The daily diary of a wandering restaurateur
June 1 - Lake Bohinj
Lake Bohinj (pronounced Bo-HEEN) is perhaps the prettiest place in Slovenia . . .and we decided that today was the day to see it. First, however, we had to find another place to stay. The big European summit in Lake Bled filled the town up and the overflow maxed out the hotels around Bohinj for Saturday night. (For the record, the town we are actually staying in is Ribev Las, but no matter.) We headed for the tourist office who put us in touch with a room in a private home. This is a very common practice in Central Europe. It is without a few minor creature comforts like cable TV and a telephone, but the room is actually larger than our quarters at the Hotel Bellevue for about 2/3 of the price! The owner speaks no English but we managed to get by, if you can believe it, in German with a little Italian here and there! Isn't travel wonderful?!!
The day was just about perfect -- 75 degrees and sunny -- definitely too nice a day to waste, so we stopped by the local supermarket for a bottle of excellent Slovenian Merlot (for under $4!), bread, cheese, ham and the like. Then we walked partway around the lake to a grassy spot under a tree by the water and had a very civilized picnic watching the light patterns on the water and the mountains. The lake is full of trout and we had fifty or so scrambling for the small pieces of bread we tossed in the water.
At the other end of the lake is the Savica Waterfall. We had heard a lot about it and decided it would make a good afternoon excursion. The sign says that it will take 20 minutes to get from the parking lot to the waterfall . . . but I think that is only if you are a mountain goat! The trail is nearly vertical, so much so that it is essentially a stairway all the way up! The sun was intense and we took our time getting up there, stopping to rest a time or two on some conveniently located benches. When we finally made it, I looked for my camera to take a photo to put on the web . . . and realized the camera was nowhere to be found. I thought I must have left it on one of the benches, but we didn't see it. Perhaps at the ticket booth when we paid our fee? Not there either.
We made a run up to Lake Bled in the hope that we could find a photo shop where we could purchase another digital camera to keep the travelogue going. We found one -- the only one -- but all they had were two very upper end models, way more than what I needed. Since it was already late on Saturday afternoon and most of the shops would be closed on Sunday, we were pretty much out of luck until Monday. I suspect we will go to into the big city -- Ljubljana -- on Monday to have a bit more of a selection.
The end result is that there will be no daily photos for a few days. We are taking pictures with Margene's camera and will eventually be able to scan them and fill in the blanks. Until then, use your imagination!
We had dinner in the Gastiše Kristal, located right next to the house we are staying in. I had the local trout which was excellent. The food was adequate, the prices reasonable and they had a very good crowd. I am pleasantly surprised by how many of the hotel and restaurant people speak at least passable English, all the more so because we actually hear very little English spoken by the visitors. This part of Slovenia is very close to Austria and Italy, so the menus tend to be presented in those two languages plus English and Slovene, even in restaurants away from what you would think of as prime tourist areas.
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