Getting to Bled involves either a bus directly from Ljubljana, or a train to Lesce Bled about 4km from the lake, followed by a short bus ride to the lake itself; I chose the train-bus option, as the timing suited me better, although on arriving at Lesce I found that I'd missed a bus by about 3 minutes, so had to wait another half an hour or so for the next one. I was still on the lake-side by around 10am, so knew that I had plenty of time.
Lake Bled has been described as "A tourist trip in Slovenia you really must see" - I definitely agree that you must see it; like anywhere and anything, how much of a tourist trap it turns out to be is up to you!
The lake is circled by a path of 6km, so makes for a relatively easy "stroll" - and lots of photo-opportunities! All-up the walk took about 90-120 minutes, but it's hard to tell exactly, as I also went up the cliff to the castle, and took a ride on a pletna (local boat) to the island in the lake.
Let's start with views from around the lake (unfortunately there was cloud-cover most of the day, and someone decided to burn timber behind the church, so there was quite a bit of smoke around too):
The castle dates to the very early 11th Century, with its first mention in a written document being in 1011.
A few shots of the castle to give you perspective:
So a few shots from the castle:
The pletna ride is fun at 12 euros, and takes about 30 minutes each way (depending on where you depart from; in winter, the trip is more like 15 minutes as they depart from a spot close to the island), with 30 minutes on the island. The pletna is a lot like a gondola, and the "driver" generally waits until he has a full boat (8 people) before heading to the island, so it's best not to be first onto the boat, or you can have a bit of a wait; however, I was the third one for a boat, and the captain decided that was enough and we pushed off straight away.
Needless to say, on the island, I went to the church, paid the 6 euros (it has recently gone up from 3 euros), rang the bell in the church for good luck, and climbed the clock-tower, but was disappointed as they have put grating across the windows so you really don't get a very good view - however it was something to be climbed, so climb it I did!
Bohinj or the Bohinj Basin (Slovene: Bohinjska kotlina) is a 20 km long and 5 km wide basin within the Julian Alps, in the Upper Carniola region of northwestern Slovenia. It is traversed by the Sava Bohinjka river. Its main feature is Lake Bohinj.
At Lake Bohinj, without a vehicle, I was only really able to stop at the one spot, and have a short wander around before catching the next bus back about 45 minutes later.
Near the bus drop-off point is a church - the Church of St John the Baptist, which dates to somewhere either 10th or early 11th Century! It is claimed to be the most-photographed church in Slovenia, and has frescoes of St Christopher (patron saint of travellers) on the outside Southern wall, some of which date to the 13th Century.
There is a bronze statue of four men which intrigued me, so I trudged through some snow, to find out that it is a memorial to the four brave souls who were the first to climb the highest mountain in Slovenia - Mt Triglav (2,864 metres). Local tradition has it that every Slovenian should/must climb Mt Triglav (literally Mt Three-heads, from the triple peaks), and when they do, they are "baptised" with a slap on the bottom. Mt Triglav also features on the Slovenian flag.
Overall, a very good day exploring in Slovenia, with some wonderful sights.