14 September ’04, Tuesday. The directions were to head down the lake to the rowing club, then take a left up to the road, right on the road and follow it to “Vintgar Gorge….Right…well, we did…maybe…anyway, we didn’t get lost, but we certainly took a longer route. It was to be about a 5km walk, but it ended up to be much more by the time we arrived at the “Gorje”. And then, they made me pay to get in…. and then it was another 5km walk (I couldn’t get off the trail to get “lost”)…and Louise then told me we were going to walk another 20 minutes straight up hill to St. Catherine’s monastery and then….walk all the way back to Bled. Now let me tell you, I am in good shape and walk a lot, but I had to take some ibuprofen to get to sleep. ( All kidding aside, as we first looked down into the small river flowing through the gorge, we couldn’t believe our eyes. The water was so clear, that it almost looked like there wasn’t any water in “the river”. You looked right through this beautiful clear blue water and you could see every pebble of sand and every fish.) Oh yes, I forgot to mention, we decided to take a “pletna” (a large gondola) to the island to visit the church. We had a wonderful oarsman that took us across….very romantic (but I was still hurting from the walk). When we got to the dock on the island, we saw in front of us the most horrifying site…STAIRS, and they are STRAIGHT UP !!! Just putting one leg up, and following that one more time, we made it….not much talking going on between us, but we made it. One of the reasons for the visit to this church, was the opportunity to ring the tower bell. It’s said “That All Who Ring The Bell Will Get Their Wishes Granted”….that was enough for me….I pulled and pulled…nothing…I did it again….nothing….a young “brat” climbed the rope and finally the bell rang. I immediately jumped on the rope and got the bell to ring….we’ll see about the wish. Half stumbling down the stairs, we climbed back into the pletna and our oarsman took us over to the campground and my “easy chair”. Bled is a great destination for the traveler. You could spend a complete summer on the shores of this “perfect” lake. The water color is a light blue green, you can see the rocks and sand many feet below you, and you can enjoy the many fish as they swim all around you at many depths….absolutely wonderful !!! I forgot to mention the water temp….nice… Tomorrow….Ljubljana