Prague and Central Europe 2017: Lake Bled

Slow start to the day after a very late night last night at Hisa Franko. Off to Bled and the lake this morning with a leisurely 1.5 hour drive, completed in at 4 hours. We took the scenic (and the shortest) route from Bovec in Slovenia, through Italy, Austria to Lake Bled in Slovenia. The road over the alps was very entertaining, hundreds of blind corners, hairpin bends and steep drop-offs. The payoff was some amazing scenery with towering mountain ranges covered in alpine trees and rock screeds. Had a couple of stops and very slow going in some of the more challenging sections, the last half of the trip was on the freeway so we arrived at Bled at about 11.30. One room was ready so we dumped all our stuff, changed into swimwear and walked towards a lunch place and planning for the afternoon. Stinking hot day so a swim was always in the plan. The lake is glacial blue/green colour overlooked by a castle with a church at the bottom on the castle hill. Tourists everywhere and parking was at a premium. Lucky Frank was on the ball (he was the front seat navigator today) and he found a park about 100 metres from the hotel.

Lunch then a boat trip to the little island in the middle of the lake. There were several options, we could hire a row boat or a stand up paddle board; get a pletna over, a boat with about 15 people on board and is paddled by a pletnaeer or get the speed boat over. We decided that speed was the go. Got on board with about 15 others and off we went. It was an electric motor, the boat was low in the water and it was very very slow. People on paddle boards were passing us!! Lovely ride over though and arrived after about 15 minutes, walked around the island and over the island. There was one wedding just finished in the chapel and another waiting to get in. Busy little place. We went and had a swim in the clear water off a small jetty. So refreshing after such a hot morning even though the water is a constant 26 degrees because it is fed by a warm spring.

Just as we got out of the water there were a few drops of rain, our boat wasn’t due back for half an hour so we decided to get the pletna back to Bled. We could see a bit of a storm through the mountains and there were some spectacular lightening strikes. A pleasure to watch, a real light show. That was until it started moving across the lake. It was about 2.30 and the sky darkened, I could see the lights on in the castle. The lightning and thunder came first, then the rain started. We were sitting at the front of the boat, exposed to the elements so we wrapped towels around us. Just as we thought the worst was over, the wind picked, stronger and more ferocious. Waves started forming on the lake. All the while the bloke rowing was looking more worried as the weather turned nasty. Once the wind hit gale force the canvas roof started flapping in the wind, the boat was pushed from its course and we stopped making any progress. The oarsman increased his stroke rate as the waves started splashing up over the front of the boat. We all had our escape plans sorted out, we were only about 100 metres from shore, we would probably have to ditch the cameras, phones, backpack. The room key we had been given had the largest piece of wood attached to it so we considered it would be our flotation device once we were swamped. By this time we were drenched through, our boots were filled with water, the boat started taking water, there were no buckets to bale the water out. The oarsman made one last effort to steer and propel the boat to the jetty, of course he won out over natures fury and we docked, scrambled off the boat to the safety of a huge grove of trees as lightning and thunder filled the atmosphere. We took shelter against a building and took stock. We decided to make a run for it to the motel about 200 metres away. We ran through the trees across the flooded road and into our hotel, happy to be safe, laughing nervously and hysterically about our great escape.
Had a shower and hung out all our wet clothes, went to the pub next door for an early tea and and early night.
No more rain that night, just after dark we went down to the lake (about a 20 metre walk) and took a couple of photos of the lights of the castle.