Europe
Slovenia
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Photographs
Places worth going
All places →Bled CastleDon't missLandmarksWorth the climb for the view rather than the castle itself. From the walls the whole lake opens out below you with the island and its church sitting almost dead centre, forested hills all the way round and, the day I was there, heavy grey cloud sitting over the top of it. It's supposed to be the oldest castle in Slovenia, first written down in 1011, though what you're really paying for is that view.Lake BledDon't missOutdoorsGo down to the shore in the evening. The lake was still enough to hold the reflection of the whole far shore, the castle up on its cliff off to one side and the island church small in the middle distance, with a thin crescent moon already up. It's the postcard and it absolutely earns it. Take a pletna out to the island if you've got a morning - they're rowed by hand, standing up - and eat a kremšnita, the cream cake the town is known for, which is far better than a tourist cake has any right to be.Predjama CastleDon't missLandmarksA properly strange thing to stand in front of. The castle is wedged right into the mouth of a cave in a grey limestone cliff, pale walls and a shingled roof under a huge overhang, and it's reckoned to be the largest cave castle in the world. The story goes that a robber baron held out a siege here for a year because a passage through the rock let him keep sneaking out for supplies. From inside, a gap in the raw rock frames the village roofs and the wet road far below.