Slovenia Tourist Heaven

After the caves, which were very touristy - busloads of Japanese - we headed up to the Lake Bled area which is even more tourist heaven - just what we try to avoid but we needed to see it!  I was keen to go to Lake Bohinj really as quieter and more beautiful really but the campsite there was so disappointing. Just run down and full of fat people lolling on lilos by the lake.  So we headed to to the mid-spot campground -Camp Danica which was the perfect place for children.  It was rather busy but then it was top holiday time, but we had our first grassy spot and managed to get some pegs in.  The children loved it as there was a playground really close by but we did feel a bit like we were on a busy campsite - which we were . . .  It was next to the river too which was great for stone throwing, paddling, lilo floating down the small rapids, dam building and deep swimming a bit further up. What more do you want when the temperatures are steadily rising into the 30s?

playing horses on the sleeping bags which were supposed to be going inside the tent!

stone balancing

The first day here we went up to Lake Bohinj and rented a canoe for a few hours.  I think this was the nicest day.  We had a lovely time paddling round and landing on a couple of gravelly "beaches" for a swim in the beautifully clear and not too chilly water.

Morning at Lake Bohinj

Checking out the hire boats

Katie at the front

lovely swimming

Always a bit chilly for the boy to swim

But he liked the whistle

We returned the canoe, swam some more and played in the shallow water and then walked to have ice cream and have a nosy at St John the Baptist Church. It really is an idyllic spot and although there were a lot of people it wasn't too crazy mad.

happy swimming

Inside the church

 Then we went back to the campsite.  Tiring work all this lolling about!


 Next day we drove the same way up to Lake Bohinj and then took the cable car up a mountain. And then a chair lift.  Always get as high as you can by lifts I say.  Obviously we couldn't walk very far and it was very hot but we watched some paragliders jumping off and walked up to a couple of mini peaks. Got a good view of Triglav too (you can see it behind Alex in the photo underneath)  It's Slovenia's biggest mountain and would have been fab to climb. 3 days.

practsing mountain walking

resting

strolling about

Climbing up to ring the bell.

chairlift

Hard work all this mooching about in the heat

The next day we went to Lake Bled.  Having 2 small children we wanted to park somewhere and not walk too far to the boat hire place but we did it wrong and the boat hire place that was stayed in the book wasn't, so we walked along the lake and then found a sign for a Labyrinth.  So we did that.  It was good fun and took up the morning.  Then carried on the walk to the castle but didn't want to pay tourist prices to go in and essentially have an ice cream, so came down, had lunch and found somewhere to swim! Cut my foot on some glass. . .

The maize maze

the bed to lie on and listen to sounds!

Bled Island from the highest castle viewpoint without going in

waving from the fortress

And then cooking dinner in the evening

 We even used all three rings on our stove for dinner.  Such luxury!

Did Lake Bled the the next day too and managed to hire a rowing boat to the island and have a jaunt on it and then row back.  All very nice.

En route to get a boat

Alex wanted to go on a big tourist boat (castle in background)

Getting arty shots of the island

Rowing

and again

Then in the afternoon we went up to do the Sommer Rodelbahn. This was one of Katie's highlights as she loves speed.  We got 3 rides each (with child on front) and had a great time.  The chairlift was, I am sure the slowest one in the world but the rodelbahn was super fast and on my third run down I was with Katie and she declared I was faster than Matt and we nearly flew off we were so fast!

Slowest lift ever

And even Alex surprised us by loving it

 Then went back to play in the campsite river on a lilo.

And there I will finish for now as that was the end of our camping jaunt.  We felt we had "done" that area and were heading for Ljubljana so packed up next day and set off . . .

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