Summer vacation part 5, Lake Bled, Slovenia

Lake Bled in Slovenia's Julian alps is a little piece of heaven on earth. Slovenia was quite different from the other former Yugoslavian countries that we visited on our Summer trip.  It has been in the European community the longest and it's location close to the alps near Austria certainly makes it feel like the most Western of the 4 former Yugoslavian countries we visited on the trip.  Lake Bled is a picture perfect lake in the mountains near the Austrian border.  It features a fairy tale like castle on the top of a steep cliff as well as a little island in the center of the lake complete with an old church.  During our brief stay here we hiked around the lake to the castle and rented a row boat to get to the little island in the center of the lake.  Our children had fun taking some chairlifts up the mountain in order to bobsled in tracks down to the bottom.  The views, peaceful nature and clean mountain air made this a perfect respite from the busy cities we had already visited.  We only spent around 24 hours in Lake Bled, but it was totally worth the visit and highly recommended should you decide to visit Slovenia yourself.  Lake Bled is around a one hour train ride to Slovenia's capital Ljubjana.