Blogs from Ljubljana, Upper Carniola, Slovenia, Europe - page 3

How lovely to wake up to glorious sunshine and a fantastic view of Ljubljana Castle! Breakfast is great again, and I find a lovely spot in the restaurant all to myself. (Mrs Anti-social!) I am reading my Kindle and still feel a bit guilty about reading for pleasure instead of MBA and business books! Soon after breakfast I head into the Old Town. It is only a few minutes walk from the Hotel Lev. On the way I notice a large department store with a Spar in the basement. If anyone reading this decides to visit Ljubljana, I can recommend this Spar shop for all your bits and bobs. It is spacious, quiet, well laid-out and air-conditioned. And inexpensive - for example, cold bottles of water cost 40 cents. You can stock up on wine, beer, ... read more

And so to Slovenia and meeting up with Pete and Elfi (Elfi the wonderful cake maker from Olney). First stop Ljubljana, capital city of Slovenia and one which we knew very little about. On our first night we wandered into the old town to get a feel for the place, a lovely city with plenty of history. As per usual the next day we attended a walking tour of Ljubljana (definitely worth doing). It’s astounding the history of the country, a part of the former Yugoslavia. For a few months after the end of the First World War it was the centre of European politics, as the Vienna convention to redraw the political lines of Europe was held in Ljubljana. Our tour guide talked about the changes that her grandfather had seen and how he lived ... read more

When we walked out of our room, we saw that the Easter bunny had left mini chocolate eggs scattered down the hallway (as predicted by Manka). In the restaurant, a central table was filled with traditional special foods: a large knotted Easter bread, dyed and decorated hard-boiled eggs, and swiss-roll-style cakes with poppy seed and walnut-honey filling. The eggy Easter bread tasted rich and filling. Onto the buses (suitcases fully packed) by 9:00, we took enough time in Bled to see and photograph the incredibly beautiful deep-blue Lake Bled and the distant towering medieval Bled Castle that looked down on the valley from a dizzying height. On this holiday weekend, hundreds of tourists were relaxing around the lake, absorbing the spring sunshine, or energetically walking and biking ... read more

For the past two days we have been traveling to Slovenia and we have been delighted and rewarded by this wonderful country. For the first day we had pre booked tickets online to do a tour of Postojna Jama (Caves), these are amongst the largest caves in the world and the only ones where you enter via train and then walk around the caves. We found the irony of setting out on overcast day from Trieste, but within 5km of Postojna, the heavens opened up and we had no wet weather gear, not even an umbrella. So we braved it out and ran from the carpark to a Kiosk where the umbrellas were selling like hotcakes. We got to the ticketing line which indicated 30 minute waiting the line. Rose went to find someone to see ... read more

Last destination of this trip is the capital of Sloveina, Ljubljana. The weather has become very hot and it’s around 33C during the day, this means perfect blue skies but meltingly hot to be walking around a city. This is a small and attractive city with a good feel to it. It’s easy to walk around, with lots of pedestrianized areas. There’s a castle on the hill with views over the old and new towns. The old town clustered below the castle and based around 3 squares, the river and a collection of bridges. During the day it’s quite quiet and then in the evening it becomes very lively with lots of people out in the street cafes and restaurants that line the river banks. A great place to go around sunset is the Nebotičnik skyscraper ... read more