the best place in Bled to eat.. Radovlica!!
This is one of our most popular tips for our guests visiting the uberstunning lake Bled (60 mins from the Lodge)..
The best place to eat in Bled is NOT in Bled!.. it's actually in a pretty little medieval town just down the road which we sometimes call Radiator, as it's very difficult to say Radovlica correctly..
The locals actually shorten Radovlica to Radolca, which is great for them, but not for the rest of the world, who don't know that the C at the end of it is a HARD C, so you say it like the sa of salsa.. now say Radolca (Radolsa).. yep you got it!
Now you need to please start humming the Dire Straits song, "you're so far away from me" and when you get to the "your'e so far away" bit... add in "from Bled" and this is all you need to remember about Radolca being a great place to eat after a hectic day in lake paradise! (for young people who don't know who Dire Straits are, please get some music education or ask an old crumbly person, or of course gurgle it)
So to be clear, yes Radolca is just down the road from Bled, but in atmosphere, mood and character it is a million miles away!
And also to be very clear, there are some very nice places in Bled to eat, there is a really good local place in the old town centre and the castle does great food with a great view, but our point in recommending Radolca is to enjoy the hustle & bustle and magic of the lake and then leave it all behind for a nice quiet time in nearby Radolca old town.
But we are being very unfair to Radolca if you think it is just a place to go to avoid Bled as we would recommend you visit this beautiful little medieval town on it's own terms, wherever it was located in Slovenia.. it's a lovely secret place!
BREAKING NEWS: Since we wrote this article, Radolca has added a fantastic CHOCOLATE shop to it's offer, where you can taste it, buy it and even make it! We look forward to confirming it as the best place for choccy in the land!
And if that wasn't enough, a new Michellin star restaurant has also opened up in the town, further expanding the sensational choice for eating you have here compared some to other maybe better known places we won't mention!!
The first nut to crack is parking.. easy, just find the bus station in the centre de la ville and OPPOSITE here is a big free car park.. lovely job.
The new town is not where you are heading, you are going for the old town, "Staro Mesto" cos that is where all the fun and culture is! So walk through the back of the car park just 5 mins towards a really nice park and at the end of the park you can cut into the old town. (Don't try to park by the old town itself, it's too small anyway and restricted, quite rightly, for the local residents).
The old town is pretty much a long pedestrianised street with a cul de sac at the end containing a very nice church with a tall spire.. (imagine this place at Xmas time, summer folks). As you walk into the high street the atmosphere changes and you are transported into a cobbled alley of Slovenian history & culture, with lovely little cafes and restaurants avilable for you to relax after your day at the lake.
But see the beautiful houses all along this main street. look up and you will see lots of big paintings.. these are not just any old paintings, they are 500 year old frescoes and there are lots of them.. wow. These incredible pieces of artwork were generally commissioned by the occupants to keep evil spirits out, some are faded, some are restored, just enjoy!
We really love Radolca and you can easily notice a different, more relaxed spirit here in the local people.. the local TIC (tourist info office) is more like a little shop and stocked full of local goodies and souvenirs.. on our first travels around Green Slovenia many years ago this was always one of the first TIC's to really grasp what YOU the visitor wants and we congrtulate them for their continued innovtion!
Recently opened at the end of the high street, direction church with big spire, is a Chemist micro museum, stuffed full of bottles of ancient remedies and medicine counters, just waiting for your visit. There is a little alley next to this new museum which you must go down to see the Alpine viewing platform with views back to Bled and Slovenia's highest mountain, Triglav, 2,864m.
And back at the start of the high street, as you enter the pedestrianised zone you can see a small road going steeply down.. take the time to tread the cobbles and you will appear under the main high street! You are now standing in the last remaining bit of the medieval moat and this is history folks.. the moat helped protect the town against Ottoman attacks and you can get a fab understanding of where the ancient town wall spread around the town from here.
There's more.. the town organises live music every Thursday night in the summer and hosts a chocolate festival.. yes a CHOCOLATE FESTIVAL usually every April. In fact there is a Gorenjka chocolate factory just outside the town with a "factory shop".. it's quite tiddly, but you can get all sorts of hunks of slightly spoiled, but perfectly good Slovenian made choccy at fab prices!
It is VERY difficult to just find where it is on the web, so type Zito maloprodaja Lesce into google maps and follow from Radolca to the nearby village of Lesce, where you will find the factory and the little shop outside, next to the car park! Good luck choccy fans, don't go expecting Willy Wonka and Oopalumpas, but do expect probably the largest section of Slovenian made choccy in one place!
And last but not least, our fave place in Radovlica is the spookily named Lectars restaurant in the middle of the high street. The resturant is fantastic, with a huge choice of local cuisine, but please take the time to have a wander around as each antique part of the restaurant is unique and decorated in a different traditional way.. there is a black kitchen area, a terrace with stunning views out to the mountains, a harmonica player, a cosy cafe area and a basement where they still make gingerbread!
Did we mention gingerbread! Oh yes, they started making gingerbread down here in the cellar hundreds of years before Americans invented the cheeseburger and you can see here how they make it, crack your tooth on a sample and buy a love heart or another sweet souvenir for your granny, but generally be blown away by the tradition and colour of it all.. fantastic!
The cellar is yet another one of those special places here where you have a powerful feeling of being in Europe, but then you have to pinch yourself to remind yourself you are in little old Slovenia!
Radolca, go visit and please give yourself enough time for a nice bite to eat and a good look around, it's well worth it!
French Connection en Slovenie
