LAKE BLED, SLOVENIA & THE VINTGAR GORGE

by Dan Winters (posted by his more techy savvy daughter) 

This might be all you need to know about Bled and Lake Bled:

A. It is the most expensive place in the country, but that couldn't stop a couple of cheap midwesterners from finding eight dollar pepperoni pizza and two dollar Union beers on a sunny deck overlooking the lake. Slovenia is damn reasonable—it’s the getting to it that’s expensive.

 
B. Unlike the rest of Slovenia, it is touristy, mostly Brits. Borut said that Bled used to be exclusively for the eastern-European rich before a bargain airline start running $65 legs London to Ljubljana. He says a Brit can fly, book a room and get drunk, all for what it costs him to get drunk in London. Anyway, you see a lot of sensible shoes, knit sweaters, those bird watching hats and clouds of smoke.  We overheard two British couples talking. (Read this with your Ricky Gervais accent, it is better). One of the blokes said, "We saw ya walking the other day." The second bloke answered, "If we was walkin' we were either holding hands or smoking', probably smokin'."

C. It is the most popular wedding place in the country. So, it seems kind of perverse in an Alpine environment with orderly Austro-Hungarian architecture and straight-lace Slavic history to hear The Isley Brothers'  "Shout", Bon Jovi's "Living' on a Prayer" and Bruno Mars' "Uptown Funk" every night.

D. It is almost perfectly beautiful—like one of those snow globes where a lovely graceful scene is encapsulated and you shake it to get gentle falling snow.  Take a Tahoe-blue lake, drop it in some sheer epic looking Alps, stick a Disney castle on a 500 foot cliff at waters’ edge and a 300 foot designer island with a chamber of commerce chapel on a 100 foot hill, drop

Illinoising

in trendy villas, a semi ski hill, a smoke filled casino, a kick ass sculling course (Lake Bled rowing club has won Olympic Gold in the last four games), dust some snow on the peaks every night even though it is 75 degrees at lake level and the water is 70, put a path around the whole lake, rent boats so you can row your honey to the island, and offer up tasty local wines and local line caught trout. We were hooked. We decided to try to do it all at once. We rowed out exactly midway between the cliff castle and the chapel island, right next to the sculls. Surrounded by the snowy peaks and between the blue cloudless sky and the clear blue water, we get as far as possible from the casino and the tourists but close enough to hear the wedding reception rock and roll. We cocktail. We call it "Illinoising".

 

THE VINTGAR GORGE
 
Gorges are cool, you get exercise, they look nice and they pair well with beer. Four kilometers outside Bled is a great one, shear walls, roaring water, power of nature vibe. It should go on your Gorge Bucket list. For us, Vintgar ranks with the best - the Grand Canyon (technically a gorge), the bad ass Gorge of Verdon in France (see last year's blog) and Gorge-ous George the wrestler.