Day: June 11, 2019

Slovenian Row, Row, Row Your Boat

We packed up and headed north to Lake Bled. This beautiful blue lake is just NW of the capital, Lubljana. Lake Bled is idyllically set amongst the rolling mountains with a lovely castle perched high on the ridge, and a little island containing an old monastery. The steeple and bell tower of the Mother of God Church can be seen and heard from the mainland.  

View from the bow of the Pletna
Castle Bled
Lake Bled Island

In order to reach the charming little island we had to take a Pletna, traditional Slovenian flat-bottomed boat. Faywen was a bit scared of taking the Pletna boat, but the oarsman and Dad were able to coerce her aboard with a life jacket. After 5 minutes she was fine and didn’t even wear a life jacket on the return trip! She was confident in her swimming ability and the stability of the Pletna!

Our Pletna and oarsman

Once on the island we entered the Mother of God Church and each took a turn ringing the bell. It is considered good luck and a blessing to ring the bell. The rope dangles in the centre isle just in front of the altar steps.

  • Our kids know how to ring church bells
  • We ring the bells at our own church back in Michigan
  • Good technique Faywen!
High Altar
Mother of God Church and Bell Tower

The bell tower next door was fun to climb and the windows at the top gave us great views of the lake. For the rest of our time on the island, we walked the small parish grounds and enjoyed the brilliant blue waters of the lake and shoreline vistas. However we could feel the humidity rising and see clouds building off in the distance~

View from the backside of the island
Stairway from the boat launch to the Mother of God Church

Once back on the mainland shore we said farewell to Ms. Pat and Mr. Keith a lovely older couple from England we had befriended on the boat ride. Lake Bled is known for a specialty pastry made only in that region. After lunch we each tired a slice of the famous Lake Bled Cream Cake!

  • On the Pletna
  • Heading back to the main shore

Faywen and I did a little shopping while Robert and the boys headed over to a giant “theme park” like hill slide. They all had 1 turns going up the ski lift and coming down the toboggan like slide! We all made it back to the car just as the skies opened and the thunder rumbled. Since we had the car stopped at IKEA in Graz for dinner

View of Lake Bled from the top of the toboggan hill

Slovenia is a beautiful friendly country than often tourists overlook. We thoroughly enjoyed our four day weekend in this charming former Soviet country many folks might remember as Yugoslavia.