Day 10 – Ljubljana: a very pretty city

 

Ljubljana River flowing alongside the central market on the left

 

It was an early start as we had a 9am flight from Frankfurt to Ljubljana.  All went smoothly and before we knew it we were on an Embraer E190/195.  I have been in one of them before and I like the 2+2 configuration and they had a reasonable amount of legroom.  The plane was about half full or perhaps a bit more. 

 

We flew over snow covered mountains (perhaps the Austrian Alps) before descending over tree covered hills that surrounded Ljubljana.  It was very green.  A nice introduction to Slovenia.

 

It was a forty minute transfer to the city on a bus that just happened to be ready to leave as we arrived at the bus stop.  It was a ten-minute walk to our Airbnb.  We were too early to drop our bags at the accommodation so we parked ourselves at the hotel over the road and had a coffee. 

 

Our accommodation was in the middle of the old city, so it was close to all the action.  It seems that Slovenia is “the” place to go now given the number of tourists we saw floating around.  I imagine it is even busier in the main season which seems to start around May and go through to the end of October.  We were lucky that the weather was almost perfect.  Clear skies (although a bit hazy) and it became nice and warm later in the day. 

 

First we visited a market that just happened to be held on each Friday.  There were plenty of stalls with vegetables, cheese, charcuterie and strawberries.  I managed to offend a seller who was trying to sell what he described as sweet strawberries.  He offered one to try which I did but when I declined to buy he got angry. They were very nice and sweet.  I think something was lost in translation.  We did buy some strawberries and blueberries to have with our breakfast from another vendor. 

Some of the lovely fruit and vegetables - a different vendor

 

It was lunchtime and as there were a number of food trucks at the market we thought would get something there.  We settled for having a pasta dish that was claimed as a Slovenian dish.  It was little tubes of pasta filled with some kind of meat and covered in a white sauce spinach. Something different and very filling.

 

It was time to do something slow and sitting down.  So, we took a trip on the Ljubljana River.  It was pretty travelling upriver to see how green that part of the city seemed.   The locals clearly took good care of their properties. It was also nice to go slow in the electric boat.

 

On the river, perhaps a kilometre from the centre

After that we went up a funicular to the Ljubljana Castle that overlooks the city.  We had nice views.  In the funicular we met an Aussie couple travelling around Europe and then later Bev and Graham had quite a long chat with them. They were very outgoing and quite loud compared to the Europeans.  It is interesting to go to restaurants or bars and notice that they are relatively quiet.  Generally,  people tend to talk quite quietly compared to the Anglos. 

Graham regaling the Aussies

 

It was time to get some supplies for breakfast the next morning. I located a mini supermarket a few minutes away from the central square.  We were able to get what we wanted.  However, I found out a little later there was a bigger supermarket just around the corner from our accommodation. 

 

We had had so much meat and carbs that I thought we should go to a Japanese restaurant that was recommended by our host.  It was a few minutes walk  to get there.  We all had variations of a bento box.  It was very filling but much lighter than the food we had recently had.  I thought it was a good choice. 

 

Here are some photos I took of the city and us.  It is hard get shots that provide the full sense of the city.  I thought it was very photogenic.  The centre is pedestrianised and everyone seems to cope with it.  It really does bring life to the centre when they replace cars with people.  Some design like that would be so good in Wellington and other places.

 

A place for very nicely made coffee

Inside the castle

Early morning street scene

Our accommodation in an historic building

The central market (part of it)

Central square

I liked how the roofs of the building are like the mountains beyond

Another of central square