamed Revolution Square during Yugoslav times. It is also where Independence from Austria (and later Yugoslavia) was declared. It is flanked by several buildings with highly decorated facades. Our last stop was the Cathedral of St Nicholas just as the massive bells rang the noon hour.

Aimee and I walked along the Sava River to the Dragon Bridge which has four large statues guarding it. The dragon is the symbol of Ljubljana.

We are getting hungry so we walk to the Skyscraper Building and take the elevator to the terrace restaurant on the thirteenth floor. It was the tallest building of the Balkans when built in 1933. It is a nice place to have lunch as it overlooks the heart of the city. In particular, we get a nice view of Ljubljana Castle. The castle got its present structure to defend against repeated invasions by the Ottoman Empire.

We spent the next hour strolling through the old town district. It is mostly a pedestrian zone. One interesting stop was the Parliament building of Slovenia. It has a Socialist-era facade of dozens of working people around the entrance. But oddly they are all nude. We also spent some time back in the main square perusing some temporary science exhibits for students. Being a big kid at heart, I have to test the experiments myself.

Mid-afternoon we head back to Lake Bled. We want to walk the perimeter of the lake for more photos and have dinner at an overlook restaurant. Unfortunately we are rained out. The first bad luck of the trip. We try waiting it out but finally run across the street to the restaurant next door. We sit by the window and eat dinner while eyeing Bled Castle through the raindrops. I ordered what I thought was a Slovenian beer. It turned out to be some grapefruit flavored beer from the UK. Not what I wanted but it actually wasn't bad. For dessert we had the Slovenian classic of Kremsnita, or Bled Cream Cake. Delicious!