No sign of rain today, so we took the bus to Lake Bled.  Slovenia may have many Austrian influences, but bus “queues” are very definitely Italian, and it was something of a free for all to get on board. If you try to get on the wrong bus, the driver just shakes his head with a firm “No”, but doesnt point you to the right one. As almost everyone was heading to Bled, we just went with the crowd.

The bus was a stopping all stations, meaning we saw more Slovenian towns than we’d anticipated.  We also saw some nice mountain scenery.  Roadworks created a traffic jam leading into Bled, and the bus was half an hour late arriving.  Finding our way to the lakeside was pretty straightforward.  We started out on a clockwise, 6 km circuit, following the lakeside path.

Bled is a major holiday resort, where water sports of all kinds take place.  I guess we were expecting more of a quiet nature trail as we progressed around, but the lake was full of swimmers, rowers and paddleboarders, and the lakeshore was full of walkers, cyclists, picnickers, sunbakers, and people fly fishing.  It was also busy with restaurants, hotels, cafes, and ice cream stalls.  Not the place for solitude.  Despite all the holidaymakers and the infrastructure, there are plenty of places to view the church on the island, and the castle perched high up on the hill.