Lake Bled - Slovenia

Less than an hours drive from Ljubljana, is a small town Bled, which has a lake, an island, a church, and a castle...

It's a 6km walk around the lake, we chose to walk around maybe halfway, then trek up one of the hills for the view, up trail 6 to Mala Osojnica.  Not for the faint hearted. The wet weather made the steep climb slippery. There were a few other intrepid climbers with us, despite the damp weather.

The climb took 30 minutes, zigzagging up the hillside. Just before the first lookout was a crazy metal steep stairs.  I was glad there was the hand cable to hang onto.

The three French ladies who were walking with us, burst into laughter when they got to the top before us.  I completely understood when I got to the top.  "Go to Lake Bled, climb the hill, fantastic views, a must see..."

 Fortunately, the clouds moved, and the island and the castle on the hill magically appeared.

 The next lookout was another 5 minutes climb, over slippery roots, and muddy trails.  I wasn't expecting much of a view with the clouds.  We had to wait, and then got some fabulous glimpses of the lake and surrounding area.

 Tissue paper, and plastic bags tied to branches created a trail to lead us down the hill, until we got to the Ojstrica trail. Mud and clay made going down the hill extremely slippery.

"Kremsnita", the local cake of Bled. An improvement of the custard square, with vanilla whipped cream underneath the pastry layer. The hot chocolate is thickened. A normal hot chocolate is called a Kakov (sounds like co-cow)

Castle Bled on our way back