The Balkans: Day 13 – Lake Bled, Slovenia.

This was taken from the bus this morning, on our way to Lake Bled. I didn’t think we’d be seeing snow-capped mountains in May!

I’d vaguely heard that Lake Bled was pretty, but staying true to my default pattern of liking to be surprised on my holidays, I hadn’t looked up any pictures.

So yes. I was pleasantly surprised when I saw the colour of the water. This was my first view of the lake. It was in the gardens leading down from the castle.

Bled Castle is a fairytale castle rising up over the lake. It looks extraordinary.
It was an optional tour, but I elected not to go in.
It seems that Bled Castle is even MORE sanitised and Disney-fied than the castle in Ljubljana. I knew I’d be infuriated if I went in, so I walked the grounds, chatted with people and heard about some beef that was going on in the other TripaDeal group.
I love a bit of goss.

Look. At. That. Castle.
Look at the colour of the lake.
Stunning.

We were rowed across the lake to a little island.

Here’s Jake and me.

A cuckoo clock house.

This was Tito’s villa. He had villas all over Yugoslavia, back in the day.

The most notable thing about the island was these stairs. When people get married on the island, the tradition says that the groom has to carry his bride up these stairs to prove his virility. I’m telling you, any groom doing this would need months of training.

Picture perfect.

Taken from the café where we ordered the famous Bled Cream Cake.

Blogless Sandy liked it, but I found it a bit bland. It was like a whipped vanilla slice with a ton of whipped cream on top. But this is why we travel – to try new things.

It’s impossible to come here and not take hundreds of pictures of the castle. Look at these colours. It’s incredible.

omg! How lucky am I? Blogless Sandy went for a walk along the lake, while I went in and had a look.

I don’t know a huge deal about Banksy; just pretty much what everyone knows.

I think everyone remembers this…

This was my favourite.

Now this was something I’d never heard about before.

Of course a lake this beautiful has swans.

It was a lovely day. No one could get over the beauty of this place.

We left Bled mid afternoon and arrived in Zagreb, the capital of Croatia, for dinner.

Only one more day on the tour before we start the long trek home.

Dad joke of the day: