Lake Bled, Slovenia

Saturday

On Saturday morning we caught a bus from the nearby Ljubljana bus station to a beautiful place in north-west Slovenia called Lake Bled. After Ljubljana, Lake Bled is the most tourist-visited spot in Slovenia. Lake Bled is only about 60km from Ljubljana, but a few stops along the way meant that it took just over an hour to get there.

Lake Bled really is amazing. It is a small town situated on the edge of a beautiful lake, which has a tiny island in the middle of it. On the pear-shaped island (Slovenia's only true island) is a beautiful old church, the Church of the Assumption, complete with a "wishing bell". On the clifftops high above the edge of the lake is Bled Castle. And the amazing Julian Alps provide the perfect backdrop to the lakeside town.

We were delighted to see that outside of Ljubljana, there was thick snow on the ground, and as we got closer to Lake Bled, which is at a higher altitude, there was even more snow. We arrived in Lake Bled just after 11am and we made our way down to the lake and began our walk around it. The distance around the whole lake is about 6km and it took us an hour and a half but we stopped for a lot of photos and exploring along the way...and Megan was busy constructing snowballs that she hurled at Tim as we went!

The lake is so beautiful - it is amazingly clear and clean - and with the snow on the ground and covering the trees around the edge of the lake, the views were truly spectacular. The crisp, clean mountain air made the walk more enjoyable too. We were amazed to hear that swimming in the lake in summer time is extremely popular, as the water temperature gets up to around 24 degrees, even though in the middle of winter it can freeze over in parts around the edges!!!

After our lap of the lake, we found a nice little cafe and got ourselves a grilled panini for lunch. We then set off to explore a few of the shops. Most of the shops were very touristy and catered for the winter sports fans out there, although we did find some lovely postcards of the picturesque town.

We then set off for the island! We found a boat man who took us off to the island and we had half an hour to wander around once we got to the island. All there is on the island is the church and another building that had an exhibition in a few rooms and a small bar/cafe/souvenir shop at the front. We had a look inside the little church, which was beautifully decorated.

The island has been the site of a Christian church since the 9th century, although excavations have shown that early Slavs worshipped at a pagan temple there at least a century before that. The current church was built in the 17th century but it contains fresco fragments from the 14th century in display cases in the foyer. Next to the church is a 15th century belfry, which contains the wishing bell. We each had a go ringing the wishing bell inside the church, a tradition that tourists have been continuing for many many years. We can't tell you what the wishes were or they won't come true.

The exhibition in the other building looked at the history and significance of the Christmas crib in Slovenia. There were lots of different styles of Christmas cribs that local artists had donated for the exhibition - some were good, others were not - but our favourite was the one made of gingerbread!

Away from the island and back on dry land, it was getting a little dark and very cold, so our plans to conquer the 100 metre high cliff top with the medieval Bled Castle on top were scuttled. The castle dates back to the 11th century, although most of what stands there today is from the 16th century. The baroque southern wing houses a museum collection that follows the history of Lake Bled and its settlements from the Bronze Age to the mid-19th century. The views from the castle out over the lake below must be breath-taking!

The bus ride back to Ljubljana went fairly quickly, partly because we both had a nap on the way! Back in Ljubljana, it was absolutely freezing - the coldest it got during our whole stay. Once again there was a bit of snow falling, however, after warming up back at the hotel, we braved the cold weather and made it down to Sokol, where we had another very nice meal. We headed home after dinner and had a fairly early night.

Sunday

Sunday was our final day in Slovenia, so after packing up and checking out of the hotel, we set off for the National Museum and Natural History Museum, which are both housed in a fine looking building not far from Tivoli Park. We thought the museums were really good, as they weren't too big and didn't have too much to look at; it was just the right amount of stuff to spend an hour or two perusing, which is usually the extent of our concentration span!

In the National Museum, the material is displayed in chronological order, from the first artefacts created by humans (from Karst cave sites dated to the Middle Paleolithic period - 100,000 years ago), to objects illuminating Slovenian culture at the beginning of the 20th century. The highlight in the National Museum was a "Neanderthal flute" believed to be around 43,000 years old. The piece is a hollowed bone of a cave bear that has two complete holes in one side and it is broken at either end. It was discovered in 1995 at an archaeological site in north-western Slovenia. Whether it was actually a musical instrument has been the subject of much debate, however, if it was in fact created to play music, then it would be the world's oldest musical instrument and would prove the existence of music 43,000 years ago!

In the Natural History Museum our favourite items were the part skeleton of a mammoth and the skeleton of a cave bear, although they also have one of the largest mineral collections in the world and a fossilised fish skeleton preserved in triassic limestone, believed to be around 210 million years old. That's an old fish!

After our burst of culture, we wandered past the small but very modern looking Slovenian parliament building and stopped at a cafe across the road from there for a hot chocolate. The rest of the day was very relaxing - we spent it looking through some shops, walking along side the river, sipping mulled wine on the Triple Bridge and searching through a book shop for a book on Ljubljana.

Our tally of countries visited is climbing steadily: Megan is up to 26, Tim 22. Solid. Happy New Year to all the fans of the blog!

Island in
Lake Bled

Lots of
snow














Very cold!

















Bear at
Lake Bled -
his 22nd
country











This one
would make
a great
Christmas
tree













Megan
plotting
another
snowball
attack










Bled
Castle on
the clifftop









Megan and
the island































Bled
village














Inside the
island
church










Ringing
the wishing
bell















Stairway in
National
Museum
















Slovenian
parliament











Ljubljana
Old Town

Shoemaker
Bridge

Triple
Bridge

Ljubljana, Slovenia - Part 2

Christmas Day

Needless to say we had a bit of a sleep-in on Christmas Day after a few late nights in a row (we must be getting old). We had another awesome breakfast in the hotel - fruit and yoghurt and pancakes with nutella (very popular in central Europe). We left for the Old Town around midday. It was a pretty grey, foggy sort of a day. We were surprised to see that the Christmas market stalls were open on Christmas Day and that there were a lot of people around town.

We walked through the markets, where Megan bought a Ljubljana fridge magnet (to add to her collection of one from each country we have visited), and we walked down past the town hall and St James Church before walking back alongside the river.

We had booked in for Christmas dinner at a restaurant called Zlata Ribica (apparently one of Ljubljana's most popular) at 1pm. The restaurant is right on the bank of the river in the middle of the Old Town and it was very nice inside. The name Zlata Ribica translates to Goldfish in Slovenian, although it is better known for its traditional Slovenian meat dishes than seafood. There was no traditional Christmas dinner as we know it, but we had an excellent meal - a Slovenian cold platter (meats, cheeses, etc) and cabbage rolls for starters, followed by beef fillet for our mains and apple strudel and a mascarpone roll for dessert. Cabbage rolls are a Slovenian favourite - a lot like spring rolls but with just cabbage in the middle. They were actually surprisingly tasty! We also had a Slovenian pinot grigio, which was nice.

As we were eating our Christmas dinner it started snowing outside. Although it did not settle on the ground, it snowed on and off for about two or three hours and at times it was very heavy. After Christmas dinner, we went outside and wandered in the snow for a while, before ducking for cover into a bar across the river called Zlata Ladjica for a drink. Then we wandered back to the hotel, buying some hot roasted nuts on the way!

In the evening we went out to a wine bar called Dvorni, which was really cool. It is obviously a popular spot as it was packed. We managed to find a seat and sampled some more Slovenian wines, which were very good, if a little sweet. We finished off our first ever "white Christmas" with a late dinner at a steak restaurant called Stara Macka. The waiter was rather odd, but the food was excellent, as it was right throughout our stay in Slovenia.

Boxing Day

Boxing Day was another relaxing day in Ljubljana. After another slow start, we went for a big walk through the Old Town and down to a suburb further south called Trnovo. We had some paintings in our hotel room of a huge church in Trnovo, the Church of St John the Baptist, so we decided to go and have a look at it. Unfortunately the church was all closed up so we couldn't see inside, but we enjoyed wandering through the peaceful streets of Trnovo, past all of the dozens and dozens of vegetable gardens, where we assumed much of the fresh produce sold at the market comes from!

Back in the Old Town we had a fantastic hot chocolate in a nice little cafe called Cafe Romeo. The hot chocolates in Slovenia are pretty much melted chocolate in a cup - very thick and sweet - so yum. Then we returned to Tivoli Park for another walk. We went back to the spot where we got engaged and took some more snaps and we had a much bigger walk through the wooded part of the park. It is a really beautiful park and the sun came out while we were there, which made the trees look even prettier. The rest of the day was actually very nice and sunny, with blue skies, but still very cold!

We had enjoyed Cafe Romeo so much that we returned there for lunch, where we had nachos and burritos (Romeo was Mexican after all). We then had a quick look through St Nicholas Cathedral, one of several big churches in the centre of Ljubljana. The main door to the church was rather impressive - with 3-D carvings of saints decorating the door. However, the inside of the church was even more amazing. There was a huge organ at the back of the church, the ceiling was beautifully painted, there were lots of fantastic statues and carvings all up the sides and, of course, there were Christmas trees and nativity scenes.

After resting back at the hotel, we had a drink at the English pub next to our hotel and watched a bit of the Arsenal game against Aston Villa, which ended 2-2, before returning to Preseren Square to sip some mulled wine and listen to the Christmas songs that the live band was playing. We had a couple of drinks at the Dvorni wine bar and then went back to the square for some pretty solid burger/hot dog action for dinner.







Preseren
statue and
Church of
Annunciation














St Nicholas
Cathedral
with Robba
Fountain in
front















Megan lost
in huge
Christmas
tree















St James
Church











Misty
Christmas
morning










Snow on
Christmas
Day











Church of
St John the
Baptist in
Trnovo










Tivoli
Park














Tim at
the park











A very
happy
Megan












Another
pretty
church
















Preseren
Square in
sunlight!!!















Robba
Fountain

















Doors of
St Nicholas
Cathedral

















Inside the
cathedral















One of the
dragons on
Dragon
Bridge

Ljubljana, Slovenia - Part 1

Christmas Eve in Ljubljana

Firstly, here is a little background information on our Christmas holiday destination, as it appears that very few people we know have ever heard of Slovenia, let alone could place it on a map. Slovenia is a very small country - it has an area of around 20,000 sq km, which is about one-eighth the size of New Zealand's South Island - in southern Central Europe. It is wedged in between Italy to the west, Austria to the north and Croatia to the south and east, as well as sharing a small border with Hungary to the north-east and having a small patch of coast on the Adriatic Sea to the south-west (see map below). Interestingly, Slovenia is shaped much like a chicken (if you use your imagination) and its capital city, Ljubljana, is located smack-bang in the middle of the chicken. The population of Slovenia is around 2 million, of which 280,000 live in the capital.

Slovenia was once a republic in the federation of Yugoslavia, from which it declared its independence on 25 June 1991. Despite its Yugoslav connections, Slovenia is not, and has never really been, part of the volatile region known as the Balkans. Throughout its history Slovenia has had close cultural and economic ties with Central Europe and has been influenced much more from the west and north than from the south and east. Slovenia became a member of the European Union on 1 May 2004.

Slovenia has always been a very safe place to live and to visit. The slump in tourism during and after the war in Kosovo in 1998-99 was based on false perceptions, as there was actually no danger in Slovenia at all. Except for ten days in 1991, when Yugoslavia tried to prevent what is now Slovenia from making a break for it, there has been no further fighting in Slovenia. While Croatia and Bosnia & Herzegovina became embroiled in the most bitter conflict in Europe since WWII, Slovenia got on with what it has always done best: working hard, earning money and making progress.

Slovenia is a particularly green place with around 58% of the country being covered by forests. This, together with the beautiful lakes, rivers and mountains, explain why outdoor sports and recreation are so popular in Slovenia. Skiing, hiking, mountaineering, kayaking and rafting are all very popular activities in the region.




















We arrived in Ljubljana very late on Tuesday night and we were surprised to see so many people out and about on the streets when we got to our hotel at around 1am. Apparently the bars and clubs only get going around 11pm, so the nightlife is good. We stayed at the City Hotel, very close to the centre of the city, and it was superb, we loved it. They put on amazing breakfasts every morning, our room was excellent (we even had a bit of a view), the staff were all great, there was a pretty decent bar in the lobby and free internet!

Despite our late arrival, we were pretty eager to get going on Wednesday morning and explore the city of Ljubljana. After a very nice breakfast in the lobby, we set off for the Old Town. It had been around -2 degrees celcius when we arrived in the middle of the night and it was chilly but bearable as we walked through the city centre in the morning; nothing like the -7 degree highs we had experienced in Prague the year before!

Just a few blocks from our hotel is Presernov trg (or Preseren Square). There are several "town squares" in Ljubljana's centre, but Preseren Square is the largest and most impressive one. It is named after a famous Slovenian poet, France Preseren, and a majestic statue in honour of Preseren stands in the middle of the square. To the north of the square is the Baroque-style Franciscan Church of the Annunciation, a magnificent salmon-coloured building.

One of the main shopping streets in Ljubljana, Cop Street, leads off to the north-west, towards Tivoli Park. On the south side, the Ljubljanica River passes by and is traversed by the city's best known bridge, Triple Bridge. The central part of the Triple Bridge was constructed in 1842. It was extended into the Triple Bridge in 1929 by famous Slovenian architect, Jose Plecnik, who added pedestrian bridges either side, effectively widening the bridge and preventing it from becoming a bottleneck.

Across the Triple Bridge is the Old Town, with beautiful cobbled medieval style streets. There were dozens of Christmas market stalls set up in a line along the bank of the Ljubljanica River. We meandered along past all of the Christmas market stalls, which were selling chocolates, lollies, hot food and mulled wine, toys, handcrafts and warm clothing amongst other things, to the permanent open market, which was a huge collection of stalls selling fruit and veges, meat, cheeses and artworks. Everything looked fantastic - the produce was all so fresh and the artworks were all good quality and interesting.

At the far end of the open market is the Dragon Bridge. The Dragon Bridge was constructed in the beginning of the 20th century to replace an old wooden bridge that was damaged in an earthquake in 1895. The city coat of arms has a green dragon depicted sitting on a castle tower. There is a legend that says that Jason, the leader of the Argonauts, came up the Ljubljanica River on his ship and where Ljubljana stands today, he fought a terrible dragon and slayed it. However, the people of Ljubljana prefer to view the dragon as a friendly protector of the city. Whatever the story, the four dragons that sit on the bridge are beautiful sculptures.

After wandering the markets, we checked out some the proper shops in the Old Town. There were a lot of very nice boutique gift shops, clothing shops, jewellery shops, etc - some people in Ljubljana must have a bit of cash! Although we did notice that many of the shops were in sale, some up to 50% off, so the credit crunch has hit Slovenia too.

There is a big hill in the centre of Ljubljana - Castle Hill - upon which Ljubljana Castle sits, keeping watch over the Old Town below. The area of the present castle has been settled continuously since 1200 BC, when the first settlements and later fortifications were built. In the 15th century, the castle was enlarged with a complete wall and towers at the entrance, where a drawbridge was placed. A chapel was also built at that time.

Because it was not a home of a ruler or another important noble person and because a fortification in the area was no longer required, the castle started to lose its importance and began to crumble as the maintenance costs were too high to keep up with. In the 19th century, the castle was redesigned partially as a prison and partially as a military stronghold, making it less popular among the citizens. In 1905, the castle was bought by the Ljubljana Municipality, and renovations took place from the late 1960s until the 1990s and today the castle is used for weddings and cultural events.

We walked up the hill to the castle at the top, taking in the magnificent views of the city as we went. Unfortunately, the Belvedere Tower, with a viewing platform at the top, was closed for renovations, and the virtual museum was also closed for the day. However, we checked out one of the exhibitions and enjoyed a brilliant hot chocolate at the cafe (Slovenia has amazing hot chocolate) before walking back down to the Old Town. We each had a hot dog from one of the stands in the Preseren square for a late lunch - everywhere in Europe seems to do quality hot dogs!

By this stage, Megan was a little cold and we had done a lot of walking already. Megan wanted to go back to the hotel to warm up and relax before going out for the evening. Tim managed to persuade her to accompany him for a walk in Tivoli Park, a massive park in the middle of Ljubljana. A little reluctantly, Megan agreed and we set off for a walk in the park. We wandered through the park for a while before finding a quiet spot where we sat down and Tim surprised Megan by proposing! Thankfully Megan said 'Yes'!

After returning to the hotel to thaw out, we made our way to the Vinoteka Movia wine bar, where we celebrated our engagement with a bottle of Slovenian champagne and a beautiful platter of meats and bread. Apparently Slovenia produces a lot of very good wine, although most of it is consumed within Slovenia. Our champagne was very good. The wine bar was really cool - it was decked out as a wine cellar, with stone walls and low ceilings and dozens of bottles of wine staked along the walls. We then had a drink at the Corso bar/cafe on the river bank before returning to the hotel to phone family with Christmas wishes and news of our engagement.

After eventually getting hold of everyone to pass on the news, we returned to town for a beautiful dinner at Sokol, a very popular restaurant specialising in Slovenian dishes. As we were having a late dinner, it was a little quiet inside, but we really enjoyed it. We then walked along the river by all the Christmas market stalls. There were still loads of people out on the streets and in the squares, eating, drinking (mainly mulled wine) and celebrating with their friends.

All through the city centre there were amazing Christmas lights - on buildings, hanging in the streets, on trees, literally everywhere. We joined in the Christmas Eve celebrations with a few drinks in the square and we enjoyed the beautiful Christmas lights and live music before calling it a night around 1am. A very long but very enjoyable day.

Church of
Annunciation
Preseren
Square















Dragon
Bridge

















Christmas
markets












Tim by
the river














Megan in
Old Town















St Nicholas
Cathedral











Megs and giant
snow angel -
Preseren Square

















View from
Castle Hill










Megan on
Castle Hill












Where Megan
said Yes -
Tivoli Park











Preseren
Square by
night











Town square
lights













Markets
at night











Telling the
parents the
news