And what a view we woke up to! We almost thought about staying a second night at the ski hill, but our Schengen Visa time is running low and there are still some things we want to see in Slovenia.
We will return here when we have more time. There are too many hiking opportunities!
Max, overnighting at GPS 46.477736, 13.724751
What a view to wake up to!
We saw some activity going on at the ski jumping training center so before we left we headed over to have a look...
You start small and work your way up!
I bet even that smallest one would be intimidating standing at the top of the ramp!
Me, with a wood carving statue.
This one is taking off from the second highest ramp.
And here's one from the highest.
I took a short video for you...
We might be adventurous in some ways, but we have no ambition to try this!
It was fun watching them for a while though. But we had to get going to Lake Bled. As it was, it was almost 11:30am before we left!
Scenery along the way.
I had found a laundromat in the town of Bled. It actually had a small parking area which Max fit into nicely. Anything bigger and he wouldn't have though. Love Max's maneuverability!
This laundromat is probably one of the nicest we have ever seen. I should have taken a photo. I found this one online...
Not the best photo, but you get the idea.
Comfortable, clean, fast free WiFi, efficient machines, and fair prices. What more could you want. We washed and dried a large load in a big 18kg machine for €10 ($14.40 CAD, $11.60 USD). The prices include automatic detergent, fabric softener, and disinfectant.
With that done, we headed over to the municipal RV parking area at Bled.
Now, of course we know that Lake Bled is one of Slovenia's most popular tourist attractions, and so we already knew that the RV parking is expensive. But there is no other viable option if you want to visit Lake Bled in a motorhome.
It's just a parking lot, but we're not here for the RV parking. However, it's probably the most high tech RV parking we've ever seen. Everything is automated. The only downside is that the machine takes exact change only, and doesn't accept credit cards. But right across the street is a big Mercator grocery store so we went over there and picked up a few things to get some change.
It's slow season, so thankfully prices are lower. It costs €10 for a 12 hour RV parking pass, or €20 ($28.80 CAD, $23.20 USD) for 24 hours. We slid a €20 note into the machine, and it spit out a pass. Included in that pass is 6 kWh of electricity, and 150 liters of potable water.
You plug your RV into an electrical outlet and then scan the barcode on your ticket to activate the electricity. We saved ours until things started cooling off later in the evening so that we could use our entire 6 kWh towards our new electric heater!
And then we wandered down to the lakeshore. Along the way, we stopped at a bike repair shop because Ruth's brakes still need attention. We have an appointment at 10:30am this morning.
Lake Bled is as beautiful as we expected. It's kind of one of those bucket list items that everybody should see. Right out of a fairly tale.
The first thing that stands out to us is the castle!
Wow.
Bled city hall.
I took too many photos.
Couldn't help myself!
We hadn't had much exercise by that point, so we decided to do the 6 km (3.7 mile) walk that goes around the entire lake. It gives a lot of different views of the area. Did I mention I took a lot of photos??
We are going up to visit the castle today.
The church on the island at Lake Bled.
The island that the famous church stands on is the only natural island in the entire country of Slovenia.
A popular photo spot.
Part of the route around the lake includes this boardwalk.
There are some interesting properties around the lake.
You don't often see a photo of Lake Bled's hotel zone.
Spooky ruins.
Gotta get going... lots to see today before our 24 hour pass runs out!
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And in Canada...
We loved Lake Bled, heck, Slovenia in general. So much beautiful countryside. Enjoyed our (short) time in Ljubljana too, we were on a tour of Croatia that went through Slovenia on the way to Venice. That laundromat was nice!! We couldn't believe the fresh milk vending machine we saw in Ljubljana, haha. A link to our pics: http://svdreamtime.com/croatia18.html Really enjoying your blog!
ReplyDeleteYep, we are loving Slovenia as well. Lake Bled was so picturesque. We thought of going to Lake Lake Bohinj as well but their overnight parking was quite expensive and it is illegal to "wild camp" anywhere in the country. We may go back there on another visit though. We definitely will be back in Slovenia again for a longer period of time, there is a lot to see here and a lot of places for us to hike.
DeleteThank you for the link to your blog, I did read it and enjoyed your pictures. You both had a lovely visit to all these countries, we are so happy that you enjoyed yourselves. We still haven't decided what route we will take when we get to Croatia but we know which ever route we take we are going to enjoy the country as well.
After living in hotels for three months this summer, I was really impressed with the laundromat. Good prices too!
ReplyDeleteYes, when you are living with a limited amount of clothing and are on the go for months at a time a nice laundromat is a welcome sight! :-)
DeleteWow the scenery is so amazing.
ReplyDeleteIt definitely is and we are in our happy place here with mountains all around! :-)
DeleteBeautiful area. I bet it is packed with tourists in high tourist season. Love the view that castle has.
ReplyDeleteIt is a beautiful area for sure and yes, I bet it is packed here in the summer. It was busy enough as it was for a Friday in the fall but not too busy that we couldn't enjoy ourselves. The view of the castle and from the castle were fantastic! :-)
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