The town by the lake
Lake Bled is probably Slovenia's best known tourist spot, what's not so well known is the town by the lake. Many visitors to Lake Bled don't even see the town as they're bused to the lake at the point closest to the small island in the lake. These tour groups are then taken across the lake by pletna boat, have 40 minutes on the island and then are rowed back to the shore, board the tourist bus and leave to their next stop. (I watched them!)
The town of Bled is about 50 kilometres from the Slovenian capital city of Ljubljana. I caught the bus from Ljubljana to Bled and the trip took about 90 minutes as the bus went to the airport first. The return bus trip took around an hour as it was a direct bus to Ljubljana, no stopping at the airport. The bus station in Bled is a 5 minute walk from the lake, the main part of the town lies on the shores of the lake. The town itself is quite spread out, with a variety of accomodation, Europeans having been coming to Lake Bled since the late 1900s and those original tourists built some of the old villas that can be seen dotted around the lake.
The buildings up on the higher elevations resemble those that can be seen in rural Austria and Switzerland I thought.
Besides the lake the other main tourist attractions that can be seen in Bled are the castle up on the hill and St. Martin's Parish Church.
Just below the castle, by the lake is the Lido. A swimming area that has an entrance fee, there are water slides and diving platforms. The Lido isn't open on rainy days.
The castle up on the hill is the oldest castle in Slovenia, one of the tourist sites I read said no-one visits Lake Bled without a stop at the castle. Well I didn't! I had every intention of climbing up the hill, there's a path that leads right up to the castle and I was staying just near the path. But the weather was unseasonably warm when I was there, Europe was experiencing the first of its major heatwaves, and the thought of climbing up a very steep ascent in 38 degrees (Celsius! 100 F) didn't appeal at all! I'll save a visit to the castle for another time!
The church did receive a visit from me, it's not a very old church as it was constructed from 1903 to 1905 and the frescoes in the church only date back to 1930. Still it had an interesting interior and I like visiting churches so went in to have a look.
Bled castle perched on its rocky outcrop.
There are some more land activities besides visiting the castle and the church. I hired a bike and rode around the lake, there's a free swimming area with a lawned beach at the other end of the lake from the town. Vintgar Gorge is 4km away and there's a path that you can walk or ride a bike to the gorge. There's a summer toboggan run on Straza hill (on the left of Bled township) it's open April to October.
A must when visiting Bled is to try their Bled Cake, the Kremsnita. Now any Australia looking at it would go, it's a Vanilla Slice, but the locals claim it as theirs. In the 1950s a Hungarian pastry chef at the Park Hotel created the Kremsnita and it became the local delicacy. It's still served at the Park Hotel, I had mine on the deck at the Vila Preseren and can highly recommend it!
The lake is the main reason people visit the area but so many do a quick day trip or visit for a few hours to cross over to the island. I spent 3 days in Bled and didn't feel that was enough, it was also very hot so that meant many of the more physical activities didn't appeal! I did manage a bike ride in the late afternoon when the temperature dropped and that was lovely.
I always judge a new place that I visit for the first time by whether I want to return, or whether one visit is enough. Bled is a place I'd like to return to (perhaps even make it up to the castle!)
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