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.
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.
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!)
