Lake Bled and Vrisic Pass

Today we drove over the Vrisic Pass (the pass I cycled up in 1986!). It's known as the 'Russian Road' as it was built by 10,000 Russian prisoners of war between 1916 and 1917 as the route was of great strategic importance to the Austro-Hungarian front. 300 prisoners and some Austrian guards died in an avalanche in the spring of 1916. The road is closed over winter and is on average open 7 months/year.

It was largely as I remembered at the top with fantastic views down the valley and to the surrounding peaks. There's a little restaurant selling goulash (which we were very grateful for after 25 hair-pin bends and a gradient of 14%). The main difference is there's now a parking attendant demanding 3 euros to park.

The cycling trip was run by a teacher from my school and involved 2 adults and 14 kids ranging in age from 10 to 21. We cycled from Calais to Yugoslavia and back again over 7 weeks during the summer of 1986. We did between 50 and 100km each day, carried all our own gear (including home made tents!) It seems quite a feat looking back at it now, especially for the teacher organising the route and logistics.

We then carried on to Lake Bled (Slovenia's number 1 tourist destination). It was very beautiful but we felt somewhat spoilt by inappropriate development and extortionate parking fees (flat rate of 5 euros). The lake water was warm as it's heated by thermal springs (tropical compared to the icey waters of the river Soca. We stopped by the rowing centre which had been home to a number of the former Yugoslavia and Slovenia's olympic medal winners. We did lots of jumping in and swimming.

Jumping in at Lake Bled

Lake Bled

View from top of Vrisic Pass

27 years on.....