Ljubljana - Jewel of Slovenia

When you travel Europe by train, you get to see people's homes, little towns, and in the country, people's backyards and veggie patches as well. Travelling from Budapest through to Ljubljana, through the poorer areas of the countryside, we reflected on the real definition of "wealth" and "happiness."  It  does not matter if you have a newer home or one that obviously needs renovation. The important thing is that it is your home, and that it will protect you and your family from the bitter winter snows.

It's your summer harvest and your successful crops of cabbages and other vegetables, that will be preserved to feed the family over the long harsh winter. It is the capacity of your woodshed - that is already filled with enough wood to keep everyone cosy and warm, and finally, it is the dozen chooks out the back, and especially the fattening pig that will supply everything you need to take care of your family.  And, having all that, it is sitting out in the sunshine, enjoying your home, and knowing that everyone in it is safe and healthy! What more do we need? We would do well to remember that in the "lucky" countries of the world.

Our hotel here was one of the unusual ones. It was in a shopping mall, and right next to the town's major hospital. We thought we would be up all night with ambulance sirens - but we never heard a one! I must say, they had good taste in beverages, too!

Check out the brand name of this water!

We both loved Ljubljana; it was small, only 200,000 people, and very cute. A bit like a country town really.  Lots of little cobble stoned streets full of quaint shops - and can you believe it - the middle of the town has three bridges! We were wondering why, because they are all next to each other. Then of course, it dawned on us - the centre ones were for the horses and the two side ones were one-way for pedestrians.

The central bridge of the 3 bridges, and there are narrower ones on each side of it.

The bridges all connect to the huge plaza that has, like Zagreb, about 7 streets coming from it and it is certainly the main centre of the town.  As such, there are many shops, restaurants, and a good opportunity for all kinds of buskers to perform their own particular talents to the passing public.  Bob likes to watch the buskers, so I sat on one of the benches nearby. A man came to sit next to me and we started to chat. Nice, local bloke.

This guy was incredible! He played...err...nothing! 

If you can see (picture above), this busker has nothing in his hands. One hand was patting a lever on the left, and with his right hand he was pretending to play a violin out of thin air!  And he was producing music! He even played requests from the public!  It did my head in.  Bob was watching for ages, and he reckons that the device was producing sound waves, and the man's hand going up and down was interfering and bending the sound waves, thus creating the violin type scales creating the music. Amazing!

We found that the market was on, and of course, we had to go and see what they had. The markets were a mixture of fruit & veg under nice umbrellas in the square, but the jewellery and other handcrafts, as well as the cafes and ice cream places, were in these long roman columned corridors that went for about a kilometre.

Handcrafts at the market.

Cafe's, bars, and eateries of all kinds at the Roman Columns...fruit &veg on the other side.

Ljubljana has a wonderful Medieval Castle, but guess what? It's on top of the "mountain" on that side of the river.  I knew I couldn't walk it, and Bob didn't want to walk it - but, like in Zagreb, we wondered how people of...errr... a certain age, or capability level, could see these wonderful sights, when there was no HOHO Bus? There had to be a way. And there was! We stumbled on it by accident; the Tourist Information people didn't tell us. There was a little "train"! The train did a trip up there every hour - and up we went and spent a lovely time exploring the ancient Castle.

Here's the little train that could - and did! The trip took 20 minutes up the hill to the Castle.

On the way down - after exploring the Castle.

The castle was really interesting. Obviously medieval, with some restoration work going on. We spent a good few hours exploring the various areas, and imagining life in those times.

Approaching the Castle

Bob walking across the deep moat, and through the gates.

I was interested in the"Jail." The last cell had a peephole and when you looked inside, there was a face looking back at you. I got such a fright! It was a clever holographic movie of the different people who occupied that cell. Complete with screaming, crying, and pleading. I didn't like it.

Row of old jail cells.

Look in there and see the poor souls who spent their time in this cell.

While Bob was more interested in how they crafted their wheels...in one piece!

We were both fascinated by the Chapel. It was small, but had a very reverent feel about it. It also had frescoes of the shields of the rulers of the castle through the ages. The earliest one we could find was 1105. It's amazing that a civilisation was living, creating and inventing in those early years.

These frescoes of the rulers crests and dates, were all around the church, several high.
Hundreds of them.

Otherwise, it was a simple undecorated place of worship, so all the attention was on these crests.  The Castle was huge, as you would expect, and the exhibits, age and structure, fascinating. The only thing that brought us out of our reverie of times gone by, were the souvenir shops and restaurants.

To raise funds for further restoration and maintenance of the Castle, they hire it out for weddings, conferences, etc. and of course, go after every tourist dollar in every way. I know that everyone does it everywhere, but it is a bit of a shame, as it brings you back to reality quite suddenly when you have just climbed ancient steps from the dungeon!

By the time we returned to the main square, there were new buskers on the bridges...and we were both mesmerised by these two dodgy looking blokes that played an 17th century type baby grand piano case,  with strings like a zither,  and played with brass "drumsticks" wound with what looked like dental floss! There you go - see if you can make any sense of that! But, could those boys play that thing! They were just fabulous! They played pieces that were either traditional old pieces, or music of their own - either way, everyone in the crowd around them enjoyed them immensely. 

I asked the boys what their instruments were, and they said "17th Century Plavlgmvdvcg"

No idea! So if any of you musical historians know what these are, we'd love to know.

Being a woman, and able to do two things at once,  I noticed a couple of green golf carts with people aboard go slowly by, and wondered what they were. So we asked at our hotel reception...no idea....asked at Tourist Information...no idea. The next day, when we saw one, I went up to the driver

and said: "What's the go with the green golfy, mate?" (In Serbian, of course).

He proceeds to tell me that they are courtesy transport provided and paid for by the City Council. The drivers provide free transport to senior citizens, or people with a disability, who need a lift home or shopping, or if they live in the steeper parts - that's why they have to be small, to fit in the little old cobble stoned streets. Apparently, it also applies to tourists, so he says "Hop in, where do you want to go?" 

We told him we were looking for breakfast, and he said he knew just the place - and took us through lovely little streets, telling us about the history of the sites we passed, and finally dropped us off at this restaurant. He told us that this was the only restaurant where most of the staff had an intellectual disability, and he liked to bring people here to support them. We thought "what a nice man", and then he told us that when we finished our meal, the staff would ring him and he would come back to pick us up, and give us a 20 minute tour of the town! Definitely a nice man. 

We had a lovely breakfast, with a waiter and waitress who shared the service.  A very inspirational experience. And after that, we got our tour in the "Golf Buggy," and were dropped back at the square. Put a smile on our faces for the rest of our day!

The little green "Golfie," what a great idea!

We spent most of our time in Ljubljana, around the three bridges square. There was so much to explore...and who thought painting a church bright pink was a good idea? But there, it just worked!

The pink church on one of the corners of the square.

This statue is in the square directly in front of the
three bridges. I sat here listening to those boys play!

It was great to see so many people utilising the space - there were lots of eateries and shops, and of course, statues.
We had been getting to the square by walking down cute little streets, with interesting little shops.

They were for pedestrians only..except for push bikes, and we nearly came a cropper several times, when they suddenly whizzed by from behind us.

Bob and I really loved Ljubljana. We decided it was our favourite city, but then there was Innsbruck, Interlaken, Berne etc. They were all wonderful, so really, it's too hard to chose just one!!

It was time to move on...so far on our European journey, I have been able to speak the language in every country - except Hungary - but that ends right here.  
We have decided to go to Trieste, Italy - a little coastal town that's a bit "out of the way" for tourists. Everyone goes to Venice, and we will too, but we thought it would be nice to go a little "off the beaten track" for a few days and check it out.

Till next time...