Wednesday 17th July 2019
One place that I had considered visiting on the 2009 motorcycle tour was Lake Bled. In the end we visited Postojne Caves instead therefore the decision was made to visit the lake now.
Once again Kim picked out a site, Camping Šobec, which lies on the Sava Dolinka River near Lesce, Slovenia. This would be an ideal base as it’s only a 5km walk to the lakeside.
Towing Kilometres – Today: 243 Cumulative: 35,247
We stopped at the last Croatian service station and bought a 7 day vignette to allow us to use the Slovenian motorway system. The journey passed without incident with only a short delay at the border.
On arrival we parked up and went to look for a pitch before registering for a three night stay.
The site is not cheap by any means, We paid €51 a night for a large comfort pitch and registration fee and tourist tax. That said it is obvious that there is a large amount of investment put back into the site. Everything is clean and tidy, the buildings modern, and there is nightly entertainment provided.
The restaurant serves good food with excellent service. There is also a well stocked mini-market.
The swimming lake is huge.
After dinner we were under the best thunderstorm we had seen since camping near Corinth 🙂
Thursday 18th July 2019
After lunch we made our way into town via the clearly signed footpath surrounded by corn and the backdrop of mountains. Due to the very heavy rain the night before there were quite large puddles to avoid on the footpath. The footpath leads to quiet local roads that were quiet until entering Bled.
We stopped for a coffee before making our way lakeside and boarding a traditional Pletna Boat.
These Lake Bled boats date back to around 1590 and provide transport for up to 20 people.
The boats are powered by a Pletna Oarsman. This profession is well respected in the area and is often passed from generation to generation.
The boat carries you over to Bled Island where you are given around 40 minutes to walk the island and visit the church dedicated to the Assumption of Mary. The round trip costs €15 per person.
We were rather fortunate on the return journey to avoid the rain that we could see falling all around the region 🙂
On the way back to camp we stopped at a bakery to buy Kremšnita, or Bled Cream Cake, which are famous in the area.
Walking the footpath back to camp we were once again fortunate to avoid the rain.
After a shower and change we ate well in the Sobec restaurant whilst being entertained by a local Oom-Pah band 🙂
Saturday 20th July 2019
With the time left for our planned two year tour now being counted in days rather than weeks, (the Eurotunnel is booked for 1st August), we decided today to make some serious progress north. The original plan was to head for Berlin to meet up with Lutz & Antje but fixture clashes made that impractical.
My idea was to get somewhere between Munich & Augsburg and find a site when we got nearby.
Towing Kilometres – Today: 440 Cumulative: 35,687
We stopped to get a 7 day vignette for Austria knowing that we’d be there less than four hours but the cost of 9 euros was worth it for the progress made.
The traffic was heavy for most of the day and the Austrian-German border area heaving due to roadworks. After a long 8 hour day towing we arrived at Ludwigshof Camping Am See near Augsburg.
Initially informed by the owner that they had no room for us, she cunningly invited us to wait at the bar and have a drink. No problem, we can do that 🙂
If her reservations hadn’t arrived by 6pm, then we could have a place. Two beers later we were setting up on a site where we can spend some time watching The Open and on Monday explore some of the area.