Ljubljana, Slovenia
When I booked the room, I was asked "Is it ok if it has windows in the ceiling?", I of course think Skylights, sure, that's fine. After we check in we find out that the shoebox shaped room actually only has 2 windows in the ceiling... very odd, very hot. There is a temperature control, but nowhere beyond the opening skylights is there a vent that might spew cool air, except a small fan.
The view from our room
After opening the "windows" and turning on the fan, we head out to the streets of Ljubljana.
From our room, we wander along the river, and into Preseren Square. It is the center point for the city, containing many highlights of the city; the reddish pink Fransiskanska Cerkev (Fransiscan Church of the Annunciation), the France Preseren monument, which is a statue of the poet with his muse above him. Apparently the church wasn't so happy with the inclusion of the scantily clad muse. The other oddity in this square is a rigged up shower system, that creates a 20 foot circle where it always rains, with a sign that says "The area with Ljubljana's own Weather".
From Preseren square you can go in numerous directions, and you realize that this city is based on the Ljubljanica river, highlighted by some beautiful bridges. The first is the famous Tromostovje (Triple bridge), called that because of the extra 2 spans on either side of the main bridge. It creates a very unique look with it's many bridge rails, but nothing like the image of the Zmajski Most (Dragon Bridge). The 4 dragons of this bridge are amazing to see, Norine thinks I may have taken too many pictures of them, but they are very cool, and have become the symbol of Ljubljana.
Crossing to the other side of the Ljubljanica river we wander through the Trznica (Market) area and into the courtyard of the Cathedral of St. Nicholas. Even it's gothic doors are historic.
As you wander into the Mestni trg (Town Square) the first site that strikes you is the beautiful Fountain of the Carniolan Rivers, covered in white marble statues, it stands out in the Stari Mestni (old town). We check out the town hall, and start to get the growlies.
Throughout Ljubljana's river area is a wide assortment of restaurants, although we might be a little early for dinner, we find a nice street restaurant in the old town, with English menus! Turns out our waiter worked out of Vancouver on the cruise ships, great service, and a great meal, even if the non-alcoholic drinks are in these tiny .2 litre bottles.
After dinner we wandered around more of the city, taking in some old buildings and churches, and ended up at a park by our hotel. There was a group of teens, all with Violins and other instruments practicing in the park, and a large stage setup in the middle. We grab a seat as they are heading to the stage for a sound check. Apparently we arrived just in time for "etno-histeria", a youth concert consisting of teens from around Europe (Belgium, Sweden, Denmark, England, Estonia, Macedonia, Austria, Italy), traveling country to country and playing each others traditional folk songs.
With practically front row seats we are entertained with Jigs, Polkas, and an amazing assortment of other traditional music and dance. We are also entertained by a couple drunk guys/bums dancing and stumbling near the front of the stage, everyone had a great time for the almost 2 hours they played, everyone except the 2 local accordion street musicians that were denied a chance to play with them.
The next morning we wake up at 7... Church bells are ringing, doors are slamming, luckily, the open "windows" and fan have cooled the room down to a bearable temperature. Our first stop is the laundry across the lane, we figure it's a laundromat, turns out it's a laundry drop... 1 kilo €20. SWEET! With all this bonus laundry free time, we go have our free breakfast, and head for the Ljubljana Castle.
From almost anywhere in the city, you can see the castle on the hill. We could walk up the roadways or trails, but it's much easier to take the funicular to the top.
After wandering the grounds of the castle and exploring the walls and catacombs of the castle, it's up a winding staircase, and we are on the top of the tower overlooking the city of Ljubljana, and right there on the flagpole, a Canadian flag. Here I thought we just built the Canadarm.
It's a beautiful castle restored very well, but always you are reminded of the dangers 8-)
We worked our way back down the narrow winding streets into the town and walked to Rimski Zid, an ancient roman wall laid by Emperor Augustus in AD 14. The wall runs a couple city blocks with a park beside it, centered by an impressive pyramid style gate.
A short walk from the roman walls is Tivoli park... along the way we pass historically unique buildings; including the gothic style American embassy, and a unique looking synagogue.
The walkway leading to the Tivoli mansion is more than just a path, it's also an art gallery. Photos from all around the region are displayed, people, places, things, and even local wildlife.
The Tivoli Mansion is now the International Center for Graphic Arts, we go inside to check it out, but other than a window that looks out onto the garden, it was a waste of time.
The other mansion in Tivoli park is Cekinov Grad Mansion, an impressive pink building that houses the Museum of Contemporary History. Apparently contemporary history includes tanks?
A very interesting sight in several locations around the city is the Phone Booths, many of them have been converted to Poem Booths. They contain rolls of papers that you can roll out and write poems, thoughts or notes on. Around the booths are ribbons for hanging your literary work of art. Apparently Cell phones replaced the need for the phones, so the city planners added some culture and fun instead.
Like most of the historic structures, the public buildings of Ljubljana are very impressive. The National Museum of Slovenia, and the SNG Opera (National Opera and Ballet Theater) stand out amongst the surrounding buildings. Just like in Vienna, the Opera house is closed for its summer renovations.
We weave our way through busy roadways and narrow streets, and after a brief lunch at an outdoor restaurant under the trees, we check out the famous Skyscraper of Ljubljana. "Towering" above the city is Neboticnik (the Skyscraper), the first high-rise building in Slovenia, built in 1933. For it's day, the 13 floor tower was the highest residential building in Europe.
Another interesting sight is the entryway to the Parliament building, a portal covered in naked figures. A very interesting idea for the peoples governing body, not sure how they feel about that.
We work our way back towards the Ljubljanica river and the The Trznica (market). On the other side of the riverfront buildings is a large open air marketplace, it is only open until 2:00, but a few local artisans and crafts-people are still going... suddenly the blue skies are grey, and thunder shakes the ground. Within seconds it's a downpour, running from cover to cover we head back to our hotel.
While we were out my battery charger melted, a minor emergency as I can't go very long without batteries for my camera, so after briefly running out to get a new Euro style battery charger, we wait out the rain before heading back out to wander the town. As we wander along the river, the lights are coming on and the blue sky is changing to purple. The western end of the city has a few nice churches and a synagogue, but the lure of the old town for dinner draws us back.
We considered horse, as there was a special on burgers, but decided on a nice italian dinner instead. I think my dinner was called "three prawn head risotto". It's a special night when it's not raining, so we wandered the Ljubljanica river admiring the night lights, and then headed back to the room.
We discover that the windows automatically close when it's raining, so the room is like an oven... when we open the windows to let in some air, 10 seconds later they close again automatically, we tried to over-ride this by stopping them, but they kept on closing after 10 seconds, and unless we were going to stand there and stop them every 10 seconds we were stuck. Apparently it's a fail safe to keep water out, and it was still damp on the roof... the little fan would have to get us through the night.
The heat of the room wakes us up early, so we go pick up our laundry... the lady is upset about some collar stains from our sunscreen and gives us a discount. We enjoy yet another free breakfast, then checked out and got ourselves a rental car.
Postojnska jama (Postojna caves)
This time we get a nice little VW Golf, and head south from Ljubljana. It wasn't a very long drive to Postojna Caves, but there is lots of tourists and lots of tour buses. It didn't take too long to get our tickets, and board the cramped little train that would take us deep into the caves, Once we reach the bottom you unload from the train into a large cavern, you are separated based on the language you speak, so we gather around the sign that says "english".
The tour through the caves takes about 1 hour, most of that time was spent fighting off the supposed "English speaking" japanese tourists. They couldn't understand what was being said, instead they spent the tour literally trying to push past us to get to the front. The only more annoying part of the tour was the screaming and whistling in the huge Opera cave when the guide told us that it echoed.
After looking at all assortments of Stalagmite and Stalagtite, we took the train back out and stopped to check out the proteus anguinus display. The Proteus Anguinus is a salamander like creature known as the human fish because of it's colouring. It is a unique creature evolved to live in the deep dark caves of that region of Europe. It is blind and senses movement, and can even live for 10 years without food.
After taking the entire 15 minutes required to see this lame exhibit, we jump back in our car, and head up the road to Predjama Castle.
Predjamski Grad (Predjama Castle)
It's a short drive to Predjama Castle from Postojna, but our visit to the castle is delayed by half an hour because of one of the heaviest downpours I have ever seen. So we sit in our VW, waiting until the massive rainstorm subsides. The wait was worth it.
As you walk from the parking area, you pass a jousting arena and then look up at a massive cliff face, and emerging from a huge cave is the magnificent Predjama Castle, a Medieval marvel.
You cross a small drawbridge to enter the castle, and work your way floor to floor past restored rooms, and ancient artifacts, until you finally reach the top floor and exit into the back of the cave. Each floor has a unique element, there is historic cannonballs, but nowhere near the historic cannons, there is old bells you can ring, but nowhere near the chapel, we climb stairs from the kennels to the attic, and get a unique perspective on life in the Middle Ages.
Looking out across the valley, you get a great perspective on the Jousting grounds, and the great location that this castle must have protected for so many years. After leaving we head for Skocjanske caves, but we passed some billboards and the photos looked just like Postojna Caves. Change of plans, we've been there, done that, bought the T-Shirt, so we decided to drive straight to Lipica instead, and just then the sun came out... that has to be a good sign.
Lipica
Lipica (Lip-it-zah) is the original home for the famous Lippizaner Stallions, known throughout the world for their dressage capabilities. This location in Slovenia is not really a city, it is the stables and breeding grounds where these horses originated, and have been here since 1580. Today their is over 400 horses. As you enter the "town" of Lipica you drive along narrow tree lined roads with white fences... I say to Norine that I expect to see a white horse galloping along beside us, as we round a curve...
Seeing this entire field full of horses we pulled over to admire them and take some photos. A couple horses come over to eat grass on the other side of the fence. Norine remembered she had an apple in her bag, no sooner did she have it out and 5 horses are right there to check her out. After cutting it up into 5 pieces and sharing with each of them, one of the horses got a little testy, so we climbed back in the car and headed into 'town'.
After we pull into the complex, we are quickly directed to an english tour that started right away. The first fact that we learn about Lippizaners is that they aren't all white, some are brown, and even more strange, all the ponies are born non-white, they can be grey, brown or almost black, and change colour as they age. Our first stop is the corrals for the Mares and foals, you can clearly see the colour differences when mom and baby are side by side. Apparently it's a big family affair as the Cats and Kittens share their barn.
The Mares stables are a little tense... we walk down the middle of the open stables, with horse butts facing us on either side. The tour guide tells us to be careful as they get excited at food time, and might kick if we get too close. The Stallions are much more intense, they stare at us as we wander through their larger enclosed stables. The last structure we enter is a 10 paddock barn. Each stall is much larger, housing the top of the line breeding stallions, xl paddocks for the true stars of Lipica, and I'm not talking about their dressage abilities.
The oldest building houses a collection of old carriages, some as old as 100-120 years old. Equally as impressive are the historic Church and old home that are on the property, built by the founder.
After seeing most of the grounds of Lipica, we are just about to leave when the horses all come back to a corral from the fields. The 1st group is a mixed assortment of adult horses, the second group is the mares and colts. In this batch you can clearly see the mixture of colours amongst the ponies.
After watching the horses and colts settle into the corrals and barns we get back on the road, and head to Portoroz/Piran for the night.
Portoroz
Portoroz (port-o-rose) is a small seaside beach town, right next to the historic old city of Piran. As we drove into Portoroz we were not sure what we would find. We were keeping our eyes open for a T.I. to book a room, and saw a vacancy sign for the Marita hotel, a 4 star hotel right across from the water. It's a little more than we wanted to spend, but once they show us the room... a huge room in a beautiful hotel, oh well, we'll make the sacrifice. The desk staff are very nice, and they left the pool open for us past regular hours, so we took advantage and swam around by ourselves. A nice way to cool down after a long day, followed up by sitting on our balcony looking across the bay.
Since we were in a seaside town, it only made sense to have a Lobster dinner at a restaurant on the bay, the service wasn't as good as the meal, and didn't even come close to the view as we watched the sun set.
After dinner we walked along the shoreline, turns out it's Portoroz days. There are vendors everywhere, bars are rocking, and concert stages are setup at each end of the beach area. The first free concert is a Rythym and Blues style band, playing everything from the Blues Brothers to Tom Jones. After wandering through more vendors, we hear another band startup, and head to a stage setup right on the sand of the beach. A great rock band, playing everything; The Police, U2, Led Zeppelin, Cold Play and a wicked version of Proud Mary. They Finished up around Midnight so we grabbed some snacks on the way back to our room, and went to bed with ringing ears
We woke up and tried phoning hotels in Bled with no luck, so we went and had our free breakfast, then packed up and called some more places, no luck. When checking out we jokingly asked if they had a hotel in Bled, the girls said no, but she knew a nice place. She even phoned them for us, and 3 minutes later we had a lake view hotel for 2 nights, Hotel Lovec (luv-itz). The people of Slovenia have been amazing, they wouldn't let us leave for Bled before telling us things to see and do, even one of the guests started telling them in Slovenian things we should be sure to do... very nice people
Piran
It's only a 2 minute drive to Piran along the Portoroz beach, the road is closed going into city of Piran, and the paid parking lot is full, but luckily we find a spot half on the sidewalk, and walk into town.
Our first stop the TI for a map, and since we can see them so clearly from the Tartinijev square, we wander up to the historic town walls. It is hot, damn hot, and it's a steep climb up the hillside.
Once we finally get to the walls and climb the stairs to the top, the breeze that blows across are very refreshing. The walls themselves are interesting, but not much left except for a straight line about 100 yards across.
From the top of the walls the view over the old city of Piran is amazing, it made the climb worthwhile. At the base of the wall is several small homes with fruit trees and gardens, including this little garden being tended by Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.
After cooling down in the wind, we headed back into the town and stopped at Sv. Jurij (St. Giorgio) church on the way. A simple church with nice views of the rooftops as it sits at the peak of the city.
It didn't take us very long to explore the narrow streets and wander the shoreline around the outer edge of town. The highlights were the Historic lighthouse at the tip of the town, and the store that sold ice cold Iced Teas.
Heading back to the car we find a great lunch place on the shore overlooking the beach... I order a 4 cheese pizza. Seems safe, except one of the cheeses was Blue Cheese (Gross!!!!), and even worse, another was Cheez Whiz... seriously Cheez Whiz on a pizza? I worked my way around the Blue and vibrant Orange sections of the pizza, and headed for the car, a little queasy.
We ran into a few traffic snarls along the way to Bled. Just like home, they do their road construction during the busiest traffic season. Turns out they are doing a lot more tunneling through the mountains, someday these roads will be great. At least we had the opportunity on the way to Bled, to see the famous Slovenian hay racks. Why they are famous I am not sure, but to Slovenians these are the Cat's Meow, and probably every photo album is full of pictures of these hay racks.
Bled
Driving into Bled it was easy to find our hotel, there was direction signs, and a big sign on the main road into town... turns out Hotel Lovec is a Best Western. The desk clerk is very friendly and overly helpful, he even sets up a slideshow he created on a big screen so we know what to see and do in and around Bled. After 20 minutes we snuck off to our room and sat on the balcony enjoying our view.
The view from our room
After settling in we drove up to the castle, seemed much easier than walking 8-) From the parking area you walk up and through the gate into a very nice courtyard.
It's a beautifully restored castle, built in 1004, yes, that's right, 1004... each room had period furniture and artifacts, and all the staff was dressed in period clothing. The mix of restaurants and shops make for a nice afternoon visit, the historic look of the castle slightly overgrown with ivy makes the castle memorable.
From the castle you have an incredible view of the lake and island, and we watch as the skullers gracefully slide across the water. Lake Bled is famous for it's rowing. The lake was modified and extended slightly at one end to make it the regulation 2 kilometers, and since then has hosted the World Rowing championships numerous times, and has spawned many Olympic medallists.
From high above you have a great view of the city, you can look down on the St Martin church, and across at the summer bobsled run, a winding thrill ride that was unfortunately closed while we were there.
If you were a wine connoisseur a highlight of the castle would be it's cellar, a vast collection of wines and champagnes, brought to you by a monk, and opened with a Sabre. A group has camped out at the table, and keeps sending the monk back for more. At the top of the castle is a Perfumery and oils shop, setup like an ancient apothecary office, some very unique smells will be coming back to Canada.
After heading back to our room and relaxing for a bit we head out to town. Lake Bled is hosting another Etno festival, so we hang out for a couple songs. The band that plays is a little different, they use unique wind-em-up bazooky style instruments and sing in a Medieval language, a combo of italian/turkish/celtic... odd.
As they got started, it started pouring rain, and the music was not so great, so we start heading back to escape from the rain. Drenched, we duck into a nice restaurant, and try to make our meal last a long time, but when we are finished it is raining even harder, so we make a run back to the hotel, and spend some time on the internet, catching up with a few friends and bank accounts.
Vintgar Gorge (Soteska)
Since we have the car til 9ish...
We get up at 6:45, look out the window and the rain has stopped, so we load up and head out.
By the time we get down to the lobby, it's pouring rain, since we are up already, we head straight to the gorge, rain ponchos on.
The ticket booths at the entrance to the park are not open yet, so off we go on our free hike.
But not until we read the rules, no petting snails, no talking with tin can telephones, check!
It's a very nice walk along the river on wooden walkways, a winding river full of rapids and falls, in a dense forest, feels like home.
At the end of the hike there is a small waterfall that makes it a little anti-climatic, but it was a nice hike none-the-less.
There is a ticketbooth at either end of the hike, and this end is now open, but she doesn't ask for our ticket... Looks like a freebie this time. So we hike back up the trail, and along the river, to the parking lot.
We head back into town to drop the car off at AVIS, once again, this office is closed too! We phone them, and this time they will pick up the car from the hotel, just leave the keys at the front desk, cool! Starving after our hike, now it's time for our free breakfast!! We hang out in the room a bit to let our rain ponchos dry off, and send e-mail reservations for our next stop in Salzburg. The rain stops and we head off to do the 3km walk around the lake. (that's just under 2 miles for my yankee friends).
There is a perfect paved trail that circles the entire lake, with amazing views of the castle. We also have an opportunity to see some of the Lake Bled Wildlife up close, a couple swans closely guard their large ducklings/swanlings/swadlings/chicks... Cygnets! who came up with that name?
The highlight of the walk is the views of Blejski Otok (Bled Island), a little church on the island makes for postcard like pictures.
We rented a row boat and I paddled over to the island, we decided to stick to the more traditional rowboat, instead of the less manly swan shaped boat. Along the way I had to point out to a couple girls that they were rowing their boat backwards, it went much better when they faced the other way.
The Assumption of Mary's Pilgrimage Church (Slovenian: Cerkev Marijinega vnebovzetja) on Bled Island is steeped in history, the church is over 900 years old and archeologists have discovered remains which date back between the 8th and 11th centuries. Some findings show that it may already have been inhabited during the Stone Age, in the period of the Neolithic (4th-5th centuries BC).
After climbing the 99 steps to the courtyard area, we entered the famous church, and proceeded to take our turns ringing the wishing bell. Hanging from the center of the church is a long rope, legend has it that if you make a wish and ring the bell, it will come true... we'll see!
After ringing the bell, and checking out some of the other buildings, Norine rowed back, and walked the rest of the way around the lake. A very disturbing sight is this abandoned house, at one time a beautiful mansion, now a blown off roof, doors and windows smashed in, generally run-down. We can only imagine what may have happened to its occupants during the war.
As we are walking we hear the bells at St. Martin church, and wander inside to check it out. It's an old cliche in Europe, to say "Seen one church or castle, seen them all"... not true, this one is beautiful too!
We were headed back into town just as it started to rain again, just so happens there is a pizzeria right there... May have been the largest cheeseburger and chickenburger I have ever seen. The bun was the size of a frisbee, the burgers inside barely fit in the buns. The rain has stopped again, so we waddled back to the hotel past some traditional Slovenian backyards, full of Sheep and Fruit trees.
after relaxing/snoozing for a while we watch a little tv, Planet of the Apes is on, in english, what a treat! After our english fix, we head out to get some night pictures of the castle and island.
After snapping some shots, we could clearly hear another band playing across the water and wandered over to check it out. We arrived just in time for "thank you very much, goodnight", I didn't recognize any of the songs anyways, but they sounded pretty good on our way there.
Back to the hotel, where there is a confirmation e-mail from Hotel Wolf in Salzburg, but the price is a lot more than the Lonely Planet book showed. 190 Euro a night!!! Oh well, it was a great location in the old city, right beside Mozart square, and available. Besides, it would be my birthday the night we were arriving, and the trip was almost over, we'd splurge!
Happy Birthday to me!! The cab drops us at the train station, but nothing is open on a Sunday. I find a nearby bankomat, but it doesn't work, so we will pay on the train. Hopefully we have enough money for our last train ride of the trip