Friday, May 16, 2025
We got to the Bled train station last night, and there weren’t any taxis waiting. We were also the only passengers who got off the train at 7:50 pm, so maybe that’s why. It was sprinkling on us, and we were tired, dirty and ready to be off our feet. We walked into the restaurant attached to the station and asked about a taxi. I was thinking she was going to call one for us, but instead she handed us a business card.
Big sigh. But it turned out ok. I WhatsApp’d the taxi driver, and he said he’d be over in 5 minutes. And he was.
He was an older gentleman, but his English was pretty good, so we chatted about our plans while he drove us to our hotel.
We rang the bell at the hotel, and the owner Barbara came over from her house and farm next door. She gave us the intro about the area, breakfast, wifi, etc, handed us the keys, and sent us to room 9, on the 2nd floor.
It’s Europe, so its actually the 3rd floor to us, but all is well. We opened the room, and its huge! It has a little kitchen, a living and dining room, balcony, small bedroom, and rather large bath.
Nathan geeked out about the architectural details, photographing and trying to explain the importance. Dude, I am too tired for this.
We exploded out of our bags, prepped for the next day, and got ready for bed. I managed to read something less than a page before I was ready to turn out the light.
We are in Mlino, which is basically Bled, but a small, agricultural village right outside of the town proper. And I did know that our hotel had a working farm that supplied eggs and such for our breakfast. So, maybe I should not have been surprised when an unidentifiable animal repeatedly and I mean repeatedly made noises all throughout the night.
I woke up at 3:30 and gave up at 5 am. By then the birds were singing and the sky was getting light.
I watched the clouds and fog roll in over various valleys and woke Nathan so he could enjoy it too. I knew he’d eventually appreciate being woken up for a photo op.
At 7, we went down to breakfast and arranged to borrow two hotel bikes. The breakfast spread is pretty elaborate, and they make cooked to order eggs.
By 8 am, we’d purchased entrance tickets to Vintgar Gorge and were pedaling around Lake Bled in the general direction of the gorge. We stopped a lot to take pictures, and by 8:45 we backtracked to take the recommended, uphill cycling route to the gorge.
It’s only 5 km there, but we don’t know the way, and we don’t want to be late. Our tickets are timed and our time is 10:12.
We got to the gorge with 15 minutes to spare, so we take a few moments to observe the ticket taking and entrance procedures.
At 10:11, we scan our ticket, receive our helmets, and start our walk.
It’s gorgeous. Mineral rich, teal colored water, rushing down the gorge, with green foliage glowing in the sunlight.
The gorge is a one way, 40 minute walk, and when we get to the waterfall at the end, we turn in our helmets and hike another hour to get back to our bikes.
Once back on the bikes, we ride, downhill this time, back to Bled to find lunch.
The remainder of our day was spent taking a pletna boat to Bled island, and hiking up to Bled Castle.
Once we were done at the castle, we rode our bikes around the far side of the lake towards Mlino. We stopped at the grocery store to pick up snacks and lunch items, dropped the groceries and bikes off at our hotel, and went out to find dinner close by.
Tomorrow, we start our hike.
