Bled, Slovenia

Bled is a town of about 8,000 people in the Julian Alps of Slovenia, set around a glacial lake that covers 2.1 square kilometers. On the lake sits Bled Island, the only natural island in the country, where a 17th-century baroque church rises above a 52-meter staircase of 98 wooden steps leading to a wishing bell. Above the water, the roughly 1,000-year-old Bled Castle stands on a cliff 130 meters high. In 1953 the Park Hotel first baked the cream-custard cake kremna rezina here. A short climb reveals why this shoreline has drawn visitors for centuries.