July 15 Lake Bled (Day 292)
Part of our exploring yesterday was to go to the bus station and procure bus tickets to Lake Bled for today on the advice of our B&B host. We got up early to catch the 2nd bus of the morning, trying to beat the heat. We arrived in Bled at about 8 in the morning, time for breakfast! After breakfast we strolled to the edge of the lake.
Our first glimpse of Lake Bled and the iconic view of the church on the tiny island in the lake.
We were thankful for the cooler morning temperature here in the mountains and decided we should hike up to the castle overlooking the lake before the afternoon heat!
After passing the white steepled Church of St. Martin and climbing the winding switchback trails and steps up to the Castle, we got fabulous views of the surrounding countryside!
And a better view of the island and church at the far end of the lake!
The Bled Castle is a sight in it’s own right, with a long history that is explored in it’s exhibits throughout the buildings.
The interior of the richly frescoed chapel, next to Robert in the previous picture.
A mannequin dressed in the garb of a local peasant from medieval times, next to one of the beautiful radiators of the castle from the 17th century. The tiled radiators were heated from a central fire box on the opposite side of the wall that fed the heat to several radiators in adjoining rooms. They are now electrically heated!
We finished our tour of the Castle as the tourist crowds began arriving and hiked the trails back down to the lakeshore. We decided to walk all the way around the lake, which is smaller than I expected, thank goodness!
“I’m actually, finally here! I’ve been wanting to visit Lake Bled for about 10 years!!!”
At the far end of the lake there is a very popular swimming beach. The water is clear and turquoise blue, with Bled Castle on the rock outcrop to the left and the Island with the Church on the right! The actual town of Bled it at the opposite end of the lake.
As we rounded the far end of the oblong lake we could see on the island the steps leading from a boat dock up to the church. There are 99 steps and the story is that if a couple wants to be married in the church the groom must carry the bride up all 99 steps!
The “Church of the Mother of God on the Lake” was built on an old temple site of the pagan Goddess of Fertility of the Slavic people before Christianization. Looking past the church on the island, to the right you can see Bled Castle on the high rock outcrop and further to the right and lower down you can see the white steeple of the Church of St. Martin. After our circumnavigation of the lake we caught our bus for the 45 minute ride back to Ljubljana.
We had a little more stair climbing to do to get to our B&B! The rickety looking stairs were the only thing not renovated on the older building where our apartment was on the 2nd floor with the horizontal windows and skylight on the left.