Triglav National Park

 Today we are going up high in the mountains to the Triglav National Park. So Rinniecdiesnt have to drive we are going with 3Glav adventures. The van is picking us up at the hotel at 7:50am. It’s going to be a full day. 

Walked to the ATM this morning. I wasn’t the only one up early! 

Bistrica River in the Vrata Valley

Climbed up a steep 30m to see Slap Pericnik flows into the Bistrica River

Behind the waterfall

The other side of the waterfall

Lake Jasna. Above the centrepoint of the goats golden horns where they emerge from his head if you zoom in you can see a little window (blue sky shows through) in the rock close to the very top of the steep part of the mountain behind. Sitting on the goat brings good luck. 

Perfect picture of Lake Jasna. It’s close to a ski resort. It is used by locals as a swimming hole. Not many people there despite the lovely weather. 

In the centre of this picture the rocks form the face of the Pagan girl. 

People standing in the very top of the highest peak. Only takes 3hrs walking and climbing to get there! 

Small amounts of snow clinging to the southern walls of the mountains. 

Source of the Soca river (pronounced Socha) 

5m deep hole near the previous photo. 

We were supposed to go to Bohinj lake via train from here but they’ve since scrapped that section (it was 3 years ago and is still in the advertising-typical Slovenia!) so we went to Italy for a swim in Lake Fusine Inferior near Tarvisio. 

Planica Nordic’s centre where they hold international ski jumping competitions. 

Traditional hay drying racks. They are heritage listed and can’t be removed but obviously you can stack wood under the eves! 

Bled

 We looked in St Martina Parish Church on our doorstep. The bells ring regularly (especially on Sunday but they don’t disturb us at all. It’s an amazingly beautiful church for your local. The first chapel on the site of St Martin's Church was built before the year 1000. The current neo-Gothic church was built in 1905 at the site of the former Gothic church from the 15th century. 

We walked up to the Bled Castle on the cliff. The walk starts right outside our hotel and the church. 

The path zigzagged a lot so it was fairly easy walking. The medieval castle was built over 1000 years ago and is 130m above the lake. 

View of Bled from the Castle.

We walked around the castle and followed unmarked tracks back to the lake walk back to Bled. 

View of the island from the trail. 

Sheltering from the sun outside Old Parish House where we are staying. 

We caught a traditional pletna boat out to the Cathedral on the island. The man at the back paddle all 20 passengers out to the island like a gondalier. When one woman stood to take a photo we thought we were going to tip in but she sat down again and we continued on.  

The Church of the Mother of God on the Lake on Bled island dates back to the prehistoric period (from the 11th to the 8th century B.C.) and a Slavic church from the 9th to the 11th century.

The church was rebuilt in Gothic style in the 15th century. It was rebuilt in baroque style after an earthquake in 1509. 

The current shape of the church has been preserved since the 17th century when it was restored after a second earthquake. The main altar dates back to 1747 as do the other buildings and monumental 99 steps to the church. 

The bell tower was built in the 15th century but renovated often. The current bell tower is 54 metres high. 

Door at the Church. 

An Irish family too this. 

We walked around the island, had an ice cream and coffee and got the same pletna back to bled an hour later. 

Then walked 6km around the entire lake - the thing to do in Bled. 

       Water lilies in the very clear, clean glacial waters. 

We saw lots of swimming areas, Olympic rowing stand and course and a few stately hotels around the lake. It doesn’t look like rain does it? 20 minutes later we got caught in a deluge 1.5 km from the hotel With no raincoat or umbrella. We were soaked.  Had a shower and headed out to a sunny but cool evening. Unbelievably quick weather changes here that bear little resemblance to the “forecast”.

We set off for Gostilna Pri Planincug for dinner and we’re unbelievably lucky to get the last table right at the back right hand corner outside. (Not my photo but shows where our table was-there were lots more tables than shown here.). When we left there was a long queue to get in. 

Ronnie’s had “grandma’s goulash” and I had Pork ribs and potatoes. Lovely staff and food and huge servings. We found this on the gluten free me app and we are coming back tomorrow night for the pizza restaurant upstairs owned by the same people which has gluten free pizza and pasta (as well as normal pizzas and pasta of course!)

Lake Bled

We arrived at Zagreb Airport 1 hr and 10mins late after taking off an hour late. Luckily we took GoOpti Transfers “no worries” package and they put us on the next transfer van. Met a guy from Ljubljana who we dropped by off. He’s making new aircraft (only up to 19 seaters) which are fueled by hydrogen. Very impressive! 

Finally arrived in Bled and it’s lovely. 

View of the lake from our room on the first floor at The Old Parish House. 

First view of the island in the middle of the lake. 

Wine festival and live music with a view of the Bled Castle high up on a cliff top. 

The white spire to the right is St Martins Church. We are staying next to it in the Old Parish House. 

The night we arrived just happened to be the annual Candle Lights on the Lake festival where row boats (and some sneaky Pletnas) laid out hundreds of tiny lit candles made from wax filled egg shells. The resulting show was spectacular but difficult to photograph. We shared a pulled park bun for dinner at Market on the Lake followed by ice cream and coffee. 

Slovenia, Croatia and Greek Islands

We are off to Slovenia, Croatia and the Greek Islands of Paros, Milos and Santorini after a three year wait and marathon of booking and rebooking.  The heat wave in Europe won't effect us for the first week at least because Slovenia is cool (max temps for the week we are there are predicted to be 25*C).  It is going to be very wet though. 

We are travelling by ourselves for the first week then meeting up with the Pilgrims (those friends who survived El Camino).  

We packed light this time except for a raincoat and down vest!

It’s 4am Dubai time and the airport is packed. Hard Rock Cafe is the only gluten free available in the airport and it’s a sit down restaurant. We found some comfortable lie flat like pool lounge chairs to relax until our flight is called.