Eastern Euro road trip – Day 2 – Bled to Ljubljana

Last updated: 30 July 2023

The road trip already wasn’t going to plan. We’d hit a massive storm from Vienna and it followed us to Bled.

We’d booked a hotel online last minute and as we crossed the border into Slovenia I noticed our maps weren’t displaying the same as before.  This meant much of our maps were now just merely a guide.

Arriving in Bled, it was still bucketing down with rain.  A few wrong turns led us to a deserted hotel on the Lake.  There were vines growing up the sides of it. A window was smashed. There were no lights and it was completely deserted.  It was something out of a horror movie. I was convinced we’d been conned. Night one, and our first night in Slovenia and we’d been conned. Perhaps this was the back of the hotel? “Unlikely”, I muttered.  Assuming we’re less likely to be murdered if we’re together, I donned on my wellies and we trudged up the hill, up some slippery and poorly lit stairs leading nowhere and clutching each other under our pathetically small child-size umbrella.  I kept whispering “we’re gonna die, this is how horror movies start”.

We zigzagged around a deserted Bled, unable to find our hotel, I’d resorted to planning how to sleep in our new little car.  ‘We might fit’ I said somewhat confidently.  As a former owner of a matchbox car, I’m pretty good at making big things fit in tiny cars.  But unlike items of a suitcase, I couldn’t simply unpack our 6ft size bodies and stash pieces under the seats.  Unless that shady character lucking in that dark corner gripping an umbrella had other ideas.

The Boy powered through and took the reigns, insisting the hotel we’d paid for HAD to be here somewhere. Minutes felt like hours as the rain poured down, but he found it. I don’t know how. We checked in, got to our room and it smelled like poo.

Eww.  All the while I’m thinking “oh wow, we’re off to a flying start here!”.  I embraced my friend who never takes things lying down and said “I’m going to complain”.  Complaining worked. We got a new refurbished room and now we’re proud owners of a lake view.

The Boy was fast asleep while I stood outside shivering but determined to enjoy the view.

Bled by Day

I woke early, I had high hopes of doing a dawn shoot of Lake Bled. I had mental images of a misty fog settling over the Lake, the famous Bled Island church enshrouded in cloud, all with an air of Disney-like magic. Oh it was going to be great! Oh how I’d be able to proudly hang them on my wall.

It wasn’t meant to be. No mist. No fog. Just grey and mediocre cloud cover. Nothing worth getting up at dawn for.

Wondering the Lake at a more reasonable hour there was just a few travelers about. A small number of ducks paddling around in the Lake but other than that the town was eerily quiet. Coffee shops were empty, the gondolas that took tourists out to Bled Island bobbed up and down devoid on the deserted Lake.

Heeding some advice of Travis and Calli from Have Blog Will Travel and took a hike up to the side of the Castle.  By now the frigid winds had picked up and we walked along the icy path with a questionably safe railing had all the earmarks of a newspaper headline.

But in the end we made it.  It was the view I’d hoped for and best of all, it was free.

It could have been better, without the Arctic cyclonic winds or the rain that seemed to hit your face from the ground up, but it was an achievement in itself.  

By this time I was frozen solid. I decided to pass on the Castle itself and raced back to the car to defrost.  We headed east to Ljubljana where we would spend the night and where I’d celebrate my birthday.

The Essentials | Bled to Ljubljana

• Distance: 55km
• Driving time: 1 hour
• Driving conditions: Mainly freeway driving
• Insider tips: 

To drive in Slovenia you need a vignette (a toll pass). Simply a sticker on your windscreen that you can buy it from a petrol station just after you cross the border.  Vignetttes come in a set time period. A 7 day pass will cost you €15.

If you get caught without a Vignette the fine €150. It’s not uncommon to get fined on the border crossing so take my advice, get a Vignette.

Verdict: Bled is really pretty in the warmer months and I’ve seen some stunning photos during winter. This was the end of November.  It was cold, windy and grey.  It wasn’t very scenic and a little disappointing.

Looking for other things to do in Lake Bled? Try these bestsellers