Another country, but first Auf Wiedersehen Austria
We woke to a wet miserable day in Hallstatt and a few decisions to make. We could leave and have a leisurely drive to our next destination, or stay and make the most of it. We both felt we hadn't finished with Hallstatt so decided to stay and walk around the city again. We re-traced some of our steps from yesterday but also went higher and visited the Catholic Church. We had seen a postcard of some strangely decorated human skulls and wanted to visit. Many years ago Hallstatt was running out of room for their dead, similar to Paris, and decided to dig up remains that had been buried for at least 10 years and relocate the skull and arm and leg bones. Prior to being relocated it became the fashion to bleach the skulls in the sun and label them with the persons name and year of death and decorate them with Oak Leaves (symbol of glory), Laurel (victory), Ivy (life), Roses (love) or Snakes (death as in Adam and Eve). The most recent body was added in 1995.
The rain continued through most of our drive as we headed into the Austrian Alps and was quite heavy as we entered a 6.8km tunnel. When we came out there was no rain, which was quite bizarre. Despite the Vignette we had bought we still had to pay a toll of 11 Euros ($16) at one point. We were wondering why we were paying extra, but then went through another 5.8km tunnel and noticed we were on lots of long bridges. Can only assume they were particularly expensive to build.
Once in Slovenia we again diverted off Toll roads to travel through some villages. The roads were rough and quite skinny at times, there were a few corners that had us both worried due to the lack of vision. At 4:00pm we arrived in the city of Bled which is famous for it's lake (Lake Bled) and after settling in we drove around it. It was quite stunning even with the cloud cover as the rain had eased.
Wednesday we walked 8kms around the lake and up to Bled Castle. The lake itself is beautiful and when the sun is out is a lovely turquoise color. The castle sits proud above the lake but was quite a climb to get to. It has been there since about 1004 AD, whilst the lake itself has been a tourist attraction since the train line was built in the late 1800's. The walk took us 3 1/2 hours including the diversion to the castle (1 hour) and a stop to eat the local delicacy, kremna rezina - which is like a vanilla slice with a layer of cream. It rained for the first hour of the walk but the rest of the day was mainly dry - much better than the forecast had been.
After the walk we got a boat out to an island in the middle of the lake, on which is St Martins church. The church probably looks better from a distance, but we didn't want to leave without visiting the island
After the walk we went back to our hotel to get the car then drive to Vintgar Gorge. Again the roads to get there were quite skinny and there were several points where only one car could go through at at time. The Gorge though was stunning (really need to come up with some new adjectives) with an enormous amount of water rushing through. The walk here was about 2kms long, mainly on board walks. Above the board walks you could often see strong fencing built to stop trees and boulders crashing down. Kind of scary but the fences looked extremely strong.
The rain continued through most of our drive as we headed into the Austrian Alps and was quite heavy as we entered a 6.8km tunnel. When we came out there was no rain, which was quite bizarre. Despite the Vignette we had bought we still had to pay a toll of 11 Euros ($16) at one point. We were wondering why we were paying extra, but then went through another 5.8km tunnel and noticed we were on lots of long bridges. Can only assume they were particularly expensive to build.
Once in Slovenia we again diverted off Toll roads to travel through some villages. The roads were rough and quite skinny at times, there were a few corners that had us both worried due to the lack of vision. At 4:00pm we arrived in the city of Bled which is famous for it's lake (Lake Bled) and after settling in we drove around it. It was quite stunning even with the cloud cover as the rain had eased.
Wednesday we walked 8kms around the lake and up to Bled Castle. The lake itself is beautiful and when the sun is out is a lovely turquoise color. The castle sits proud above the lake but was quite a climb to get to. It has been there since about 1004 AD, whilst the lake itself has been a tourist attraction since the train line was built in the late 1800's. The walk took us 3 1/2 hours including the diversion to the castle (1 hour) and a stop to eat the local delicacy, kremna rezina - which is like a vanilla slice with a layer of cream. It rained for the first hour of the walk but the rest of the day was mainly dry - much better than the forecast had been.
After the walk we got a boat out to an island in the middle of the lake, on which is St Martins church. The church probably looks better from a distance, but we didn't want to leave without visiting the island
After the walk we went back to our hotel to get the car then drive to Vintgar Gorge. Again the roads to get there were quite skinny and there were several points where only one car could go through at at time. The Gorge though was stunning (really need to come up with some new adjectives) with an enormous amount of water rushing through. The walk here was about 2kms long, mainly on board walks. Above the board walks you could often see strong fencing built to stop trees and boulders crashing down. Kind of scary but the fences looked extremely strong.
Hoping for better weather in Italy tomorrow.
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