On This Day – Lake Bled in Slovenia

While the current travel restrictions are in place I have no new stories to post so what I thought that I would do is to go through my picture archives and see where I was on this day at any time in the last few travelling years.

On 24th May 2007 I was rowing a boat on Lake Bled in Slovenia…

Rowing I find is one of those things that can be quite a lot more difficult than it looks and I had some early problems coordinating the actions of left and right hand oars to keep us progressing in a straight line and with Kim in charge of plotting the course I had to make frequent adjustments to maintain the right direction.  I found it most helpful however when she began to beat out the rowing tempo in the manner of a Roman galley slave-master but I was worried that I might not be able to cope physically if she decided to up the pace to Ben Hur ramming speed.

We left the island and as Kim was convinced that rowing a boat was a straightforward process and that I was simply an incompetent oarsman she decided to take responsibility for the return journey.  She was no better than me of course but I didn’t complain because I was enjoying sitting back in boat enjoying the warm sunshine and the slightly curious meandering route back to the shore.  I will concede however that she did  make a perfect docking procedure and we completed our walk around the lake stopping on route for a pizza and a beer at a bar with a raised terrace and a good view over the lake.

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Weight(less)

Lake Bled, Slovenia

The island, according to legend, was created as a punishment by God.  He stopped by one day on a surprise inspection and was annoyed to find his church full of cattle because the villages had become too lazy to watch over them and had left the church door open.  To punish them he made the lake so that in future the animals couldn’t get across to it and get inside.  A nice story but without a shred of truth of course because in actual fact the lake is glacial and was formed at the end of the last ice age when water poured in behind the retreating ice.

The church is popular for weddings and there are ninety-nine steps to the top and there is a tradition that if a bridegroom can carry his bride to the church without either stopping for breath or complaining then the couple will enjoy a happy marriage.  If you are tempted to try this super-human feat my then my advice would be that you get engaged to a skinny girlfriend because just getting to the top sounds like seriously hard work to me without any unnecessary additional burden.  Or perhaps this is simply designed to get you ready for the harsh realities of married life.

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Afloat on Lake Bled

About half way around the lake we came across a man with rowing boats for hire who was taking care of a party of nuns who were negotiating a rental agreement and were making hard work of getting their seating arrangements organised inside the craft.

This looked like fun and I was certain that they had little chance of making it to the island in the middle of the lake without capsizing the boat on the way and we watched in anticipation but were disappointed when they were joined by a burly man who clearly knew what he was doing and had the job of transporting them across.

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Ljubljana, The Ljubljanica River and Borovničevec

On the return from Lake Bled we walked back through the streets of the city that in the daylight we could see were regrettably extensively disfigured by graffiti.  This is a real problem in Ljubljana where every building provides a canvas and an opportunity for the so-called artists.  Every year there is a city spring clean organised by the Ljubljana City Authorities as part of the annual activity “Za lepso Ljubljano” (For a Prettier Ljubljana).  The operation cleans up three hundred and eighty square metres of river walls and also tidies city streets, passageways and parks as well as cleaning two kilometres of riverbed by divers.

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Ljubljana, Bus Ride to Lake Bled

There was another dreary start to the day but at least it wasn’t raining and after another excellent breakfast where I was even tempted to sample the bottled beetroot juice (and promptly wished I hadn’t) we decided to take another bus journey out of the city and to Slovenia’s most popular tourist destination, Lake Bled.

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Croatia, Krka National Park

We woke this morning to the sound of steady rain falling on the balcony of the room and the street below and a quick weather inspection confirmed the worst.  The street was full of local people who were wandering about with umbrellas fully extended and attired in wet weather clothing.  This did not look good.

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Slovenia, Yugoslavia and the Balkans

Yugoslavia had been created in 1918 after the First World War by the victorious western allies in the hope of bring some stability to the Balkans but this had been a hopelessly optimistic attempt to impose a solution on a disparate region of Europe who were never going to coexist easily as one single nation.

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Slovenia, Lake Bled

It had been quite some time since I had been in charge of a boat and my rowing skills were a bit rusty when we cast off and I was called upon to negotiate our passage across the short distance to the island.  Rowing can be quite a lot more difficult than it looks and I had some early problems coordinating the actions of left and right hand oars to keep us progressing in a straight line and with Kim in charge of plotting the course I had to make frequent adjustments to maintain the right direction.  I found it most helpful however when she began to beat out the rowing tempo in the manner of a Roman galley slave-master but I was worried that I might not be able to cope physically if she decided to up the pace to Ben Hur ramming speed!

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Ljubljana – Bus Ride to Lake Bled

After another zoo time breakfast experience we left the hotel and made our way to the bus station because today we were visiting Lake Bled in the Julian Alps.  These are part of the Alps that stretch from north-eastern Italy to Slovenia.  They are named after Julius Caesar and at their highest point they rise to nearly three thousand metres at Triglav.

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Slovenia, Lake Bled and a Rowing Boat Adventure

Leaving Ljubljana the local bus passed out of the city and into the countryside and passed through green meadows flanked by snow capped mountains, vivid green fields surrounding semi Alpine villages with traditional farmhouses and churches.  Finally, after about an hour and twenty minutes on the efficient little bus we pulled into Bled and disembarked into the tourist town and the sunshine.  We planned to walk around the lake but before we started we found a terrace bar for refreshments and debated the alternatives of clockwise or anti-clockwise (a bit like choosing a route around the M25) and we both agreed that anti-clockwise for some unknown reason seemed preferable.

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