Day 18 Lake Bled Loop

What could possibly make this day more perfect? How about this:

Perfect weather, not much crowd, six-mile stroll around Lake Bled. First stop was the castle, Slovenia's oldest castle.

There's an interesting display of Bled's history in the castle. Tools from the stone age have been found. With iron in the hills this region was important throughout ancient history. There are distinct side-by-side Roman and Slav settlements. The castle itself was first recorded around 1000 CE. Nobility and rich mine owners maintained the grounds and buildings.

Bled Castle is also the location for a working Gutenberg printing press. You can view a printing demonstration. Curiously, the first books printed there were ABC primers, not Bibles. It seems there was a focus on improving the education level of the citizens, not just providing status symbols for the wealthy.

Enough history. The castle's most interesting feature to us technology junkies was the self-driving lawn mower. Small, quiet, maneuverable, it's a lawn Rumba.

Remember the turquoise gorge we recently traversed? This water flows into Lake Bled. One of the most amazing features to me is that despite hundreds of years of mining operations, the purity of the water remains.

There's no uninteresting angle at Lake Bled. Well, the big church on the island in the lake kind of distracts. It's a beautiful pilgrimage church, but it does photobomb almost every image of the lake.

That mini El Capitan in the background is the plateau from which tomorrow's hike begins. But first, one last pic of the castle...