The drive took a bit less than an hour, and as we traveled west, toward that corner where Italy, Austria, and Slovenia meet, the villages began to look more Bavarian or Alpine Swiss in character. Indeed, we are in an area known as the Julian Alps.
Bled Castle, which dates from the 10th century, was the seat of a succession of bishop-nobles who ruled this area for some 800 years, until Napoleonic times. Because the bishop was in charge of secular, as well as religious affairs, there was no separation of church and state.
While it looks imposing from below, the castle is remarkably small. Yet it manages today to house two cafes, a wine tasting room, a museum, and at least two souvenir shops -- but little else.
There are some nice views, obscured today by rain and fog, and a chapel with some well-preserved frescoes. Otherwise, the walls and courtyards are pretty much all that is here,
We finished our visit in a half hour or so, then followed our tour leader's recommendation to split a piece of Bled cream cake.The bus took us from the hill, down to the lake shore, where we got on board a traditional, gondola-like wooden boat called a pletna.
The pletna is operated by an oarsman who stands at the rear of the boat, pushing the oars.The role of the oarsman dates back to 1740, when Maria Theresa of Austria granted 22 local families exclusive rights to ferry religious pilgrims across Lake Bled to worship on Bled Island, where there is a church. The profession is still restricted, and many modern oarsman descend directly from the original 22 families.
On arrival at Bled Island (the only island in all of Slovenia), we got to climb 99 stone steps to visit the church. Tradition holds that if you make a wish and ring the church bell three times, your wish will come true.
We found that it's very tricky to get the bell to ring exactly three times, because pulling the rope is hard when getting started, and the bell then doesn't want to stop.
We climbed 90 more stairs inside the church tower. Views from here would have been better without the rain, but getting a look at the 200+ year old pendulum clockworks was interesting.
Our tour director suggested that we all needed to taste potica here. This is a traditional Slovenian cake. Four of us split a piece of the sesame seed variety. Tasty, but a little dry.
That was two desserts already before lunch! And as soon as the pletna oarsman put us back on shore, we went once again to our bus and were driven to the quaint little village of Radovljica (written everywhere in the abbreviated form of Radol'ca).
The claim to fame here is a large music school, newly restored with EU funds. Students used to come from far and wide to live here and study. Local students still study music here, and the auditorium is used for concerts, but the dormitory areas are now a museum.
We had a very nice lunch here, with a choice of two soups, salad with pumpkin seed oil (very good!), pork, chicken, a superb potato dish, and of course, yet another dessert. This one is unique to the Bled area and called blejska grmada. We can't pronounce it, but it is very good! It's a cake soaked in rum and topped with whipped cream.
We spent some time and some money in the little shops in the old center of Radol'ca, then got back onto the bus for the 45 minute trip back to Ljubljana, where we tried to rest and digest all of those desserts.
In the evening, we gathered with several other group members for drinks. Our O.A.T. group trip is winding down, and tomorrow will be the final day.
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