We were met by our guide for the day and her husband driver at 9am.
The weather forecast for today suggests we may have had rain in the afternoon so our plan for the day changed a little. Instead of going to the lakes first we went straight to Vintar Gorge.
Vintar Gorge was just under an hours drive from Ljubljana. The Gorge hike traffic is one way through the Gorge itself and then a loop track over a steep mount takes you back to the start and your transport, that’s the way it is meant to work!
We were dropped off at the head of the Gorge where the ticket office and entrance were, and our driver drove to meet us at the bottom end. A couple of rules broken there but it worked for us. The Vintar Gorge is a deep river valley through which a river runs.
As it passes through the valley there are several areas of rapids and waterfalls, broken by calmer waters. It was so good to be back in nature near water as we were in Plitvice. The trail down the valley is a mix of boardwalks and tracks that hug the valley walls and criss-cross the river as you make your way downstream.
We saw a large trout swimming in one of the calmer stretches of water.
It’s hard to put into words what this walk was like, powerful, serene and just beautiful come to mind. But pictures do it better, but even then you miss the feel of it.
We got to the bottom of the walk and there was a dam wall with the water cascading over it and an arched stone bridge above it. A great sight to finish with.
We hopped in our car and made our escape, as others turned up the very steep hill to make their way back up to the top. It was a 45-50min walk down, and apparently up to a 2 hr walk back!
From there we drove to Lake Bled. It is a relatively small lake, about 2.1km long and only 6km around. The lake immediately had us drawing comparisons with Lake Louise in Canada, they are both the same colour, the colour you get with a glacial fed lake, a unique blue haze colour.
But I get ahead of myself. Our first stop was at Bled Castle, perched high on a rocky outcrop above the lake. The castle provided magnificent views over the lake. The castle itself was now more of a history piece of the area. There was no original or copies of the old furnishings in the castle, it was all historical displays. One interesting thing we saw there was a working Guggenheim printing press. It was interesting watching a man put it through the whole process, he had been working with it for about 20 yrs.
From there we stopped at a supermarket to get some lunch. As we were eating ours, our car for the day was involved in a minor accident in the carpark. Just a bit of minor damage, but it will be a pain for our driver.
From there we went down to Lake Bled and caught a traditional flat-bottomed boat called a Pletna over to Bled Island,
to have a look at a small church and have a walk around the Island. The boats are rowed by one man standing at the back. Due to the flat bottom of the boats they are fairly unstable and everyone is asked to keep the boat balanced. It took 15mins to row over to the Island, we were given 45 mins to have a look around and then we boarded our boat again to go back to the mainland. The island had 99 steps to reach the church at the top.
There is a gift shop, and ice-cream stall, a bell tower and the church all at the top. We were told the church wasn’t anything special inside and dissuaded not to go in as it wasn’t worth the exaggerated entrance fee. 
So we had an ice-cream each, soaked up the view and then walked around the island. On our walk we saw a few large catfish sitting on the lake floor just off shore in the shade of some trees.
Back on the main land we were dropped off close to former President Tito’s lake villa. It is now a hotel
. We had a quick look inside, we saw a painting of Tito 
and went into a room that is said to be still decorated with Tito’s furniture. Interesting. Many former “Yugoslavians” we have spoken to speak fondly of Tito, whilst admitting that things were harder back then.
Next we drove to Lake Bohinj.
One of Slovenia‘s largest lakes, measuring 4.5km long. We saw a couple of statues while we were there. The first was of four men, who, back around the turn of the 19th century climbed the Julian Mountains and erected stone Cairns to mark the border of Slovenia with Austria.
The border they marked still holds today. The next statue was to the honour of he Golden Horn, a mythical elk, who is the subject of local folklore and a story about leaving nature alone.
And that was the close of our tour for the day. We were driven back to our hotel, after a slight detour showing us where the bus station was. (More on that soon). We had a great day, but it was good to get to our room and cool down and relax.
Our day wasn’t quite over. We had to make our way back to the bus station to collect an errant hat off a bus. The good people at our Opatija hotel had put Deb’s hat on a bus at around 4pm, and we were there to collect it. Deb got an email with a picture of the bus it was on, Bus Company and number plate clear as day. Deb saw the bus and was off after it, by the time I got there, there was Deb with big smile and a while bag from the hotel with her hat in it. I’m sure that hat isn’t going to get another opportunity to have its time in the sun alone!
From there we walked to a Pizza bar near our hotel to have dinner. The pizzas were good, and cheap. Most customers there looked like school or young uni students. On our way back to our hotel we ran into yesterday’s guide, his wife and child. It was good to see him again and we wished them all well.
And then we finally made it back to our hotel, locked the door and we are in for the night.
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