Lake Bled and driving through Austria

We head off very early Friday morning towards Lake Bled in Slovenia.  In 2005 my niece, Monica, went there and ever since I have always wanted to go (her journal). 

We drove through Austria and the hills were definitely alive with the sound of music but Malcolm refused to sing along. To avoid a traffic jam we went down side roads and stopped off to take photos and saw that it was a 5 minute walk to a very pretty waterfall just off the road. We also stopped off at a bunker museum on the Austrian/Slovenian border. We arrived at Kranjska Gora for lunch before setting off to drive the Vrsic Pass through the Julian Alps.  The Vrsic Pass has 50 hairpin turns and was built by the Russian POWs during WWI.  The views during this drive were amazing.

In the early evening we arrived in Lake Bled and found our hotel.  We went for a walk into town and had dinner overlooking the lake and its famous island.  The next day we decided we had best walk around the lake.  I got to have a rest whilst Malcolm rowed us to the island to look around. 

We then drove to Lake Bohinj and went to see the waterfall, Slap Savica, and went up the gondola/cable car up Vogel mountain for more panoramic views.  We then went back to Bled and visited its castle from around 1000 years ago. 

The next morning it started to rain but we really wanted to walk the Vintgar gorge as we remembered it from Monica's journal.  Unfortunately when we got there the rain did not let up and as we waited it just got heavier so we decided to head home and would stop at one of the gorges in Austria. We stopped at Liechtensteinklamm which is supposed to be one of the deepest and longest ravines in the Alps.  The trail was great and at the end there was a 50m waterfall - so everyday of this trip we got to see a waterfall.

We then had lunch on the road to Kufstein where we stopped for ice cream and a walk along Romerhofgasse, a medieval lane.  Then home to meet Malcolm's parents who arrived later that night.

More photos here.