We were off to Slovenia but ran into a small problem. We did not book our seat reservations in time, so we were unable to board the fast train from Florence to Venice. Missing this train further complicated things as we were unable to connect to the rest of our itinerary from Venice. It was recommended at the station to take “local trains” (e.g. slow trains) to Venice and then improvise from there. So, this was our revised train schedule – Firenze S.M.N to Prato Centrale (15 minutes); Prato Centrale to Bologna Centrale (30 minutes); Bologna Centrale to Venezia Mestre (2 hours).
We arrived in Venice about 11am and reviewed our options. Nancy wanted to take the first train out of Venice to get us closer to our ultimate destination, so we boarded a train from Venice Mestre to Udine (90 minutes). While on this train I determined (with my pal Google) we could save a lot of time by getting to the station in Gorizia, Italy which is very near the station in Nova Gorica, Slovenia and take a taxi to drive us the 5 km separating them. With this “improvised” plan in place, here is how we eventually got to our destination – Udine to Gorizia Centrale, Italy (30 minutes); taxi to Nova Gorica, Slovenia (10 minutes); Nova Gorica to Bled Jezero (2 hours).
It was an adventurous day, not the day we had originally planned, but we still got to Bled about the same time as our original itinerary.
Lake Bled
Amazingly beautiful. You can walk around the entire lake; the distance is about 4 miles. There are also hiking trails into the hills surrounding the lake for panoramic views.
Vintgar Gorge
Just a short van ride from Lake Bled is the Vintgar Gorge. A very nice, maintained trail along the rushing river with waterfalls.
