Lake Bled = walk until your feet bleed

As a warning, we had to seek out public internet today, and the keyboard is not EXACTLY what we are familiar with.

So, we left Salzburg yesterday without seeing any actual Sound of Music sites.  We literaly ran out of time. We took an amazing train to Bled that went through the Alps. Literally. We spent a lot of time in tunnels.  We were shocked at how amazing the mountains were.  We had no idea that they would be so large.  They are huge! And amazing.  Halfway through we realized that we hadnt taken any pictures from the train.  When I tried to protest that pictures wouldnt look good from the train Sue said "who told you that?  Was it Shellee?"  Lets just say that we ended up getting just a few pictures from the train.  The problem is that a picture can in no way actually capture just how amazing the Alps are. 

The train ride was long, so we were playing cards.  At one point, the train slammed on its brakes and the cards flew across the table and onto the floor and under the seat.  This prompted us to get to know our seatmate, Herbie, a very nice and interesting Austrian man.  Herbie guides tours all over Europe so had a lot of information and advice to share- his English was almost impeccable.  He is from a TINY Austrian town in the mountains.

We arrived in Lake Bled which is amazing and and clean and wonderful.  It is at the foot of the Alps.  We walked around the lake on a paved path (approx 4 miles.  When the walk was started, Janna obviously didnt realize how long the walk would be) and had a quick swim.  We got some pizza for dinner and went to bed exhaused. 

This morning we spent walking.  A lot of walking.  First we hiked up to this castle that overlooks the city and had breakfast (a picnic in the King's courtyard).  There was a very cool museum on medieval life which had lots of artifacts they found around Bled, and some very fascinating rocks.  We both were enthralled by the museum (though no one else really was- they all spent about 5 minutes in it).  Our original plan was to have a nice restful day so we were going to take a break after the castle.  Somehow, that didn't happen, and we decided that we were already on the right side of town to walk to the Vintgar Gorge, so we may as well keep walking. 

The walk to the gorge was a little longer than we expected, but it was really beautiful.  We walked through a bit of Slovenian countryside and a few real Slovenian villages, which were very interesting and pretty.  We quite enjoyed the walk.  All along the road there are these giant wooden racks, and we could not figure out what they were for; finally we did and realized they were haydrying racks.  In this picture the drying rack is behind with the slats.  In the foreground are a family harvesting a small crop of wheat with sickles, by hand.  Crazy.

By Slovenian standards the gorge was packed, but it was really quite plesant.  The walk along the gorge is pretty flat and there are several bridges where you cross the river.  The water was perfectly clear, and you could see fish all over in the water, some quite large. (18 inches?)

From the gorge (note that at this point we have walked approximately 5-6 miles already) we hiked up and over a small mountain back to the town.  The trail was well marked and our guidebook (trusty Rick Steves) told us it was good.  The hike was nice, through a beautiful forest.  Near the top, we chanced upon some meadows where hay cutting was done and a beautiful view over the surrounding valleys.  We ate lunch (finally) and then headed down the hill through the town of Zasip and back to Bled.  In the final stretch, from Zasip back to Bled, Janna ran a good bit of the way (if Janna chooses to run it is because she is more than DONE with walking).

This walking lasted from about 8;00 until about 4;00.  That is a lot of walking/hiking.  We arrived at the lake and took off our shoes and soaked our feet in the very wonderful cold water and snacked on "gusto pizza puffs" that we grabbed on our way into town at the grocery store (Mercator).  A little boy was feeding swans and a whole family of swans swam within 2 feet of us.  We held deathly still for fear that the mom would attack us.  By the way, they say a fair number of baby swans get eaten by fish in Lake Bled.  Imagine the size of fish that would eat a baby swan.

After sufficient rest we got our bathing suits and did more lake swimming.  And Janna took a  nap by the lake because she was so exhausted from the day's activities.

For dinner, pizza again (this time by the lake), followed by Cream Cake.  Cream Cake is Lake Bled's specialty- and it is delicious.  It should be noted that we spent as many euros on dessert as we did on dinner.    Tomorrow morning we leave for a day of driving through the Julian Alps enroute to Ljubljiana (the capital city)