Water Adventures: Dubrovnik and Bled

Hi Everyone!  We're taking advantage of a rainy evening to upload some pictures.  The computer we're using is very slow, and these took about 30 minutes.  The first four pictures are from our kayaking adventure in Dubrovnik.  It was a three hour tour (ring any bells??) from Dubrovnik, around the island of Lokrum (great legend about how the monks used to live on the island until some rich aristocratic took it, and the monks cursed it by burning candles upside down and walking around the island a specific number of times.  The aristocrat ended up dying mysteriously, his wife went insane, and several of his decendants met their ends in bad ways.)  From the island of Lokrum, we paddled to a really cool cave, which you can see in the picture with Eric. There was a beach in the cave, and we had lunch, then snorkeled for awhile. On the way back to Dubrovnik, we were treated with incredible views of the walls surrounding Old Town.  We loved this experience.  Today, we had an equally delightful time.  Taking advantageof a break in the heat, we hiked up to Bled Castle.  That's right, we hiked to the top of that very steep cliff way above the lake.  It actually wasn't a bad hike, there was a sign saying that it was a 15 minute hike, which was accurate, and there were about 300 stairs to get to the bottom of the castle.  Then we had another steep walk to get into the castle.  But we were rewarded with breathtaking views of the region and had a fun time exploring the castle.(Those pictures are on the other camera and we'll have to upload them some other time).  Eric spent seven and a half years of his childhood in Germany and England, and fondly remembers exploring old castles.  He still loves this, so we visit the castles we come upon.  I've grown to enjoy this as well.  After our castle explorations, we enjoyed a leisurely lunch and Eric decided it would be romantic to rent a row boat and row out to the church in the middle of the lake.  Unfortunately, storm clouds had blown in, and we weren't sure whether to go or not.  Of course the man renting the boats saw this as an opportunity to make some money, when probably no one else would rent a boat, so he encouraged us to go.  We decided, "Eh, what the heck? Let's go," and off we went.  And as Eric rowed us out, the rain began to fall.  Thankfully, the real downpour didn't happen until we were at the island, so we were able to take refuge in the little church.  There is a legend about this church.  The aristocrat who lived in Bled Castle died, and his wife was very sad.  So she took all of her money and used it to buy a bell for the church.  As the bell was being rowed out to the church, a terrible storm arose, causing the boat and bell (and sailor) to sink.  (I did not learn about this legend until we were actually at the church!) She ended up dying from grief, but the Pope was touched by her devotion and had another bell sent to the church.  Today, anyone visiting the church can ring the bell, which we did.  When the rain slowed down, Eric rowed us back, and we were treated to a very beautiful rainbow.  We walked back to our hotel and made it just before the really heavy rain started to fall.  I forgot to mention that after we left the castle, we stopped to try a very famous local dessert, know as Bled cake, or cream cake.  We thought it was OK, were glad that we tried it, but probably wouldn't get it again.  Still, it was fun to try.  That's about it for now.  Hope everyone is doing well!