30 August 2017
Legend has it that, a long time ago, a young widow lived in the castle of Bled. Robbers had killed her husband, and politely threw his body into the lake. She was obviously rather devastated, so decided to do a good deed by gathering all her gold and silver and cast a bell for the chapel on the island, in memory of her husband. The bell, however, sank to the bottom of the lake, together with the boat and boatmen, during a nasty storm. By now the widow had had quite enough, sold all her property, gave the proceeds for the construction of a new church on the island, and left Bled to become a nun in Rome. After her death, the Pope came to hear of her misfortunes and good deeds, and decided to donate a new bell in her memory. The Pope declared that anyone that rings the bell three times and believe in God, would have their wishes come true.
And there we were thinking that the bell was just ringing at more regular intervals than most bells.
We took a boat to the island for two reasons. To see the island, of course, but also to see the area from a different perspective. The lake has a ban on motorized boats, except for electric motors, which means that there are a lot of rather well-built men around Lake Bled, who have to row boats filled with tourists who mostly have their mouths gaping whilst staring at the beauty around them. At some point today, we thought that we should maybe start thinking of new terms to describe the beauty.
At the one end of the island, there are 99 steps that lead up to the church. It is said that, should you wish to be married in this church, the groom would need to carry his wife up the stairs, to secure a long and happy marriage for himself. Fortunately, there are also some other routes leading up to the church that seemed less frightful to the male members of our party. Actually – I’m not even going to say it anymore. Of course it is just so beautiful up there. Not to mention the color of the water, and the view of the shore around the lake.
The rest of the day was spent doing things you do on a holiday. Swim. Eat. Rest. Sit on the balcony and watch the view.
Tomorrow, we leave Slovenia for Croatia. People say that Croatia is also very beautiful. We’ll have to wait and see. But for me, based on what I’ve seen of Slovenia, it is the prettiest country I have ever visited.
