Well, after having a bit of time to experience the beauty of Lake Bled yesterday, it was time for us to slow down and relax a bit - basically, to have a bit of a 'holiday' from all the travelling we've been doing. Yeah, la vida dura, I know...

The two main activities of the day consisted of visiting the castle at the top of the rock face on the north side of the lake, and then doing something we hadn't done in far too long: getting in the water. It's just too bloody cold in the Galician Atlantic, despite the great beaches.

The castle itself wasn't that impressive, although it dated back about 1000 years, like the town of Bled itself. From the outside it looks far nicer from down on the lake. However, being high up above the lake it gives a magnificent view of the lake area. Of course Mari insisted we take a million photos, not that I really minded though.

After we descended down the hill and back to the lake, we stopped by the hostel to get our swimming gear before heading out again. There were lots of people by the lake, and it was a little bit crowded for our liking, so we walked for quite a while until we found a quieter spot in the northwest corner, not too far from the island. After walking on some sharp stones at the edge of the lake (which helped to forget about the chilly water), we were having a great time just relaxing in the water, swimming around with some ducks and swans. The water in the lake is some of the best I've ever swam in, it was like swimming in a giant bottle of Evian. It was cold at first but you got used to it quite quickly. Seriously, it was the bee's knees. My desire to swim to the island evaporated after a short while when I realised it was a lot further than it looked, but we stayed there until the sun began to disappear and things got a little colder.

Later on in the evening, I had a 'gypsy pizza' for dinner with a couple of local beers, thus we both retired for the day extremely satisfied.