Off in the car to the Julian alps. Goal is Lake Bled and
Lake Bohinj. Arriving in the touristy
part of Lake Bled, we were earlier than the crowds so we got a parking spot
right in front of a restaurant on the lake. A lovely waiter took great care of
us, giving us wifi (so we could use the map,) arranging our boat trip and
allowing us to leave our car right there to walk across to the boats. We took
the paddle boat (guide paddles, we chat) over to the church on the lake. Church
of the Assumption of Maria. Legend has it the original inhabitants of the
island 1600s, when the wife was windowed she made a bell of gold and put her
most valuable possessions in it. Sadly (supposedly) it was lost in a storm. A
replica was created out of standard whatever-bells-are-made-of metal. The story
is that if you ring the bell three times, the bell underwater will ring, too,
and you will be granted a wish.
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| Brekky |
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| Brekky with a view |
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| Our gondolier |
The temple of the ancient Slavic goddess Živa, once stood in the
place of the present Baroque church. The temple disappeared during battles
between the followers of the pagan religion and Christians, who destroyed the
altar and built a church.
On the Bled island, archaeologists have discovered traces of
prehistoric (11th to 8th centuries B.C.) and Slavic (9th to 10th century)
settlements. In the early Middle Ages a pre-Christian, probably Old Slavic cult
area stood at the location of the present day church. 124 graves with skeletons
from the 9th to the 11th century were found. The foundations of a
pre-Romanesque chapel which was built during the process of Christianisation,
also date from approximately the same period - this is probably the only
discovered example of a cult building from those times on Slovenian territory.
According to written sources, the first masonry church on the island, a
three-nave Romanesque basilica, was consecrated by the Aquilean patriarch
Pellegrino in 1142.
In the 15th century, it was rebuilt in the Gothic style: a new
presbytery, a freestanding bell tower and the main altar were built. The
renovated single-nave church was consecrated in 1465 by the first bishop of
Ljubljana, count Žiga Lamberg.
We then drove further to the larger less touristy Lake Bohinj and just took a couple of pictures before trying to head back.
Next, our intention was to travel down to see the Lippizan horse
farm, but Easter weekend traffic out of the alps was deadly and we were
afraid we would not have time. We diverted to a lovely medieval town called Radovjica. It was a pleasant place to walk around. We went into the beekeeping
museum which provided information about bees, beekeeping and specifically the
fascinating history of beekeeping in Slovenia. I bought jars of three different
traditional Slovenian honeys. Two of them are not all that populare outside of
Slovenia because people say they are bitter. One of them is their
lightest/sweetest one, from acadia. The others are forest (from the earliest
traditions when the hives were tree stumps in the forest) and buckwheat, from
the earliest agriculture days.
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| This is about the painted panels, next few pictures. If you can't read it, some of the important points are that he paintings identified the beehive's human keeper among other things. |
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| Close up of a cool one. |
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| How they looked in use. |
Ain't I cute?
We went also to the gingerbread exhibit and learned wonderful stories about gingerbread and the various ways it is used in Slovenia and in other countries. These are edible, but you don't eat them.
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| Lovely village |
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| Surrounded by hiking trails. |
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Patron saint of firefighters ...
newest one, added after a fire a couple of hundred years ago. |
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| Gingerbread workshop |
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| Lovely views from this village |
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