Today, Sunday was a tourist day for me, along with MJ & Rudy Pachl. We drove to Bled, Slovenia, about 1 hour 20 minutes from Feld am See. We considered other options in Italy but the weather looked rainy or the sites were too far away.

We drove first to Bled Castle, high up on a hill overlooking Lake Bled. The castle dates from the early 11th century. First, only a Romanesque tower protected by the wall stood at the place of the current castle. The first castle was built by bishops for defensive purposes. More towers were added in the Middle Ages. A double structure is typical of the castle – the fortified main part, intended for the residence of feudal lords, and the exterior part with the walls and facilities for servants. In 1511, the castle was strongly damaged by and earthquake, but it was rebuilt to look similar as it is today. There is also a printing works (where servants’ quarters once stood) and a museum, along with a pretty little chapel built in the 16th century.

The views of the lake, surrounding mountains and Bled Island from the castle are gorgeous and the sun made intermittent appearances throughout the day, something we hadn’t seen for nearly a week!

After touring the castle and taking photos we descended to the lake level, had lunch at a cute restaurant, then walked down to the lake. We started walking along the lakeside path, which is around 6 Km (around 3.6 miles) around. Rudy stopped at one end and MJ and I continued along the path, which hugged the lake and had beautiful views, especially along the southwest side, with the island in the forefront and the castle and snow topped Alps in the distance.

After we finished and picked up Rudy we headed to Radovljica, Slovenia, a small (around 2000 inhabitants) town with a medieval center (Linhart Square) which has preserved houses from teh 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. It’s located on a promontory above the Sava river and has views of the Sava river valley and the Julian Alps. There’s also pretty church, which had lovely organ music playing as we entered it, several restaurants and some museums.

And that was our day off from tennis. Tomorrow MJ and I are going to practice, then I’m going to Villach to check into the apartment I rented there and do some shopping. The tournament doesn’t start though till Tuesday and I unfortunately don’t play till Thursday.