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We left Ljubljana this morning and headed for Lake Bled - a lake made famous for its magical healing properties and turn of the century vegetarian nudist colonies. First up to Bled castle where we had a panaramic of the lake, island of the Holy Mother, and surrounding mountains. Then back down to the shoreline where we caught a boat (rowing only please... and only by families granted permission by the queen in lieu of paying taxes) out to the only Island in Slovenia. This island had once been the site of some serious pagan fertile goddess worship but was then co-opted by the Catholic Church and turned into a Church dedicated to the Virgin Mary.. Made a wish and rung the special bell and hopped back on the boat to make our thirty minute journey to the shore as a squall kicked up.
Found a restaurant and between the two of us, had trout, risotto, a caprese salad, and mushroom soup. After lunch, we headed to Bovec after briefly dodging into Italy and winding our way up and down sometimes impossibly narrow roads through the Alps. Fortunately/unfortunately the mountains were encased in a great thunder storm which was fun to watch and listen to, but made it difficult to appreciate the view, Stopped off at Planica to see the world class ski jumps and Nordic center and wound our way down through the valley which would claim the lives of over 1.2 million soldiers during WWI.
More trout for dinner along with some local delicacies - like sheep's cheese and lard on bread - and now we are winding down and ready for another great day tomorrow as we cross into Croatia.
- comments
Dan Kingsbury According to Wikipedia (which is somewhat vague in its language), there were 1.2M "casualties" in the WWI battles, which usually refers to both dead and injured.
Dawn Yes, the casualty rates during this time are hard to pin down. For instance, the Russian prisoners of war used to construct roads over the mountains were not even recorded as to casualty rates. The estimates I have seen from this region conservatively say 1.2 million - from both the Australian-Hungarian and e Italian sides. You are right though, I was imprecise in saying deaths - that was a casualty estimate for that front. 11 million deaths total in the war however - not 1.2 million in WWI battles as you wrote.
Dan Kingsbury Re the 1.2M casualties, I was quoting from the Wikipedia entry for the 12 battles in this area, not for the entire of WWI.
Dawn Yes, I understand. Imprecise laguauge can be confusing.