The Blue House, next to the town bridge, is Grade 1 listed; it was formerly the Bluecoat School and Almshouses, named after the colour of the school uniforms. Built in 1726 at a cost of £1,401 8s 9d, it replaced an almshouse dating from 1461 and rebuilt in 1621. The Blue House provided a home for twenty widows and schooling for twenty boys.
The front of the building is adorned by two statues, of a man and a woman, indicating the building’s dual purpose. The building’s role as a school came to an end in 1921 and it now provides studio and one-bedroom flats for seventeen elderly residents. Wikipedia
The Italianate building was built as a Literary and Scientific Institute in 1865 for John Sinkins. The architect was J Hine and it was built by the company Carr and Pickford. It is a Grade II listed building. It houses a collection of local history and has a particular important collection of artefacts from the bronze foundry of J.W.Singer. A Cockey lamp is on show, with its art nouveau style; more than 60 can still be seen around the town. (Edward Cockey (1781–1860) was an industrial entrepreneur in Frome, Somerset, England, descended from a local family of metalworkers.) Wikipedia
Back in 2013 I wrote about a trip to Slovenia and the picturesque town of Bled. A place I actually wouldn’t mind revisiting if only for another wonderful Bled Cake!
A Quiet Corner in Slovenia
Bled and its perfectly formed lake located in the Julian Alps is in the Gorenjska region of Slovenia, not far from the Austrian and Italian borders. A lake just the right size for a comfortable stroll around its shores with spectacular views from all sides. We found ourselves there for a week in June 2012 when my OH attended a conference. Not far from the airport it was a quick transfer to the Hotel Golf, an ugly sugar-cube building above the lakeside, which had pluses and minuses.
The plus was a lakeside room with wonderful panoramic views. The minuses included no air-con, a steep climb back to the hotel from the lakeside, poor breakfasts and a noisy bar close-by where the natural amphitheatre of the lake basin amplified the sound.
Lake Bled
Pletna Boat
A large brood
The 6 km trail around the lake is long enough to take in the views of the island with the Church of the Assumption which demands a climb up the 99 stone-step staircase; visitors should ring the bell for good luck, and a local tradition at weddings is for the groom to carry his bride up these steps. Behind the island the background is of the Karavanke mountains. The castle is perched on the high limestone mass at the north of the lake and you will see the colourful traditional Pletna boats and boatmen who will row you over to the island; swans, ducks and fish swim in glacial waters so clear you can see the bottom. There are convenient benches for you to rest and absorb the beauty surrounding you.
Relax
Silver fishes
Island and Church
Pletna Boats
The Ninety-nine Steps
Sv Martin Church
The lakeside town is charming and popular with lovely cobbled streets in the old town, plentiful lakeside restaurants serving the famous Bled cake (kremna rezina), a delicious custard and cream confection, and the lovely neo-gothic St Martin’s Church below the Castle. The castle can be reached up a steep route from the Castle beach, or slightly less tortuous routes by road from behind the Bledec hostel. The castle offers magnificent views and is an interesting medieval fortress, well worth the effort of getting there.
Bled Castle
Castle details
View east from the castle
When you are tired of the scenery around the lake you can visit Vintgar Gorge, 4 km north-west of Bled. A public bus will get you there and back. The 1.6 km gorge carves its way through vertical rocks and you alternate between paths and boardwalks alongside the River Radovna and its waterfalls, pools and rapids crossing over wooden bridges. It is a lovely cool place to visit on a hot day.
The Triglav National Park covers almost the entire Julian Alps and offers a completely different experience. Majestic mountains, steep gorges, clear mountain streams and traditional farms. Take an exhilarating and spectacular drive up the hairpin bends of the Russian Road to the Vršič Pass which is on the border with Italy.
Triglav National Park
Not only is it special for the views and scenery, but there is a history behind its existence. It was built by Russian prisoners-of-war in 1915 and because the road had to be kept open all year round, prisoners were kept in camps to shovel off the snow. In 1916 an avalanche buried one of these camps killing around 400 prisoners and 10 guards. There is a small cemetery near hairpin 4 and a beautiful Russian Orthodox Chapel on the site of the camp at hairpin 8.
Hotel on route
Russian Road Info
Restaurant
Vrsic pass
Heading down the pass
Triglav National Park
This post is a contribution to Fandango’s Flashback Friday. Have you got a post you wrote in the past on this particular day? The world might be glad to see it – either for the first time – or again if they’re long-time loyal readers.
This is a fairly recent post from 2019 about the place where I live in response to a Lens-Artists’ challenge about the word ‘Magical’ posted on my Cornish blog – Cornwall in Colours
My Magical Place
Summer already seems long ago; the year has swiftly embraced autumn. The light is subtly different now. The sun is lower in the sky and shadows are longer and hard-edged. There is warmth in a sheltered spot, but an underlying chill lies in the air like a harbinger of winter.
The country lanes are no less interesting with the hips and haws and berries, wild flowers turning to seed; the bracken copper brown. On a clear day Trencrom hill still affords the most wonderful views to the Celtic Sea in the west and Mount’s Bay in the south.
Last week’s “micro harvest moon” (so named because it is the smallest it has been for a while on account of being at its furthest point in its orbit around the earth) appeared tiny and bright in our cloudless sky. So bright it kept waking me up during the night as it rose around sunset and set at sunrise. By early morning it had changed from being silvery white to golden yellow before sinking behind Trink hill. At the same time I saw the most wonderful saffron sky at dawn on my early morning trip to the bathroom and once again chastised myself for not yet having gone up onto ‘my’ hill to see the sun rise. In contrast the evening skies have been glowing red and orange and purple or more subtle peach and lilac. My favourite time of the year for sky watching is here. From my magical place. Home.
This post is a contribution to Fandango’s Flashback Friday. Have you got a post you wrote in the past on this particular day? The world might be glad to see it – either for the first time – or again if they’re long-time loyal readers.
World Photography Day is an annual, worldwide celebration of the art, craft, science and history of photography. And this year it is the 19th August.
Lacock Abbey
I thought I’d share some photos of Lacock Abbey once home to William Henry Fox Talbot, polymath and pioneer of Victorian photography, who moved to Lacock Abbey in 1827 and created the earliest surviving photographic negative in 1835, taken of a small window in the Abbey’s South Gallery. Not much bigger than a stamp!
Clock Tower
Cloisters
Cloisters
Cloisters
Cloisters
When we visited in late May only part of the building was open, including the north cloisters. I do like a cloister though this one is quite small and the light was challenging.
The Blue House, next to the town bridge, is Grade 1 listed; it was formerly the Bluecoat School and Almshouses, named after the colour of the school uniforms. Built in 1726 at a cost of £1,401 8s 9d, it replaced an almshouse dating from 1461 and rebuilt in 1621. The Blue House provided a home for twenty widows and schooling for twenty boys.
The front of the building is adorned by two statues, of a man and a woman, indicating the building’s dual purpose. The building’s role as a school came to an end in 1921 and it now provides studio and one-bedroom flats for seventeen elderly residents. Wikipedia
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