Day 14: Lake Bled
We said good-bye to our Resort and were on the road to our last and final stop on the tour, Lake Bled! Before we got there we were stopping at one popular attraction, the Skocjan Caves. We had never been to "real" caves like this, so we weren't all too sure what to expect. Were there bats everywhere? Was it going to be really tight with a low ceiling? Nope! Not here, these caves were MASSIVE inside! One of the biggest "chambers" is around 7.8 million cubic feet in volume!
We were not permitted to take pictures while inside of the cave, for the sake of the stalagmites and stalactites, so we included some pictures from the website for the caves.It is a bit dark and damp in the cave, with lots of stairs going up and down...along with a few bridges. All of our tour members survived just fine, but it is pretty physically demanding, and once you're in...you can't quite take the escalator out!
Overall these caves were amazing, we had never seen anything like it before and are sure glad we went!
We were not permitted to take pictures while inside of the cave, for the sake of the stalagmites and stalactites, so we included some pictures from the website for the caves.It is a bit dark and damp in the cave, with lots of stairs going up and down...along with a few bridges. All of our tour members survived just fine, but it is pretty physically demanding, and once you're in...you can't quite take the escalator out!
Overall these caves were amazing, we had never seen anything like it before and are sure glad we went!
After the caves we took a very short bus ride up the hill to a picnic style lunch along with wonderful wine from the Boris Lisjak winery. We managed to purchase a bottle to take home with us! So far we took one bottle of wine home on each tour we have been on, we wrap the bottle in clothes as much as we can and they both survived just fine on the flight home.
When lunch was through we were hopping on the bus to make a stop at the Lipica Stud Farm and to watch a performance. This farm is home to the world famous dressage horses that are bred and trained to do amazing tricks! The facility is extremely well taken care of and has some interesting facts about the horses. The performance took place in a very nice indoor area and they made the horses do, basically, whatever they wanted! If we were a little more "horse people", we probably would have appreciated the amount of effort it took to get the horses to perform those tricks and tasks a little more...however, being from Texas, we were expected to see a calf shoot out to the middle of the area and get tied up any second! :)
When lunch was through we were hopping on the bus to make a stop at the Lipica Stud Farm and to watch a performance. This farm is home to the world famous dressage horses that are bred and trained to do amazing tricks! The facility is extremely well taken care of and has some interesting facts about the horses. The performance took place in a very nice indoor area and they made the horses do, basically, whatever they wanted! If we were a little more "horse people", we probably would have appreciated the amount of effort it took to get the horses to perform those tricks and tasks a little more...however, being from Texas, we were expected to see a calf shoot out to the middle of the area and get tied up any second! :)
Finally, Lake Bled! This is a location we have looked forward to since reading the tour brochure at the last alumni reunion. It looked so surreal, a majestic castle hanging on a cliff seemingly just made for it, looking over the lake.
We arrived in Lake Bled in the late afternoon, checked into our hotel, and headed straight for the lake. We wanted to take in all we could!....well first, we grabbed some pizza from a very good place just a short walk from the hotel, called Pizzeria Gallus. Part of the allure to the pizzeria was being able to sit on the balcony overlooking the lake. :)
After dinner we headed down to the trail that runs along side of the lake to take a few photos, we started walking our way around it...then managed to keep on walking the entire way around! It's beautiful from every angle and people are out enjoying the weather and the water. Keep in mind, it's a pretty good size lake, the trail around is about 3.75miles!
We caught some sleep at the hotel so we could be ready for our last full day on the tour! :/
We arrived in Lake Bled in the late afternoon, checked into our hotel, and headed straight for the lake. We wanted to take in all we could!....well first, we grabbed some pizza from a very good place just a short walk from the hotel, called Pizzeria Gallus. Part of the allure to the pizzeria was being able to sit on the balcony overlooking the lake. :)
After dinner we headed down to the trail that runs along side of the lake to take a few photos, we started walking our way around it...then managed to keep on walking the entire way around! It's beautiful from every angle and people are out enjoying the weather and the water. Keep in mind, it's a pretty good size lake, the trail around is about 3.75miles!
We caught some sleep at the hotel so we could be ready for our last full day on the tour! :/