In contrast to the forecast, today was lovely & sunny – thank heavens they get it wrong sometimes. Dave & Carol had told us about a Medieval festival being held at Bled Castle so we went up to there (almost vertically up from the lake but they ran a bus from the car park!) to have a look, & very good it was too.
   
Many, many people were in really good costumes: craftsmen, stalls, dance troupes, musicians, re-enactors – although one chap did look incongruous dressed in his burgher regalia, on his iphone! There were sword fights, maidens being kidnapped and sold to pashas (with attendant belly dancers) archers, lords, ladies & court jesters plus stalls of “Medieval” crafts/food/drink/trinkets, bands playing and troupes of dancers, and best of all everyone spoke English.
     


Then for something completely different we went to Vintgar Gorge, which is just what it says. It was a lovely walk, on wooden walkways next to the rushing waters of the Radovna River. It was very narrow in some places but with wildflowers all along the banks, small birds swooping around and the turquoise /white water it looked really lovely.





We got ourselves lost on the way back, (using minor roads to avoid Bled which is ram-packed with coach parties) as the sat-nav informed us we were "in an area where detailed guidance is not possible". All the villages have unpronounceable names and the roads got more & more narrow until we literally had one wheel in the bank & the other on the edge of an overhang. Calm I was not! But it was fine in the end (we just kept heading downhill as we knew we'd end up at the lake eventually) & got home without further mishap.





Back at the site, we chilled in the (very) hot sun.....until a sudden wind swooped through followed by a rainstorm. We were very cross that apparently at home on the Fylde coast everyone has been basking in Mediterranean temperatures, but very glad for them, of course! We can’t complain really, as its one of the hazards of staying in the mountains – but we did :)