Gorgeous Vintgar Gorge

It was a busy day. After the beau village Radovjlica and the Apiary Museum, we hiked Vintgar Gorge. The latter is a mile-long defile created by the river Radovna through the limestone that is everywhere in the region, creating a gorgeous little gorge that you can hike along on a system of boardwalks and bridges. As elsewhere in the region, the water is completely clear and the colors are beautiful and ever-changing.

The river Radovna before it gets to its gorge

In the Triglav National Park

The whole thing is ticketed, with imposing gates...but no
one ever took our tickets nor asked for them

And we're off

The lay of the strata certainly contributes to the gorge's shape

Vicki surveying the scene

The thing about gorges is that the lighting is seldom just right

Along the way, part of a cairn city

Dam near the end of the trail

Nearly in the mountains

Looking down a waterfall at the end of the trail

Strata

Rhinemaidens--no, Radovnamaidens--they weren't speaking German so I didn't
ask them anything about a golden ring; also they were not singing; "Waft your
waves, ye waters! Carry your crests to the cradle!"

Actual fish

Cool place; especially on a hot day!

Radovljica's Apiary Museum

As if the location, ambiance, architecture, history, shoppes, scenery and views were not enough, Radovljica also has the world's only known (to me) apicultural museum. Much as I personally dislike bees and their stinging ways, I readily concede their nearly paramount importance in helping propagate much of life as we know it on this planet. Beekeeping is the principal cottage industry in Croatia, Boznia-Hertzegovina, and Slovenia, as we've seen in previous posts, and it has a long history. So we have been building up to this. Plus the beehive front boards--a whole room of them--are a hoot. And I like honey and especially the honey brandy I bought in Ljubljana. Thus, for all these and many more reasons, we had to see the Apiary Museum in Radovljica. Also, personal hero Sir Ed from New Zealand was also a bee keeper.

The adjoining city museum also had an exhibit on local boy and Englightenment
figure Anton Linhart

There were many rooms depicting the history of bee keeping, the evolution of
various implements, etc.

Bee hive "guards" (against what? I ask)

The painted front boards are the main draw for most people; from the later 18th
onward, bee keepers did these painted boards on the assumption they would
help the bees more easily find their way home; who knows? Producing replicas
for the souvenir shoppes of Ljubljana is certainly a secondary industry

Many are on religious themes

Some maybe multicultural themes

Flood?

Some satirical if repugnant

A winter scene...BORING! Let's get back to the funny stuff

One of the more elaborate bee hives

"Stop, thief!"

Little Big Horn?

Benefits of not drinking?

De-heading battle scene

Funeral procession for a hunter

Apparently the bees really like violent scenes

Another religious scene

Other implements

Actual working beehive in the museum

Bee tunnel to the hive

Useful information you probably already know but which is here to show the
museum's excellent interpretive signage, and in English too

Further rooms, further  interesting displays, although not as interesting at the
front boards

Ceiling of one of the rooms

Radovljica

Just a few miles away from Lake Bled is the beau village of Radovljica, whose main street features a variety of old, interesting buildings, including (next post) the old palace and its very famous apiary museum. As beaux villages go, I would rate this one fairly highly, certainly better than most of the beaux villages I have seen in, e.g., France).

Sculpure at the begining of main street; a patisserie or candy store perhaps nearby

Many if not most of the old buildings--dating from late Renaissance--sported
paintings like this, above their entrances

Or maybe the whole building was thus adorned

Dining room in the House of Lectar, a restaurant/museum

From the museum of gingerbread cookies

The old palace, mansion, whatever; sooooo Austrian

With its own funny faces

Radovljica sits on a promontory overlooking two valleys, with the Julian Alps
in the background; the big mountain, which stayed behind the clouds that day,
is on the left, Triglav

We'd get some great views of Triglav the next day

More house paintings

As we approached the end of main street, the happy and loud
screams of many children became audible, including, very
surprisingly, war hoops

It was part of a summer camp, maybe a hundred kids, dressed appropriately--
feathers, war paint, etc.--running around; this was their tipi

I generally avoid pix of kids, but one of the camp counselors consented to be
pictured: she was as amused to see Americans here, especially from Montana, as
we were to see Indians...

Inside the church

The painting on the ceiling and walls was impressive

Elsewhere in the town, a long panel of posters depicting the
history of Radovlica, from late Medieval...

To the 19th century; have to love self-regarding institutions

To be added: a couple pix concerning Anton Linhart, the Enlightenment thinker who first produced the first Slovenian literature and who wrote the first history of the Slovenian people; a Radovljica native