Bled
Bled is a lovely little town not far from the Austrian border and close to the Julian Alps. It probably had its heyday in the second half of the 19th century and first half of the 20th as a spa resort. Nowadays it is still very refined although it has a 24 hour casino and also has developed as a centre for activity holidays, mountain biking, kayaking, canyoning etc.
The lake is about a 6km walk around and which we have done a couple of times.
There is a magnificent castle 100 metres above the lake and this too is a nice spot to visit. There is the easy way to get to the top (by coach) or there is the hard way – climbing a very steep hill – and this is what we did. It was worth it, as there were stunning views, a nice little museum, a few gift shops and a nice café.
We may have given the casino a miss but we did try a tobogganing track which was good fun. Imagine a hill that would be ideal for an artificial ski run and then imagine a single metal track weaving its way from top to bottom. You take a gondola to the top and then get into a plastic toboggan on the metal track, you fasten your seat belt and then push the joystick forward to go whizzing down the track. Great fun and we should have bought a 3-go ticket instead of a once only ticket.
This is Bled Island, the only island in Slovenia
Just to give you an idea of the size of the summer toboggan run that we tried. This is the view of it from across the lake.
Sheila on the summer toboggan track, see small dot in middle of picture.
