Saturday August 22.2015

We woke up to a blue sky and sunshine today, so decided to spent another day here in Kranjska.

Olympic training center at  Planice,Slovenia

After breakfast we got on our bikes and wanted to ride to Tamar valley but stopped at Planice when we saw the big Ski jumps. It so happened that kids of all ages had a training day, the youngest about 6 or 7 years barreling down and jumping off and having perfect landings on the grass. It was really amazing to watch. So we never made it to Tamar Valley.After watching for a while we rode back down to the bike trail. It was really busy on a beautiful Saturday.Families with little kids,young people on road bikes, older ones like us on trekking bikes,  everyone looking fit.The little kids and I mean 3 and 4 year olds riding up pretty hilly terrain.We decided to ride up to some beautiful Alpine Lakes that were actually over the border in Italy called lago Fusine. There were lots of  folks up there also, since you could get there by car, but lots of families on bikes rode up with us also. little kids riding up pretty steep pitches. Amazing.
In the evening we ate dinner at Pensione Lipa Mac had calamari and I had a wonderful Salad, Mac had red wine I had an Aperol Spritz and we had creme brulee for desert, all very good. There was another concert at the square with women and men dressed in traditional out fits and a band playing old traditional instruments, A big crowd had gathered, mostly locals, it was too bad we could not understand the songs. Mac asked several people but no one spoke English We enjoyed it any way.

The jumps

om the way to Tamar

Inn in Podkoren

men's world cup course in Kranjska

my Salad

Mac's Calamari

View from the lakes

at the lakes

Lago Fusine

Lago Fusine

 Slovenien men's Choir

The Ensemble waiting to get on

The women and band 

August 21st, 2915 Kranjska Gora.  After breakfast this morning we hang around in our tiny room and blogged and read.. It looked sort of cold and overcast out  there.
Finally we had enough and got on the bikes to ride to a Russian church only 7 km from town.
We followed our map and soon came to beautiful little Alpine Lake There was a sculpture of a mountain Goat with Golden Horns right there by the lake. The story goes that high in the Julien Alps once lived the white fairies , who sometimes came down to the Valley to help the poor.  On the rocky slopes grazed the goats of the fairies.These goats were led by Golden Horn and the fairies made him invulnerable. When a Hunter were to wound him a magical flower called Triglav would rise from his blood and only consuming one leaf  of this flower Golden Horn would be healed.
There are other versions of this story too many to write about here.
After visiting Golden Horn we started up the hill to find the Russian Chapel.  Little did we know we were going to climb a steep road with grades up to 14%.   After 5k we came to the Russian Chapel. Austro-Hungarian authorities used 10,000 Russian prisoners as slave labor to build a road over 1600 meter Vrsic Pass.  The chapel was built to the memory of  110 Russian prisoners that were killed in an avalanche in 1917.
After looking st the Chapel we rode back down the road a short distance to a hut that, oddly enough, had beer.  We sat at a table a with nice couple, the man was American and his wife was Hungarian. They both worked for Aramco in Saudi Arabia.  We had a hearty minestrone soup with some sort of wienies in it and we each had a beer.  The couple would take their vacation every few months and travel in Europe.   We rode carefully back down the hill and back to our Hotel for a shower.
                                                                                                                                                                After dinner we went to a local concert of traditional slovenian music.  The singers were dressed in their traditional dress.  It was a nice show but we never did understand any ofthe stories.

Gold Horn at the lake

Russian Chapel

Chapel

memorial for Russian prisoners

view of the mountains from the chapel

view of the Julien Alps

Lake

a Ford commercial was being filmed at the lake

part of the commercial

Kranjska

the little Alpine Lake at the start of the ride

along the trail

Add inside Church at Kranjska

Kranjska Gora, August 21 2015

Yesterday morning we left Bled and all the tourist and traffic behind.  The sky was clear after the night's before downpour. The sun was shining and lightening up the little church on the Island and the lake was calm and beautiful and the tourist buses had not arrived yet.
To get to Bled was quite a steep ride and even it would have been beautiful riding back through the Radovne valley and having the Triglav mountain in view we decided to get back to Mojstrana by taxi. The driver took us to the tourist info were we visited with the nice girl there and had a cremschnitte each for a farewell. Here is were the bike trail started and we were on our way to Kranjsk. It was nice to see the mountains from the opposite direction.
We arrived at our B+B early and the nice owner, who speaks German showed us to our very small room, but the price is right.
After we took a ride into town had some tea at the square and saw the German couple we met the night before at Dinner They had ridden all the way from Bled .It took them three hours, but they are a lot younger than we. They were surprised that we made it up the steep 3 km hill and thought we had e-bikes.

They soon left for Tarvisio and we biked to Podkoren, just a little way down the trail and I hiked through a beautiful nature reserve, actually the start of the Sava Dolinka .River,  a tributary of the Danube. We also visited the Liznjek Farmhouse,were you could get a feeling of how a wealthy Farmfamily lived. The rooms were decorated with beautiful painted chests,beds and a cradle. The black kitchen was still intact. Black from the smoke of king fires .The outside of the house had a hand carved wooden balcony and the house was decorated with frescos. An example of a slovenien Alpine house from the past.
Went for dinner looking for Pizza, but got into the part of the restaurant where it was not served, so ordered a grillplatte for two. It started  raining again when we left the restaurant but even so there were lots of people about. The tour Buses stop in places and let all the people out to spend the night, next morning they are all gone.
Had a great breakfast this morning served by our nice hostess Carolina. It is  gloomy and overcast this morning, but we will go out and explore.

view of Julien Alps from bike trail

Julien Alps

Trail sign explaining project

Julien Alps

Julien Alps

Liznjek Farm House in Kranjsk 

Fresco on Farm House

Zelenci Nature Reserve Podkoren

Dinner Grillplatte 

Aug 19 2015 Lake Bled

We're spending 2 nights in Bled so we have one whole day to see the sights.  After a mediocre breakfast, according to Johanna, we got the bikes and rode the trail around the lake before the busses and the hordes arrived.  The lake is about one tenth the size of Whiskeytown Lake so that didn't take too long.  It was a 6km ride but we got to see different perspectives of the 2 most famous sites at Bled, the Bled Castle and the Church of the Assumption on an island in the lake.

The castle was first written about in 1004 when Henry the second gave the land to the Bishops of Brixen.  It passed to the Hapsburgs in 1278.  In 1511 the castle was heavily damaged by an earthquake and the restoration is what is seen today with some touch ups along the way.

As for the Church The first masonry church was consecrated by Pellegrino in 1142 in a romanesque style.  In the 15th century it was rebuilt in the Gothic style but in 1511 was badly damaged by an earthquake.  It was rebuilt in the Baroque style.  The present church dates to the 17th century after another earthquake damaged it.  Legend has it that the temple to the ancient slavic goddess Ziva stood where the Baroque now stands.  Habitation of the island dates back to the 11th century BC.

One thing Johanna wanted to do was take a ride in a Pletna, one the classic boats of Lake Bled.  So after the bike ride we boarded a pletna along with 14 other people for a ride to the island.  They only take full boatloads at 12 euros/person.  The rower takes us out to the island  where you get off and then walk up to the Church.  We have half and hour and then back to the dock.  After the boat ride we adjourned to a cafe for tea and a creamschnitte.
After I hiked up to the castle while Mac took a nap. It was quite climb up first on steep trail than hundreds of steps.But it was well worth it. The exhibits were very interesting specially the finds going back to the iron .age.I spent a good two hours looking and reading. There are great views of the lake from up here,but the surrounding mountains were socked in.  Later in the evening we had a good dinner dining outside under canopies in the rain.

Bled Castle after dark

Church of the Assumption on the island in the middle of Lake Bled

Church and Bled Castle

Our boatman.  He didn't say word on the trip over or back.  I don't know if any of them had a speech or interacted with the guests

Church and tower on the Island

Bled castle from the island

2 pletna coming from the campground at the other end of the lake

Creamschnitte after our boat ride

Shot of the lake from the Bled Castle

Bled castle courtyard

Bled Castle

Bled Castle courtyard

Church on the way down from the castle. 

Altar of the above church

When we came into Bled yesterday there 2 guys fishing off the bank and they had lawn chairs and a big umbrella and they were using 4 rods.  This morning when we rode by they were still there.  At 2000 when we went to dinner they were there in the heavy rain.  After dinner we walked by them and they were standing around a "Slovenian livewell" admiring a 21 kilo karp they had just caught.  They said they were going to put it back.  We have had karp for dinner in Bad Kissingen and it was good.  It's a different karp then we have in Shasta Lake.