Travel with Kevin and Ruth: Lake Bled Castle, and Škofja Loka at night

We went down to the bike shop for our 10:30am appointment, but unfortunately the guy didn't have the right tool with him to do the job. So we are still on the hunt for a bike shop that happens to be open when we happen to be there.

But we left the bikes there locked up, and did the short hike up to Bled Castle. My mother had given us some birthday/Christmas spending money, and we like to use that money to do things that we wouldn't normally do. Things that we normally think are too expensive!

And Bled Castle is one of those things. At €13 ($18.75 CAD, $15 USD) per adult, it's way overpriced for what you get. However, because it's at a popular tourist area, people will pay it... just as we did. Thanks mom!

We are headed up to the castle on the right.

Along the way, we stopped in at the Sveti Martin Church.

It has a huge chandelier!

Entrance gate, as seen from inside the walls.

Views looking north east.

Bled Castle has been modernized.

Bled Castle has been standing for 1,000 years.

They have just completed extensive renovations to ensure that it stands for another 1,000 years, however we prefer castles that are a little rough around the edges. For example, all of the interior rooms make you feel as if you're in a modern building. And, they are building a modern Museum of Modern Art at the base of the hill, with an elevator going up to the castle.

But, it's almost worth the price of admission just for the views.

The Castle Museum.

The museum was included in the entrance price so we went in anyhow. But, we didn't pay to go to a museum, we paid to see the castle. A few interesting things, but we didn't spend a lot of time.

Ruth, with the male wax model. He was pretty realistic!

Wax model family depicting what they may have looked like 1,000 years ago.

View from the museum.

How old is this door?

Looking north.

Ruth!

We went back to Max for lunch. There, we had to make some decisions. We wanted to stay another day and do some hiking on the other side of the lake, but we were turned off by having to pay another €20 for parking. We had stopped in at the tourist office and picked up a free Slovenia motorhome guide. Wild camping (or boondocking) is against the law in Slovenia, but there are some free and inexpensive parking options. So we figured that what we don't see on this trip we will be able to see another time. So we decided to move on.

We found a free riverside spot by a pub in the town of Škofja Loka, only 20ks (12 miles) outside the capital city of Ljubljana. So we drove there. The only thing we were concerned about was the fact that it was a Saturday night and sometimes things can get noisy into the late hours.

Mostly farm fields along the way.

It's a little narrow driving through some of the villages.

Scenery along the way.

We arrived at the overnight spot and it was perfect. Green grass and close to the river. The pub was open, with quite a few people on the patio, but by nightfall things were pretty quiet.

View out our window.

You can see Max parked on the left.

GPS 46.160334, 14.310968

We don't often go out in the evening, so we decided to walk into town and see what was going on. It turns out nothing was going on. Škofja Loka is a VERY quiet place on a Saturday night. It was almost kind of eerie with nobody around. But it made for some interesting photos...