Lake Bled to Zagreb

Tuesday 13th June

Lake Bled to Zagreb

We were due to leave Lake Bled at lunch time, so we had a fairly leisurely breakfast,  checked out of the hotel, and set off around the lake again to take a look at what used to be Tito's mansion. He certainly would have had some wonderful views from it.

The lake continues to amaze you, it's so beautiful its hard to resist taking more photos. This is a closer view of the island and the church - you pass it to get to Tito's mansion.

Tito's mansion is now a hotel, called Villa Bled. It's probably more than a third of the way around the lake, so it was quite a walk, and today was really hot. I was glad we weren't walking any further. 

The villa is large and cream coloured and quite a large hotel, so it's surprising to think it used to belong to a communist leader. This is the view of it from the lake.

The view from the front is even more imposing.

The garden is extensive, probably more that 5 acres, and is carefully tended with colourful flower beds. 

There are Art Deco style lights on imitation Egyptian pillars all round the grounds, but there's no indication of when they were put up, they could be very recent.

We were extremely hot when we got back to the hotel, and it became hotter still outside. We were taken to the station by coach, but had to wait quite a while for the train - it was extremely late. The station is tiny, so tiny there is no bridge between the platforms. You look both ways carefully and cross over the rails. An approaching train hooted at me rather crossly, but it was about a hundred yards away when I crossed.

The train journey of just over 3 hours is, I think, the hottest journey I have ever experienced. When we got to Zagreb, it was 37 degrees! The train wasn't air conditioned and frequently sat for long periods in the sun getting hotter and hotter. There are 6 of us in our compartment so we couldn't stretch out or even move much, and my feet swelled up like balloons.

We are extremely relieved to see an air conditioned coach meeting us at the station, and even more pleased to see our hotel. We had to wait in the coach for 10 minutes because some celebrity with lots of secret service personnel was leaving. The hotel wouldn't say who it was, but people who had the energy to look out of the window thought it might have been Christine Lagarde. It certainly looked like her.

We had time for a short rest and a cool shower before meeting for the walk to a local restaurant for dinner. The dinner was delicious but it took 3 hours, so we were very tired when we got back. And it's still 29 degrees at 10 o'clock at night!