Today was to be a long driving day, but since we didn't have to fit in an entire day of sightseeing, we didn't have to get up too early. 6am is pretty much sleeping in for us on vacation days. So, we got up, got ready, tossed everything in the car, and took off. We were out of the house by 7.
The drive was pretty uneventful. It started out going the same way as we went to Salzburg, so it wasn't thrilling, but it was still really pretty. I love onion domes on churches, and I had missed several on the way to Salzburg that I was able to get this time around. We veered off just before we got to Salzburg and headed down into the Alps. They were gorgeous! There was snow on the tops of all of them, and as we got up into them a bit, there was snow by the road, too. The frosty trees were really lovely.
We found a rest stop in a part that was a bit in the snow, so we got out so we could play in the Alpine snow. 'Cause, you know, it's cooler than other snow. It was mostly thin sheets of very icy snow, but we were able to make snowballs and throw them at each other. Later, as we were waiting in line for a tunnel (it was undergoing construction, and each side got to go through it for a half an hour. We sat there for 28 minutes.), I took my empty Fanta bottle and got some Alpine snow to keep. :)
We got through the tunnel, and we were in Slovenia!
We had a hotel booking in Bled, Slovenia. We were originally going to stay in Maribor, but We saw a Rick Steves show on Slovenia, and he showed us how pretty Bled is, so we went there instead. He showed us the castle, so we knew we wanted to go there, but we weren't sure what else is here. Em & I had looked at TripAdvisor, and saw that not far away is Vintgar Gorge, an attraction that comes highly recommended. I found what I thought might be it on the GPS, so we went where it directed. We saw hand-carved signs that said "Vintgar" , so we followed those. We parked in what looked to be the parking lot, and started walking. We walked for a while beafore we decided (Max decided) that it didn't seem right. He had a Bled map, and luckily, Vintgar is on it. It looked to be about a mile walk to the beginning of the gorge. We saw that there seemed to be another entrance on the other side, though, so we headed back to the car and found that entrance.
I'm so glad we stuck it out. It was really beautiful. There are wooden walkways along the sides of the gorge, which made me feel like an Ewok. (I know the Ewoks were in the trees, but they had wooden pathways.)
After the gorge, we went to the castle. It wasn't the best castle ever, but it had a really amazing view.
This is the view from Bled Castle. They go together with the one on top going on the left. On the far right of the second picture, you can barely see a church on an island. The only way to get there is by boat. We didn't have time to get out there.
After the castle, it was time for the hotel. I had chosen one that got good reviews on Booking.com, but that wasn't hideously expensive. It's not exactly in Bled, though. We drove through Bled and out the other side. It's in a little village just outside Bled. Our GPS told us to make a right on a gravel road, which we didn't think was right. So, we went down to the next road, and Em saw the hotel. Thank goodness. It's a really pretty place! Very Alpine.
We went up to the door, but nobody was there. Hmmm.... We called the number on the reservation, and the owner answered. We told her we were here, and she said to hold on a minute, she would call her son. A couple of minutes later, a young man pulled up with all of his friends in the car, hopped out and opened up the hotel. He showed us our room, handed us a key to the front door, told us breakfast is from 8-10, and left. We're in the hotel all by ourselves. It's pretty cool! All of the rooms are unlocked, so we ran around the whole hotel and looked in all the rooms. The room is nice, too. Emma doesn't often get a full-sized bed in European hotels, she's on a roll-away (if she's lucky) or (more likely) a couch. She has her own real bed here, though. They have free wifi and an amazing variety of American cable channels. We watched a little of The Office in Slovenian before we realized that they have Animal Planet. Em has been watching Animal Planet and playing DS for a couple of hours now, while I do this and Max sleeps. It's almost time for bed.
Emma says - The gorge was amazing, and it's probably the prettiest thing I've ever seen in my entire life. The castle was cool, too, I liked the view. I really enjoyed sneaking around all the rooms in the hotel.
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