Day 6: Another one of my favorite days if not a bit stressful at times. I had initially planned a VERY full day driving pretty much the entire loop of SLovenian highways. However I knew that would be too much after driving the previous day, so we headed the 40 minute drive north to the Bled area, stopping first at Vintgar Gorge, which is part of the Triglav National Park. We were pretty excited to be back in our element of nature however surprised to find a 45 minute line waiting to buy tickets (didn't even know we needed tickets) lol. But we hung around and waited and it was well worth it! The walk through the gorge was a little over 2 KM each way (so about 4 roundtrip)
The beautiful drive to Bled. Check out those awesome mountains!
Braden was a trooper and drove the whole time. He did awesome!
The path is almost entirely suspended above a stunning blue/green river on wood platfroms that are stuck into the walls. 2 km of that! Seriously such a neat place with at least 2 large waterfalls, many rapids, and some calmer spots. It was pretty crowded at the start but luckily the clouds started to thin out on our way back so we didn't have to "swim upstream" as much as we were worried we would.
A little bit like a fairy tale place, don't you agree? ;)
A cute little Cairn garden. I loved catching one of these in another country! WOW!
The final stop was this stunning waterfall, before we turned back around and saw it all again in reverse. The photos I got aren't the best as it was a constant battle for good lighting and shots without a million people in them, but I managed to snag a couple I'm content with. Just know that even the shots I got don't even come close to doing justice to this gorgeous place!
When we were all set at the Gorge, we decided it was lunch time and all time for Braden to experience his very first... International McDonalds. It was huge! and was the pretty standard international type with like a whole separate cafe within. We especially liked the auto ordering they had so you didn't have to try and speak to anyone to order. (Later, we checked out that Grocery Store LiDL for some great finds)
So lunch acquired, we headed into Bled to find a NIGHTMARE of parking. oh goodness....it was horrible. Braden was a champ and somehow got us and our rental car out in one piece.. but there were roads blocked off all over the place due to festivals and weddings. People would just block traffic and park with their hazards on making you wait foreverr for them to move. No parking anywhere to be found. We finally were about to give up when the GPS lead us to the Bled campground on the other side of the lake (which is lucky cause that's actually where we wanted to be anyways) and we happened by chance, upon a large dirt parking lot that was FREE!! haha score. Only took us an hour of frustrated driving to locate it. We quickly set off to make use of the little bit of day we had left at this part. I had my heart set on hiring a boat to row out to the Island, making Braden carry me up the stairs to the little church (which is said to bring you good luck) and doing a hike to get a view of the lake. Well... looked like we were going to have to choose between boat or hike so I gave Braden the option.. and can you guess what he chose?
So we went into the camp office to inquire about the hikes in the area and we were seriouly RIGHT where we needed to be, just a few steps from the TH. The Ostrica trail was actually pretty short at 1.61 miles RT but decently steep with 800 feet of elevation gain (which didn't feel like that much after the stairs we endured on the Cinque Terre hikes) The view from the top was like nothing else. Easily again one of my favorite moments from the trip, it was so surreal!
The view looking away from the lake. (not that most people want to) You can see the campground in the lower right.
We hung out there for a little while before making our way back down to Lake side. I wished desperately that I'd brought my bathing suit so I could actually swim, but I settled for taking my shoes off and sitting on the bank watching the beautiful swans swim around nearby. Super peaceful and wonderful evening.
Obsessed with swans!
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