Bled

A few months ago, I stumbled across an image of a beautiful lake with a church on an island in the middle. Hannah (Ben’s sister) and I sent it back and forth to each other with either the heart eyed emoji or a “WE MUST GO” text. I can’t believe a few months later I actually got to travel to Lake Bled in Slovenia. It was just as beautiful as the picture.

We didn’t think Ben was going to arrive until a few days later from hiking in the Dolomites, but lucky for me he finished early and he made his way to Slovenia! We spent the evening exchanging travel stories and walking around the little town. The weather the following day was beautiful. Our morning began with a run around the lake, which quickly became a favorite route to take. The path hugs the lake and offers the most scenic views of the castle, island, and surrounding mountains. After, we showered up and packed a picnic for two. Our picnic spot of the day was right in the middle of the lake. We (well, Ben) paddled our little row boat right to the center and we enjoyed a perfect picnic. So dreamy, right?!

Honestly, what girl doesn’t want to be rowed around on the most darling boat by her husband?

We became masters of picnicking on this trip.

After lunch we continued on to the little island, parked the boat, and climbed up to check out the church as well as the views.

Then, we climbed back down and I decided to be useful and giving the rowing a go!

After returning our charming little boat we plopped down on a nice piece of grass and read our books for the longest of times. A dream come true really. Especially when Ben is always keen to let me use him has a pillow. There aren’t loads of restaurants in town, but we decided to give one of the pizza places a go that evening. Delicious! 

After we decided to go back to our favorite wine man! The night before we had a glass there during our story telling time and I fell in love with the wine man. He looks like he should have been one of the characters in the Guess Who game and I mean that in the most kind way. We promised him the night before we would be back and we don’t break our promises. Oh, and we ate cake. 

Day number 3! We walked towards Vintgar Gorge passing through the little towns filled with storybook cottages and views. A detour in search of cash for the park entry fee (oops) led us through the bustling metropolis of Podhom, Slovenia.  Beautiful views!

On our way back we hiked up to catch a glimpse of the castle as well as the view of the lake from above. Our standard picnic took place at a bench near the castle before we set out to find the a hammock spot. The perfect two trees right near the island were calling our names.  Perfection.

While we sat in our hammock reading, chatting, and napping our photos were probably taken a hundred times. Apparently Eno hasn’t made it to Eastern Europe yet.

After a few more chapters and maybe a few more naps Ben went for a dip in the Lake. I was rather jealous!

Later in the evening we packed our hammock up and strolled back to the hostel to make some dinner and maybe watch an episode (or two) of Bloodline. A grand day indeed.

The next day was scooter day! Just reliving our honeymoon glory days! We scooted our way around the town (at 25 km/hr, woo!) and onto the Vintgar Gorge because we could simply not be bothered to have a repeat of the day before. As you can tell from the image below, my arm can only reach so far with the camera around my neck and holding onto the scooter. Ben insists that safety comes first, even when the scooter needed some Fred Flintstone-esque encouragement at times.

I give you the long awaited Vintgar Gorge! It truly was beautiful, and well worth the wait. Such crystal clear water and vibrant greens everywhere. My apologies that you now must scroll through about a million pictures of this beautiful place (and that is only about half of the pictures I snapped!)

You guessed it! Picnic time! Standard two sandwiches for Ben, one for myself, two apples, bottle of water to share, and maybe some dark chocolate.

You’re the best, Ben.

Our beloved little scooter.

On to Monday, but Monday doesn’t really count. Why, you ask? It down poured all day long. Rain, lighting, thunder, the whole nine yards. There was no hope for outdoor adventure which was rather upsetting due to our plan to go white water rafting. You win some, you lose some.

Tuesday morning we worked out, packed our bags, and enjoyed a cup of coffee at a cafe near the lake. Our original plan was to hike up to the view point as a final farewell to Bled, but the clouds were not offering any view points. On the plus side, the sweetest old man offered to take our pictures and wanted to nail every angle. What a hero. An honorable mention goes out to the kind lady in the hostel who bought two Bled Cakes and only wanted one and gifted the other to Ben and I. We had turned down buying one the entire time but really wanted to try those delicious looking cream cakes. So good.

It was such a treat to have a relaxing week with Ben in such a beautiful place. Bled essentially feels like the world’s best summer camp and I couldn’t recommend it enough. Here is to stumbling across the most beautiful picture on Instagram and making that trip a reality.

Now, here’s to spending one last week soaking up every bit of London and you better believe I mean every last bit. I’ll leave you with a little story to back up my love for London. I started weeping on the train from the airport to the flat we are staying in this week (which by the way is INCREDIBLE.) Ben asked me why I was crying and I responded that I was going to miss having to take buses and trains with all our bags back from airports to central London and he reminded me that actually that is not fun and I generally say that is my least favorite aspect of our trips. But I just love getting to come back to this place we get to call home in this season of life.