Now in the mountains, I knew the weather was going to change, after all, it was very pleasant on the coast for late October. Having got to Bohinj the night before, you could sense a slight chill in the air during the late afternoon. However, I wasn’t quite expecting the fog the next morning which engulfed the village.
Lake Bohinj is the smaller of the two main tourist lakes in Slovenia, and due to the fact that Nissan seemed to have booked out nearly the whole resort for the launch of their new XTrail, it has a few small hotels and apartment complexes, you would say fairly similar to an alpine ski resort.
Our first trip of the day was up the gondola to the ski resort of Vogel. According to our guide Blaz, he said there was an ‘inversion’, so it was going to be warmer at the top than in the valley below. Although you can never quite believe these things until you actually experience them for yourselves, the transition from mist to clear blue skies at the top was incredible.
Lake Bohinj is the smaller of the two tourist lakes, where we stayed in a small apartment complex (mainly due to the fact Nissan had booked up all the rooms in the resort, launching their new XTrail). On a cold and misty morning, it was unusual to actually find it warmer in the ski resort, Vogel – and the start of the Julian Alps. The views from the top were amazing.
Heading back down to the bottom of the valley, our next part of the journey involved crossing the lake in a new electric boat – in the town of Bohinj.
The second, and more famous lake, Bled is much smaller than you would imagine. You can walk around its entirety in about an hour and a half, and there is a convenient footpath alongside the lake. There are two other attractions though – the Castle overlooking the lake with its delightful chapel (there was another Nissan event happening when we got there!), and the island in the centre of the lake.
We visited the island in the late afternoon, with the sunlight starting to fade behind the mountains. You can visit the church on the lake, but you need to get a boat there and pay the entrance fee if you want to go inside.
