Hike Around Lake Bled and Radovljica Town

We returned to Lake Bled on Saturday to complete the hike around the lake. We were told that it was worthwhile to see the lake from all angles and it was true! It was a brisk day so the walking kept us warm. We stopped midway around for a picnic lunch before continuing on. 

Jude visiting "Mr. and Mrs. Mallard" (he's just received Make Way for Ducklings from Pete from his trip home to Boston).

  

Loved the Bled Oars

Watching a wedding party ride by was a real highlight for the kids

The government house close up

Nature powered spinning beers

From Lake Bled, we drove to Radovljica, a small nearby town. The draw was the Museum of Apiculture (AKA beekeeping). Slovenians revere bees and beekeeping is an important tradition. When you drive across the countryside, you can see these colorful box structures, which are man made bee hives. The individual beehives within these structures are differentiated by painted wood panels. The museum was interesting, especially the fanciful beehives that Slovenians have created to house their bees. The town itself was really charming as well and made for a pleasant afternoon outing. The kids could run free on the pedestrian only downtown strip, and just outside of the old town, was a pretty leaf-strewn park.

 

 

 

Tea break

Sweetness

The Slovenian Capital: Ljubljana

I was psyched when a few weeks before our trip to Slovenia, the NY Times published "36 hours in Ljubljana." We had plans to go for a day trip on the recommendation from friends and this further validated the cool factor of the Slovenian capitol. The guide recommended a Friday food festival so we planned around that. We only saw a small part of the city, focusing our time on the river front walk and the castle. 

River walk. Castle on the hill.

Great fall colors!

 

We found the festival in time for lunch. Dozens of food stalls from the cities top restaurants dubbed
Odprta Kuhinja ("Open Kitchen"). It was very hard to choose! Jude beelined for the twisty potatoes on a stick. He was kind enough to share with us all though!

 

 
On our way to the castle funicular, we passed through the farmer's market. Such beautiful fall flowers!

We rode the funicular up to the castle. We saw a video on the history of the castle and then climbed the many stairs to the top of the lookout tower. 

 

The highlight of the castle for me was the puppetry museum. I had warned Jude that we would only be able to look at the puppets and not touch them only to learn that the second floor was all interactive. So Jude, Nana, Pops and I got to take turns putting on puppet shows for each other with marionettes, hand and finger puppets and shadow puppets.

After the castle we came back down to the city center to find the Dragon bridge. Jude was pretty pleased to find it. Roar!! 

Just getting a drink from the kangaroo

 

Gosh, getting good family pics is really a challenge!  

The kids loved the bridge with all of the locks. Maeve even found a lock with a pacifier on it!! It took a lot of effort to keep her from putting that one in her mouth!   

Maeve hadn't been feeling well and didn't get good sleep from our travels. I love this snuggly girl so much!! Time to call it a day!

The trip wore Jude out, but clearly energized me!