A Lake, an Island and a Cream Cake
Slovenia?
Not Slovakia!
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| Slovenia |
…while Slovenia was the northernmost, wealthiest and
second smallest of the constituent republics of Yugoslavia. In July 1991 Slovenia
became the first Yugoslav republic to declare independence.
The Army was dispatched to deal with the breakaway but
withdrew after 9 days, what the Slovenes did was less important to them than the imminent
fighting between Serbs and Croats and the horror that Bosnia would become (see Sarajevo: The Siege, posted 2012). As most of the disintegrating Yugoslavia became locked
in internecine warfare, Slovenia quietly got on with being a new, small
independent Republic, joining the UN in 1992, the EU in 2004 and adopting the
euro in 2007.
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| Slovenia (Bled and Ljubljana underlined) with position in Europe in inset |
Slovenia is prosperous, but small, a tad (4%) smaller
than Wales, the epitome of a small country, with only 68% as many people – and their
sheep population is not worth comparing.
22-June-2025
Getting There
Flights from Gatwick to Ljubljana, the Slovenian
capital, are scheduled for just over two hours. That is an hour less than going
to Portugal which I had always thought of as a near neighbour, while Slovenia
is far away in eastern Europe.
Our late afternoon departure was delayed, and waiting for an air traffic control slot wasted more time. A change of time zone and the
inevitable formalities at Ljubljana meant darkness was falling when we met with
Boris who would drive us north to Bled. We arrived in time to check in and go
to bed.
23-June-2025
Bled Lake
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| Bled |
Bled is a small town (pop: 5,000) nestling in the
foothills of the Alps, 50km north of Ljubljana and 10km south of the Austrian
border. It has two hotel rooms for every citizen, suggesting it has become a
tourist hot spot.
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| Bled, its lake and out hotel |
The reason for that is Lake Bled, but where was it? Our hotel boasted it was ‘a few steps from the lake’ so we walked down hill, rounded a curve and proved them right.
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| Lake Bled and Bled Island |
In 18th century England, as the need for castles and
strongholds diminished, aristocrats and those with sufficient funds built themselves
opulent country houses. The Renaissance had introduced an appreciation of beauty in nature and wealthy house-owners wanted perfect views from their windows
and terraces. Nature was not always up to the job, providing an
opportunity for professional landscapers, foremost among them Lancelot “Capability”
Brown, who would move a woodland here, insert a lake there and create (at great expense) landscapes more perfectly natural than the one nature
provided. Lake Bled would be Capability Brown's despair, there is nothing he could
do to improve this view.
Bled's shield (above) shows blue water, an island and
a castle on a rocky bluff. The first photo showed blue water and the island; a
slight change of direction brings the castle into view.
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| Lake Bled and Bled Castle |
You may view Lake Bled as a tear dropped from God’s eye, but at a more prosaic level it is 2.1Km long, up to 1.4km wide, has a
surface area of 1.45km² and a maximum depth of 30m.
Round the Lake
There is a clause in the Slovenian constitution which
states that all able-bodied visitors to Bled must, at the first available
opportunity, walk around the lake. There is not actually true but most
visitors behave as though it is, and we were no different. We set off in a
clockwise direction on a warm morning that could only get hotter.
The footpath is 6km of largely level pavement, woodland
track, gravel path and boardwalk. We tried, not entirely successfully, to avoid
the temptation to repeatedly photograph ourselves in front of the castle…
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| Me spoiling the view of the castle |
… or the island just because it was a different angle.
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| Lynne and the island, Lake Bled |
Shaded, woody sections of the path attracted anglers who
set up their rods, reclined comfortably in their chairs, and dozed as they waited for the
rods to catch them a fish.
There was birdsong, so I asked Merlin what it was. It quickly spotted blackbird, robin, jackdaw, chiffchaff and great
tit - some of the commonest birds from our garden at home - plus the slightly
less common but still not rare blackcap, song thrush and nuthatch. Amidst this
was a marsh tit, a 'lifer' for me. Globally its population is healthy, but in the
UK it has dropped 50% since 1970.
A couple of hundred metres of boardwalk at the lake’s western extremity...
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| Lynne on the boardwalk |
...allowed us to peer into the limpid waters (well, they're as limpid as lakes get) and spot the angler’s quarry. The lake contains giant catfish, pike, carp,
three species of trout (though we saw none on local menus) perch and more.
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| Is that a trout in there? |
The boardwalk has an angle allowing both the island
and castle to be in one photograph…
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| The island and the castle in a single photo! |
… and while we were there the clocktower chimed 10.25,
which seemed eccentric.
Bled Cream Cake
Around 10.45 it was getting hotter and we started looking for a coffee stop. We
found one at Velika Zaka, roughly the halfway spot. To accompany our coffee, we
ordered a blejska kremna rezina (Bled Cream Cake) because cream cake is
an integral part of visiting Bled, like walking round the lake.
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| Bled Cream Cake |
A huge traditional pastry (I am glad we ordered one between
two) it was ‘perfected’ in 1953 by Ištvan Lukačević, pastry chef at Hotel Park.
They are now all made to his recipe. Apart
from being difficult to eat with two soft layers between two crisp layers, and
supplying a complete week’s sugar requirement in one go, it is not very interesting
– there is more to a perfect pastry than buxom good looks (see the Portuguese
Pastel de Nata in Eating the Algarve). Oh dear, now I can never go back!
Completing the Walk
A couple of hundred metres beyond our coffee
stop, as the clock chimed 11.07, we detoured from the lakeshore around Bled Rowing
Club, Olympic Centre and marina. The rowing club has a 6-lane lane 2000 metre course
marked out diagonally across the lake. The
World Championships have been held here four times, most recently in 2011.
We never quite returned to the lake shore, but as the
day grew hotter and the chiming of the clock more erratic, the number of
walkers grew steadily. We plodded on and were surprised to look back and discover
the island was now well behind us and the castle looming above.
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| Still plodding on |
Re-entering the built-up area at the head of the lake,
our walk passed parkland, playgrounds and swimming areas. I had considered
swimming but decided the lake would be too cold. I have seen a photo of a
former student of mine (now grown up, so she should know better) swimming in Lake
Bled in winter when the water temperature was 4°. That put me off, though I have
read that by the end of summer it reaches an acceptable 25. But June, I
thought, might be a little bit cool for a dedicated wuss and heated indoor pool
swimmer like me, and I was less than entirely comfortable with the thought of
2m long catfish – you don’t see those in Stone Leisure Centre.
Lunch (With a Side Order of Rant)
The circumambulation completed, we checked out the
boats for an afternoon ride to the island and then found the nearest bar to have
a bite, rest our feet and administer a very necessary cold beer.
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| A life saving cold beer, Bled |
It was the nearest bar because we were tired, we did
not reject the next one up the road for any reason other than proximity, and
certainly not because of this review which you can find on Google.
Location is bad, along a busy road (it
is the road we are sitting beside in the photo) and the drink menu is very
simple. Only 4 beers on the menu... (the owner claims, 8 and the drinks menu might look less simple if you include the many drinks the writer has never heard of and probably wont try) … [the] lady at the bar
speaks only her own language… I stopped reading there, ‘her own language?’ as
though she was making it up as she went along. She was, I presume, a Slovenian,
speaking Slovenian in Slovenia, that is less ‘her own language,’ and more the
language of this town and this country. You, Mr Reviewer, were the one speaking
‘his own language’ rather than the majority tongue. Many (most) of those
working in tourist facing positions do learn/pick up some English, it has
become the lingua franca of the tourist trade; it makes us anglophones (me
included) lazy, but it should not make us feel entitled. We, the army of travellers/tourists/holidaymakers,
may be legion, but we are guests not occupiers and should behave that way.
With that in mind, we thanked the young lady who had
brought us our beer and paninis, left a modest tip, as is the local custom and
returned to the lakeside.
Bled Island
Getting There
A landing stage for Lake Bled’s traditional
flat-bottomed boats was near the start/finish of our walk. The pletna (from High
German Plätten 'flat-bottomed boat') has been used in Lake Bled since at least
1590 (some claim 1150). In 1740 Marie Theresa, Empress of Austria granted 22 families
exclusive rights to ferry pilgrims across to worship on Bled Island. No motorboats
of any type are permitted on Lake Bled, and even today only Pletnas may carry
paying passengers to and from the island. Many modern rowers are still members of
the original 22 families.
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| The Pletna sets off |
They row standing on the stern using two oars. The boats’
construction owes something to Venetian gondolas (Venice is only 170km away)
but the propulsion is different, and passengers sit beneath brightly coloured
awnings.
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| Heading out across the lake |
The heavy boat moved at speed, demonstrating expertly applied
brute force. As we approached the landing stage, apparently far too fast, the
rower stood up straight, gave a deft flick with one oar, the boat turned 180° and
glided gently up to its mooring.
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| Pletnas on Blead Island |
The Island and the Church of the Assumption
There is no obvious reason for Bled Island being a place of pilgrimage but it has been a sacred site since before Christianity arrived.
The Church of the Assumption of Mary was built here in the 15th
century, and even today on the appropriate feast day (July the 15th) crowds come
here to worship.
We were not pilgrims, and as we left the boat the oarsman said ‘return in 40 minutes.’ We struggled up the stone steps to the front of
the old church with its prominent ‘no entry sign.’ ...
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| Stone steps, Bled Island |
... and round the back where there is the
clocktower, a café and the inevitable gift shop. After a good look at that we
still had 30 minutes to fill.
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| Bell tower, Bled Island |
The church was open on this side, but we needed a ticket. On approaching the adjacent kiosk, we learned that entry was €12.50 each.
That is €25 (£22, US$30) for two which is a lot of money for a short visit to a
small, largely disused church. ‘Is there a special price for seniors,’ I asked,
playing the old git card. ‘I can give you a child’s ticket’ he said ‘€5.’ And
so he did, though I still thought it was on the high side - though Lynne disagrees.
Inside is a baroque altarpiece with almost enough gold to satisfy an American president….
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| Gold altarpiece, Church of the Assumption, Bled Island |
…and a baroque pulpit, …
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| Baroque pulpit, Church of the Assumption, Bled Island |
…but the church is older than that as the remains of a Gothic fresco demonstrate.
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| Gothic fresco, Church of the Assumption, Bled Island |
A bell rope hangs in front of the altar rail and punters are invited to give it a tug. There is a technique to it, but if you follow the instructions no great strength is required to get the bell ringing at
the third pull. After that you can go on indefinitely, but good manners demand otherwise.
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| Ringing the bell, Church of the Assumption, Bled Island |
Only when I heard the bell did I realise why the bell we had heard this morning (and wrongly assumed to be in the clock tower) had been chiming at such eccentric intervals.
A Tall Tale
Long ago, in Bled Castle a nobleman was killed by
robbers. His grieving widow, Poliksena had a beautiful bell cast in his memory for
the church on Bled Island. Sadly, a terrible storm blew up while the bell was
being transported to the island. The boat capsized, and the bell sank into the
depths never to be seen again.
Distraught, Poliksena went to Rome, entered a convent
and lived out a life of quiet devotion. When the Pope heard her story, he
commissioned a new bell and sent it to the island church.
That was the bell we rang, if you make a wish with a
pure heart, the Virgin Mary will hear it and grant it. Whether that is true or
not, we do not know as neither of us made a wish.
Of course, like all sunken bells wherever they may be,
when the mist is on the lake, the sound of a bell etc, etc, etc.
Back to Bled
Like most of the others, we arrived a little early for the return journey. The round trip, which commits the oarsman to 10-15 minutes rowing each way and a wait of 30 minutes, costs €20 a head. A pletna has 20 seats giving a total of €400 for the trip, do that five times a day, six days a week produces around €50,000 a month. Doubtless there are overheads, maintaining the boat, membership of the organisation which keeps the rowing fraternity a small elite group, and maybe landing fees and mooring costs, but it is, on the face of it, a nice little earner. But not every boat is full, and it is a seasonal occupation. Opening up the market might reduce prices, but tradition would be lost, the atmosphere would change, people might even notice there is nothing to do on Bled Island and that would have to be remedied. I think I prefer it as it is, low key, peaceful but maybe a little more expensive than it should be.
So, the story of our first day in Slovenia comes to an
end. We went out for dinner later, and that will, one day, be part of another
post called Slovenia: Eating and Drinking.