two backpacks and a diaper bag

Friday, April 20th. Triglav National Park. We left the apartment at 9 today to pick up our rental car from Hertz by Central Hotel. After getting the keys, Sean put Arthur to sleep using the car seat. Then, we were off to Lake Bled. It was less than an hour drive away from Ljubljana.

The drive was quite scenic. The snow-peaked mountains in the background, grass that had a strong, vivid green colors, and villages with tall church bell towers. It was so beautiful.

And when Sean missed the Heremaps-recommended exit, we entered Lake Bled area from the north instead, and we passed by cute little countryside streets and villages that looked so peaceful and calm.

The first thing we did once we parked the car was to feed and changed Arthur. Then after taking some pictures by the shore, we asked one of the Pletna oarsmen to take us to Bled Island, an island in the middle of Bled Lake.

The oarsman said he would wait for five minutes to see if anyone else would like to cross over. Otherwise, he’d take the three of us in what would become a private hire, essentially.

No one else showed up so he rowed us over.

When we got to the island, the oarsman said he would give us 40 minutes to explore the tiny island and then he’d take us back.

The first thing we did was climb up the stairs to the church. Then we walked around the church, took a selfie, got some ice cream from the cafe, went up the clock tower, climbed back down, entered the church, rang the wishing bell, exited the church, took the other stairs down to the bottom of the island, walked around the island, and returned to the dock to meet our oarsman.

Here’s Sean ringing the wishing bell. I accidentally made two wishes. I hope at least one of them would come true. Perhaps neither one would because I cheated and should have just wished for one thing.

On the way back to the dock, we bumped into a swan making its nest. I’ve never seen that before.

When we returned back to shore, we went back to the car, put Arthur to sleep again, and drove around the lake.

Afterwards, we drove up to Bled Castle. We waited until Arthur woke up before we entered the castle.

We first went to the restaurant to see if we could get a table for lunch. Unfortunately, it was full. They told us we could come back after an hour and they would have a table for us. So we decided to walk around the castle.

The view was just beautiful.

There were pretty good exhibitions at the castle, actually. We also got a couple of little souvenirs.

Lunch was all right. I ordered a filet mignon, and when we told the server that the meat was overcooked but I’d eat the meat anyways, they brought us a Bled cream cake, which is, apparently, a must-have in Bled. It was good! Not too sweet. The top and bottom were biscuit-like and the middle components were soft, almost like sponge.

After lunch, we did a bit more walking around, then we headed back to the car.

We put Arthur to sleep again for a nap, and then we drove to Lake Bohinj. It was a good drive. Driving through the valley reminded me of Lauterbrunnen Valley in Switzerland. Soooo pretty.

While driving along the lake, we saw a sign for a waterfall, Slap Savica. We decided to follow it. The drive there was so peaceful. The forest got denser and the colors changed with less sun going through.

As it turned out, we were actually in Triglav National Park. I didn’t know that. I would love to come back here over the summer and maybe do a hiking trip.

So, we got to the parking lot for the waterfall. There were not very many cars. Must be low season. The map said it would take us about 20 minutes to climb up to the top. I wasn’t really dressed for a hike. I was wearing flats. It didn’t matter, though. There was a good trail to go up to the waterfall.

Sean wore Arthur. We had three diapers, travel-sized wet wipes, one pair of change of clothes, a small hand sanitizer, and a sheet of changing pad inside the carrier, and we were not going to be gone for long, so we decided not to bring the diaper bag.

This was Arthur’s first hike! He seemed quite comfortable. Well, he didn’t have to do much. Sean and I talked about how out of shape we felt. Yet it felt good to be out in nature. We’ve spent the last two months after Iceland in cities. It was nice to reconnect with the wilderness.

So glad we were able to do this. It wasn’t planned and I’m glad we stumbled upon it.

When we got back to the car, we put Arthur to sleep once more and we drove back to Ljubljana. He woke up along the way and I had to entertain/distract him so that he wouldn’t demand to be taken out of the car seat until we got to the parking structure.

We parked just two blocks away from Congress Square. On our walk back to the apartment, we passed by Congress Square, and witnessed a music festival.

We haven’t been out and about past 7 o’clock. I had forgotten what night life felt like. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t miss it, but it was nice to get a glimpse of it as we walked home.

We even had the opportunity to take a picture of the Triple Bridge lighted up. Thankfully, Arthur was content being in the stroller on the way home.

Today was such a nice day. I’m so glad we had the opportunity to explore a different part of Slovenia.