Bled Castle, St Martin’s Church & Birding around Lake Bled – Serene Slovenia, Part 5

This post is a continuation of a series documenting our travels to the beautiful country of Slovenia in the European spring of 2026. We were now in Bled and spent a rainy half day walking around the picture postcard lake ( A Walk around Lake Bled in the rain – Serene Slovenia, Part 3 ) and a beautiful sunny morning walking the unique boardwalks at the Vintgar Gorge ( A sunny morning at the Vintgar Gorge – Serene Slovenia, Part 4 ).

We returned from the Gorge and had our lunch at the Megaburger place where we had eaten the previous day. After lunch we decided to go up to the Bled Castle itself taking advantage of the beautiful weather. We know by previous experience that weather can turn on a dime near the mountains & we wanted to make full use of the sunny weather we were blessed with that day.

We stopped at the St Martin’s Church at the base of the hill to finally visit the interiors of the Church whose steeple is visible from any point around the lake. The Church is over 100 years old and had beautifully painted frescoes in the interior in the Gothic styled interiors.

St Martin’s Church in Bled

Beautiful painted frescos adorn the walls of St Martin’s Church in Bled

The Church Organ at the rear and the Gothic styled Architecture of St Martin’s in Bled

Stained Glass and painted frescos make the Church a joy for Photographers

As in most Churches around Europe there was no one visiting the Church which was a surprise since the area around the lake was full of day trippers from Ljubljana by now. We were certainly not complaining and we did our church routine of sitting in the pews for a few minutes.

The better half poses in the beautiful but empty St Martin’s Church

The ornate Chandelir and relatively simple altar at the St Martin’s Church in Bled

After enjoying the quiet atmosphere of the Church we took our customary selfie and walked out into the sun and started our walk up the hill to Bled Castle.

Happy us after our visit to St Martin’s Church in Bled

As is my habit I started the uphill walk along a well marked path that was a mixture of paved trail and steps at a quick pace, leaving the photography for the walk down. The walk is not very strenuous and soon we were at the Bled Castle. We bought tickets at the ticket office (there was no online discount here and luckily no lines too!) and made our way to the middle courtyard which has sweeping views over Lake Bled and it’s centre island. The sun wasn’t perfect for photos but then you can’t always have everything! We clicked away till we were satisfied and then moved to the upper courtyard of the castle.

The views of the centre island of Lake Bled from the middle  courtyard of Bled Castle

The modern luxury hotels on the other side of the lake

The better half poses at the middle  courtyard of Bled Castle

With the Slovenian Flag and the Julian Alps in the Background

Enjoying the sunny weather up at the Bled Castle

Bled Castle is supposed to be the Oldest castle in Slovenia and a fortification in some form has existed in this location since the 10th century. The current structure is from the 16th and 17th century and as expected is one of the most visited tourist sites in Slovenia. We moved up the stairs to the upper courtyard which is surrounded by the actual buildings that make up the castle. We first took a few photos around the cobble stoned courtyard itself before turning our attention to the Chapel side corner which had lake views. When we were satisfied with the views we then visited the Castle Chapel which is the oldest of the structures at this level.

The upper courtyard of Bled Castle with the Chapel on the left

We were lucky to be at Bled Castle when it was not crowded

At the upper courtyard of the Bled Castle

The sunny upper courtyard of the Bled Castle

At the Chapel corner of the upper courtyard with best lake views

Couldn’t resist one more selfie with the lake below

The Chapel is dedicated to Sts Albuin and Ingenuin and have frescos dating back to the 17th century. The Chapel is still in use and even used for marriage ceremonies of locals till today. We paid our respects took a few photos and walked back out into the courtyard.

Bled Castle Chapel dedicated to St Albuin &St Ingenuin

17th century frescos on the ceiling of the Bled Castle Chapel

We then visited the Museum at the Castle which has a display of the history and nature of the region which we quickly walked through and stepped back out into the upper courtyard.

Getting a photo clicked with a sign that says – Blejski Grad or Bled Castle!

A near complete moose skeleton at the museum – Moose are long extinct in Slovenia

At a art exhibit in the upper courtyard of the Bled Castle

We then made our way down to the last courtyard – the lower courtyard which had a wine cellar where you can buy the local wine. We are not wine connoisseurs so we moved to the walkable section of the walls of the Bled Castle which was more our sort of thing.

The semicircular stairs leading out of the upper courtyard

Taking the stairs down to the lower courtyard of the Bled Castle – The Wall on the left

We climbed up to the walkable section of the Wall which had great views toward the Julian Alps on the other side. We walk the entire section ending at the tower which had a torture experiments exhibit (didn’t feel like clicking photos of those!) and clicked photos of the views before getting down to the lower courtyard.

Walking the walls of the Bled Castle

From the walls of the Bled Castle

Views of the countryside and the Julian Alps from the walls of the Bled Castle

The Lake, the Castle and the fluttering flags from the walls of the Bled Castle

That finished our visit of the small but memorable Castle at Bled. We made our way down the ramp and through the outer gates before going down the same way we came up – the only difference was we stopped to take photos on the way down!

One last selfie at the lower courtyard before we exit the Castle

The ramp leading to the outer gate of the Bled Castle

At the drawbridge and outer gate of the Bled Castle

The castle looms overhead as we start our walk down to Bled

Beautiful view at the initial descent from the Castle

The beautiful path up a forested hill to and from the Bled Castle

We reached back down to St Martin’s and took a few more photos of the exteriors of the church and the little square around it before making our way back to our cushy apartment at the Aparthotel Gaja.

The path ends right at the square where St Martin’s is located

St Martin’s steeple can’t be hidden even by a huge tree right in front

The sun was going down behind the hill and the castle making for some beautiful photos from the lake side so we naturally stopped to try and capture it in our photos.

The sun on it’s way down makes for great photos at Lake Bled

We stopped at Supermarket of our way back to buy some supplies since we were headed into the Labour day weekend & didn’t want to be caught out if everything was closed for the next 2 days. With supplies in tow we reached our apartment.

We hadn’t gotten the chance to enjoy the patio garden in our apartment due to the rains the previous evening. We rectified that as soon as we reached the apartment and freshened up. We wiped down the patio furniture and had a drink in the patio garden.

Enjoying a drink at the Patio garden of our apartment at the Aparthotel Gaja

Dinner that day was grilled sandwiches made in the apartment kitchen using the leftovers from breakfast and the supplies bought from the supermarket. We enjoyed our dinner at leisure in our apartment before retiring early that night. The next day we planned to take a day trip to the even more remote and beautiful Lake Bohinj if the weather stayed as good as it was today.

Enjoying dinner in the comfort of our apartment at Lake Bled

Whether we would get to Lake Bohinj is the topic for my next post however I would like to use this relatively shorter post to add my experiences birding around lake Bled. I have a habit of taking my 300 mm everywhere and especially on my morning walks when the birds are more active and there are very few people around. I am always surprised by the birds and the decent photographic opportunities I have been lucky enough to experience and it was no different in Bled.

The best photos I got was of the Chestnut bellied Nuthatch I was lucky enough to notice on my last morning walk and I stopped a while noticing it was returning to the same hole in the tree. I kept a respectable distance so as not to disturb it and noticed that it had chicks in the hollowed tree trunk that it was returning to feed. Patience rewarded me with some of the best photos of the pretty little bird which is a winter migrant back home.

Chestnut bellied Nuthatch at it’s nest in the hollowed tree trunk

A couple of small birds I always try to find in Europe are the colourful little Blue Tit and European Goldfinch. I was surprised at not spotting any till my last morning in Bled when both were kind enough to make an appearance and posed beautifully for the 300mm.

A Blue Tit poses at the shores of Lake Bled

A European Goldfinch on the lawns at Lake Bled

There are always the numerous European Blackbirds,  Song Thrushes, Chaffinch and Robins  always asking for your attention and I usually oblige them by taking a photo when one poses really close to me.

A Male European Blackbird poses for the 300mm

A female Blackbird poses for the 300mm

A song thrush poses on the lawns around the lake

A European Robin poses with it’s meal very close to the camera

A Eurasian Chaffinch foraging by the road side

Another bird which is usually a pain to photograph is the White Wagtail. A common bird around Europe and back home in India it usually flies off as soon as you train your lens on it. So I am very happy whenever an individual poses nicely for me. On this trip the wagtails were particularly kind and I got more than a few photos.

White Wagtails pose for the 300mm at Lake Bled

The 300mm is also excellent for bringing distant architectural details closer and I used it to take photos of the Castle, the steeple of St Martin’s Church and the Church on the central island when the birds were taking a break.

Bled Castle with the 300mm

The Church on the centre island at Lake Bled with the 300 mm

The steeple of St Martin’s Church in Bled with the 300mm

Last but not the least are the common waterbirds in the lake. There are always the usual Mallards and Swans in every European Lake and Bled was no different. Though there were none of my favourite European waterbirds – the Crested Grebe here I was lucky enough to get good photos of the Common Merganser and a stray Mandarin Duck that had been adopted by a family of Mallards.

All in all my early morning walks around lake Bled and the birds I spotted and photographed on my 3 days in Bled are a big part of why we decided to stay at Lake Bled for 3 days where most do a day trip. It was worth the effort and were the most enjoyable activities I did at Lake Bled.

Swans swimming gracefully around Lake Bled

Mallards on the lake and on the path around the lake

A female Common Merganser gives me some decent photos

A colourful stray Mandarin Duck makes my day at Lake Bled

After that detour through my birding walks around lake Bled I will return to my usual chronological style of blogging. Whether we would go to Lake Bohinj or get stuck in our apartment in the rain is topic for another post.

Some other time, some other day,

Till then,

Čau!