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26 April 2015 Sunday My sobe was just a hundred feet from Preseren Square, so was very convenient for touring the town. Before meeting Mike at the statue of the Slovenian poet Preseren in the square named after him, I checked out the nearby tourist information office to see when there might be a guided walking tour of Ljubljana. The tour started at ten am which gave us plenty of time for café au lait and a croissant.
We joined about eight others for the two hour tour, starting with city hall, a historic eatery, the cathedral, and a funicular to the castle. The views from the castle, as usual, were panoramic. We descended the funicular and walked back to the center of town, past the Market Hall and Triple Bridges designed by Jose Plecnic, and ending at Preseren Square. At the square our guide brought our attention the statue of Preseren, which had a topless muse hovering over him. Having a semi-naked woman in the same square as a church caused quite a scandal in its day. The priest climbed up and draped a cloth over the muse, again and again, but this didn’t solve the problem. Next the
priest planted trees between the church and the statue, hoping this would block the view. The trees are stunted so again the problem remained unsolved. Our guide told us that the model for the muse was her great aunt. Her family disowned her so she moved to Cleveland, Ohio, which apparently had more Croatian immigrants than the entire population of Ljubljana at the time. We noted that our guide had similar characteristics as her great aunt, but didn’t specify which.
After sandwiches at a café on the square we toured the rest of the town, taking in the area around Congress Square, with the university and other cultural buildings. This is a very pleasant part of town with tree lined streets and parks. We finished touring Ljubljana with dinner at the historic eatery we had visited on our tour that morning. I then said farewell to Mike who would return to the States early the next morning.
27 April 2015 Monday. I had the whole day to go shopping for Linda, but soon found out it was a holiday and all the stores were closed…I don’t think she is going to believe me. I had to
check out by 10 am, but my flight didn’t take off until 7:25 pm. So I decided to take a shuttle to the airport where hopefully I could find a electric plug adaptor and Wi Fi.
At the airport I bought an adaptor plug at the gift shop (I had borrowed Mike's until he left), and was able to charge my laptop. But soon found out the Wi Fi wasn’t strong enough to work on my laptop. I found a seat with a plug next to it, so at least I could charge my laptop battery. Soon an airport employee noticed my predicament, and suggested that I pay 20 Euros to use the Executive Lounge. I tried to, but the Adria Airlines person said that the lounge was only for those flying on their airline.
Soon the wonderful lady airport workers were taking on my case. First, they arranged for me to bypass Adria Airlines and use the Executive Lounge for free. Then they opened the ticketing gate early so I could check my bag and get my boarding pass six hours early. This allowed me to proceed through security to the Executive Lounge.
So I spent
the day in the Executive Lounge, eating strudel, croissants, and sandwiches; drinking wine, café au lait, and soft drinks; and writing the blogs for the rest of my trip up to this point in time. I suspect that this is where my laptop was infected with a virus which I got sorted out once I got home.
I watched the news which I hadn’t seen since 15 April. The news was all about the earthquake in Nepal. Back home I participated in a fundraiser for Nepal relief...a friend is from Nepal and she will take the funds to help the villagers in the area where her village is located.
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Weggs
Judy and Rags
Castle
This reminds me of our trip to this lovely historic city in 2001. That was before blogging. I remember eating horseburgers at a cafe in town. Thanks for the memories!