About Lake Bled
If you have ever looked at travel related blogs or websites, you have seen pictures of Lake Bled. Bled is a small town in western Slovenia. It has a beautiful lake in which there is an island with an old church. Bled Castle overlooks the lake and surrounding countryside and has great views of the mountains to the south.
Planning Our Lake Bled Visit
We were traveling with our Eurail passes as usual. If not staying overnight, we would typically use the lockers at the train station for our backpacks. The night before we left Ljubljana, we were planning the day in Bled and realized that the nearest station in Lesce-Bled did not have lockers.
If we wanted to see Lake Bled, we would have to find a place to store our backpacks, carry them with us, or rent a car in Bled or Ljubljana. However, due to it being the middle of July, many international rental car companies in Ljubljana were sold out. The same with Bled rental car companies; we found a smaller agency that was closed, but had availability online.
We took a chance and booked the cheapest car they had at $70 a day. According to their website, they would have to bring the car from Villach, Austria or Ljubljana. Unfortunately, they had no availability in Ljubljana online. We grabbed our backpacks and left the apartment to catch the 8 AM train to Lesce-Bled. Not knowing what was ahead as far as the rental car, it was a crapshoot on how the day would turn out.
Getting from Lesce-Bled Train Station to Bled
Upon arriving in Lesce-Bled station we verified the train schedule for the trip to Villach that night and went to the bus stop across the street. The bus to the rental car location in downtown Bled took about 20 minutes and cost about 2 euros each.
First Glitch of the Day
Luckily, the rental car location was only about a block from the bus stop and downhill, which is a good thing if you don’t think about having to walk back up the hill. Unfortunately, the rental car company was having IT-related “technical issues”. We had to wait about 45 minutes to be processed as the paperwork of the people in front of us had to be done manually and in triplicate. As soon as it was our turn to rent the car, the issues were resolved and we were processed in about 10-15 minutes.
A few hiccups are normal when you travel. Due to us only having about 8 hours in Bled, we needed to make the best of our time and the money we spent on the rental car. The delay in getting the rental car was frustrating, but it all worked out in the end. I had keys in hand and a sporty Renault Clio for the day.
Brunch with a View
We hopped in the car and headed for a restaurant near the base of the cliff close to where the castle is located. Luckily, the parking lot had a few open spaces, and parking was free. We decided to have a quick snack at a café that had a great view of the castle.
After our snack, we walked down to the lake for a better view of the iconic island and church. The view reminded me of the lakes in the Azores with lush landscapes and emerald green water. Of course, as usual, I took a few pictures before returning to the car to drive to the castle entrance about 1km away.
Tourist Time
The castle has a main parking area for buses and a few cars near the entrance and an overflow lot at the bottom of the hill. Unfortunately, the upper lot was full and there was limited parking in the lower overflow lot. The person directing traffic said it was a short six-minute walk up the hill. A small two-lane road runs up the side of the mountain to the main parking lot; this is also the walking path to the castle.
I parked the car and started the six-minute trek up the two-lane road. Apparently, the six-minute walk is if you are in shape, and not the round one like I am. It took me about triple the time to get to the upper parking lot. My wife did make it faster than I did. Once at the top, you have a 400-foot walk to the ticket office and entrance.
Lake Bled and Bled Castle
We had our tickets in hand and made it through the gate of the castle. At this point, you hope there will be a reward for the uphill climb you had just completed. Bled castle is surrounded by lush plants and has excellent views of the mountain and the countryside. As you walk towards the castle wall from the entrance, you get a glimpse of the lake. The closer you get to the wall, the better the view of the lake and once you reach the wall, your jowl drops.
The view over the lake is breathtaking; beautiful, lush green mountains leading down to the emerald green lake with small boats around the coastline. As you scan across the view, the small island with the church appears. It is surrounded by the emerald green lake with a backdrop of the mountains. Lake Bled ranks near the top of my list for most beautiful places. It is on par with the Azores, Sognefjord in Norway, or almost any remote place in Norway.
Due to time restrictions, we looked around for about an hour and then started the walk back down the hill. It took us about 10 minutes to walk down; not sure who calculated the 6-minute walk up the hill that was previously discussed! We wanted to see more of the lake from the shoreline, so back in the sporty rental car and off we went. The shoreline on the other side of the lake from the castle had excellent views of the lake, island, and castle.
Into the Slovenian Countryside
We had a rental car, might as well make the best of it to see some other areas around Lake Bled. A short 30-minute drive from Lake Bled is the Triglav National Park with a ski resort (Vogel) that is located at Lake Bohinj. This is a great little drive through a valley with a few small towns along the way. The road we were on ended at the cable car to the ski resort.
Although I am not a fan of heights, my wife convinced me to go up the mountain in the cable car. To prevent my fear of heights from kicking in, I decided to video the trip up and focus my attention on the camera. This worked well, and I was able to reach the top without any issues. However, once the video was finished and I walked out of the cable car, there was a brief moment of “nope, not standing here”.
It was a nice area with a restaurant, bar, outdoor activities for the active people, and a couple of cows roaming around. The opposite side of the building was much more relaxing than the cable car side. It could be that the cable car side had a 5000-foot drop (1500 meters) straight down. I don’t think that was a coincidence. We spent an hour or so on top of the mountain looking around, having a warm drink, looking at nature, etc.
Return to Lake Bled
We returned to Lake Bled and found a restaurant by the lake with a view of the castle, the island, and the shoreline. A snack and something cold to drink was needed and this was the perfect spot to relax. There were a couple of trains to Villach left for the day; one in about 2 hours and the other one at around 9 PM. We could return the car and head to the station, or drive around some more.
A quick Google search for nearby attractions resulted in a small medieval town; Radovljica Old Town was on the other side of Lesce-Bled station and not too far of a drive. We could enjoy a few more hours in the area before returning the rental car.
Radovljica Old Town
Radovljica Old Town dates back to the 13th century with a Gothic church from the 16th century. There are quite a few old buildings and museums in the old town area. It is a quiet area in the old town; there is a larger new town not far away. Due to sitting on a hill, there are a few places that have great views of the lush rolling hills and smaller villages.
Back to Lesce-Bled Station
It was about 5 PM, and we needed to return the rental car and get to the train station without having to rush or possibly miss the train. I would rather be a little early since we did not know the bus schedules; it turns out they ran every 20 minutes during the day. After filling the car with fuel, we returned it just as the rental company was closing. I gave them the keys, they verified the car was in one piece, and we headed to the bus stop.
The bus from Bled arrived at the Lesce-Bled station around 6:30 PM. This was a little earlier than we wanted but gave us time to grab a bite to eat at the station café/bar. The café had a nice patio area to enjoy the weather, relax, and do some people watching. We saw a lot of the highlights of the Bled area in about 7 hours, which is not too shabby. We finished our food and still had roughly 90 minutes before our train was scheduled to arrive.
Villach Bound
Approximately 40 minutes before our train to Villach, there was an announcement in Slovenian that mentioned Villach. I asked the lady in the café if there was an issue with our train, and she said it was delayed by 30 minutes. That was fine and not the end of the world. We had just booked our hotel while eating dinner; all we had to do was make it to Villach that night.
Unfortunately, that was not the last delay for our train. Approximately 30 minutes later, another announcement came of an additional delay of 45 minutes. I notified the hotel that our arrival would be closer to midnight, not 10:30 PM as originally planned. They sent a code for the key box outside, so we could get our key if the front desk was closed when we arrived.
Arrival in Villach and Finding the Hotel
Our train arrived at about 11:45 PM and we headed out to the hotel that was about a block away from the station. It was a nice old hotel that had been managed by the same family for 250 years. It was rebuilt after WW2 due to being completely destroyed.
Initially, we did not see the hotel and were standing there looking like idiots trying to find the hotel. A woman walked by and heard us speaking English and obviously, we looked lost. She asked if we were looking for the hotel and we said yes. Luckily, she was the person I had been communicating with and she had been waiting for us to arrive.
Fortunately, we were standing in front of the hotel; she guided us to the kiosk to get our keys. She entered the code and 3 keys dropped for 3 different rooms, but not for our room. Therefore, she opened the hotel and provided us with the correct key before going home for the night. We were lucky that she was there when we arrived.
Finally, we could call it a night and get some sleep. The next day was going to be a long day of traveling to get to Vienna and beyond.
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