Bled Warnings Or Dangers

Finding a car park at Lake Bled was a nightmare for us! We drove the whole way around the Lake, and couldn't find a lakeside car park. On our second drive around, and on the other side of the Lake where there isn't much of interest, we found a large carpark, so we drove in.
We parked the car, and were about to walk away to take a photo, when a man with a bag came for money. There was no signage to say it was "paid" parking, so we were rather surprised. It was very expensive, so we drove out again, especially as he wanted to charge us the same price for 10minutes.........
You got to be joking!

Be careful where you do park, as you can see in my photo, cars park anywhere because parking spaces are scarce!
Parking Inspector's do come around, and put parking infringement notices in your window.

Is it really worth breaking the law...........No! We said goodbye to Lake Bled and went onto Lake Bohinj which happened to be very nice!

We rushed and caught the 7:30 AM bus out of Bled to Ljubljana . We wanted to make our train connection to Salzburg. It took 1.5 hours and cost 6E. We then caught our 10:12 train to Salzburg from Ljubljana...we couldn't believe it when the train carted us back to the station just outside of Bled...on its way to Salzburg!!! We should have looked at the map nore closely...too bad the travel agency in Slovenia ,didn't mention that when I asked the best way to make our connection!!

If you walk around in town then take care of the traffic.
All traffic to the villages in Bohinj vally and Vogel ski center is going through center of town, and the walk ways are not wide so have a good look before you cross the main road.

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There are numerous signs posted around the lake telling you not to disturb the swans as they are protected, we had a laugh over this as we have an overabundance of them and those infernal Canada geese at home, we're trying to think up ways of cooking them up for Sunday dinner!

As we were walking around the lake we came upon a group of men who had been kicking around a football just lounging about and then we realized that they had kicked the ball into the midst of a hissing mama swan, her two "ugly ducklings" and daddy swan who was puffing out his chest and flapping his wings.

After watching the men trying to wave a red cape as if a matador faced with a ferocious bull, my husband, experienced in swan etiquette, said that mama swan's hissing was all show but you had to watch out for daddy swan who would charge you so while he and one of the men diverted daddy swan's attention, another brave soul swooped in and grabbed the ball, thankfully no casualties to report.

........do any of these things. It would be pretty stupid to do any of them really, especially washing your car.

But this notice is quite a long way round the lakeside, so I thought I ought to draw it to the attention of potential Bled visitors, lest they cause harm to themselves, others or the environment.

:-)

The track up to the castle from St Martin's Church is very steep and twisty and also is unpaved as you walk on a dirt tracl with large stones and some steps. Also it's very easy to miss the start of the track near the church. If you exit the church and go right (in a northerly direction) there's a couple of houses on your left. The track starts between these two houses (see photo which has a little sign saying GRAD on the wooden house) and goes up the cliff where you have a nice view of the church.

Assholes! Watch out for these guys...they will post themselves on the road with a little white paddle that has non-functioning red and green lights on either side. Once you figure out that you are being detained, the rude and condescending pricks will patronize you until they're are satisfied that you are completely pissed or humiliated. Having been in the Army and a LAPD Officer I can attest to the deplorability of this behavior. The vehicles are dark colored SUV type. The uniforms they wear are grey, black, and brown in a woodland type pattern. The "Soldiers" that stopped us were wearing dark colored berets.

I would recommend not eating at the restaurant on the lake, not sure of the name. Nice place to sit out and have a drink, but generic menu. Much better food elsewhere. In the main shopping mall off the main drag there is a pizza place on the second level that also sports a nice view and has good, cheap pizza.