Europe
Slovenia
Finally we made it to Bled, Slovenia—one tram, three trains, a three minute connection window and one bus later. The epic trip was worth it though, Bled is a beautiful little town on the edge of a green glacial lake with a castle overhanging a cliff and a little island with a church in the middle, all surrounded by snow capped mountains. We couldn’t resist climbing up to the top of the cliff on our first day to check out the medieval-era castle grounds, and take in the spectacular views across the lake and the town. It was pretty lovely.
Not content with just seeing the lake from the shore, we spent the next day on it. We rented a little wooden boat to go across the lake to Bled island, the only real island in Slovenia. It took a bit of practice but Adam managed to row us out to the island where we docked for a quick wander around. There’s a 17th century church, 15th century bell tower and a couple of other buildings out there that kept us occupied for a while, before we set sail again. Some selfies and landscape photography later, we were getting cold—we could see the ground was still frozen—so we came back to shore for some lunch, a walk and relaxation time.
Another short bus ride later and we were in the Slovenian capital, Ljubljana. It’s supposed to be the greenest capital in Europe and it lived up to that reputation—bike paths everywhere, pedestrianised city centre, huge green spaces and free electric taxi-like golf buggies for the elderly. We joined the hundreds of pedal powered commuters riding into the old city to have a look around. The old city is very small but there’s some lovely old architecture, including the three bridges, many churches and a tranquil river running through the heart of the city. The next couple of days we braved the frozen roads and ventured out on two wheels again. Climbing the hill above the old city to the medieval castle and making a quick lap of the enormous Tivoli park.
