Lake Bled, Slovenia

I have really been looking forward to visiting Lake Bled for a while.  In all of the travel photos and videos I've seen, it just looks so beautiful.  It's definitely off the beaten path as far as European travel goes, and I love going to a place that feels undiscovered.  

We started off our day by touring the castle and getting a view high above the Lake and it's island.  Luckily, we were able to drive and park right near the castle, so we didn't even need to hike to earn that view.

Hanging out in the castle courtyard.

Buddies

Next, we strolled along the lake to find a rowboat to take out to the island.  This walk was absolutely beautiful!  We found out that there's a campground on the far side of the lake.  We were wishing we had the time to campout here for a good week or so.

A look back at the castle on the hill

Here are the rowboats that we wanted to take out.  Unfortunately, both boats that were big enough for our party of 6 (plus one baby) were already out, so we had to change plans.  We are big time planners, but we have definitely learned to be flexible while traveling in Europe.

We ended up sharing a Pletna instead...we didn't even have to row.

Out on the island, young grooms to be who can carry their brides up the 99 stone steps are determined "fit for marriage."  Since Ryan was already carrying baby #5 in the Ergo, I decided he was probably already fit for marriage.

We headed up to the church where we rang the bell 3 times each, so our wishes would come true!

Random monk sighting

Next I made the tragic mistake of allowing my girls to order dark chocolate gelato in their new pink shirts.  What was I thinking?

The gelato gave everyone a chill for the boat ride back.

Next up, we all took turns on the luge.  Can you believe we have never ridden on a luge track before?  All of our trips to Germany and the weather and timing was just never right.  On this day, all the conditions were perfect.

Ski lift up

Luge ride down

The one and only problem was that we almost missed the timing to take the last kiddo on the luge (I think it was Ava).  The workers were so nice to stay open a little bit later so we could take her up.  It was so fun - the kids keep talking about how much they loved it!

This area is an awesome blend of cultures - we definitely saw the German and Italian influences, as well as some typical Balkan stuff.  We ate at an amazing Italian place for dinner and felt like we were in Italy for the night.  

Next, we went in to a jam packed local bakery to try out some traditional desserts.  We had to rank the desserts from favorite to least favorite, of course.

During the Yugoslav days, Slovenians were not able to get Coke products.  The drink below, Cockta, was the wartime version of a Classic Coke.  In recent years, Cockta has been reintroduced as a throwback to days gone by.  I think it's funny how people can get nostalgic about something like war or poverty, but I think simpler times bring people together.  We gave the Cockta a try, it's NO Coca Cola (not even close), but it was good in it's own way.

Though we had a slow paced relaxing day in nature at Lake Bled, somehow it went by too quickly and it was time to head in to Croatia.