This morning our first priority was haircuts. With suggestions from our tour guide on Monday, we located a hair salon in Ljubljana with an English-speaking stylist.
With new, shorter dos, we set out to explore Slovenia’s most popular tourist location, Lake Bled. The famous lake can be reached by Slovenia by bus in about 1.5 hours. The roundtrip ticket is 12.35 euros per person and you purchase your ticket from the driver. (There is a train, but it stops 6 kilometers from Bled, requiring a transfer to the same bus.)
Riding through the Slovenia countryside, you see small villages with perfectly kept houses and a church steeple on the highest point. Rolling hills covered in green with mountains all around, kind of like the Sound of Music.
Upon arriving in Bled, we walked a few blocks from the bus stop to the Lake. Wow! A peaceful lake (no motors allowed) with a castle overlooking high above and an island with a church in the center of the lake. A well-maintain path circles the entire lake.
There is a ski slope on one side of the lake, and in the summer, it is the Poletno Sankanje Funbob (a summer tobogganing run). For 8 euros, you get chair lift tickets and 2 rides down the Funbob run.
The ride up the chairlift provides a panoramic view of Lake Bled and the castle, as well as a close-up view of the narrow piece of metal twisting down the ski slope that we’ve just paid to ride. No website, but there is a video of the ride on You Tube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eE_hPmwgwu8
You step into your plastic toboggan and the workers faster your seatbelt. The instructions are brief. “push the stick forward to go; pull it back to break.” And with that, you are off, twisting and turning and flying along.
Great fun after you get over the fear.
After more hiking along the lake, we had to try the famous cream cake. Delicious!