Ljubljana: Castle, Bridges and Restaurants

Old Town Ljubljana greets visitors at the river crossing with a fanciful Dragon Bridge . .

The Ljubljana River is the heart and soul of its Old Town.

My sister Vicki and I loved walking back and forth on several pedestrian bridges . . . 

. . . each of the seven bridges is unique. That pink building near one bridge (photo above) is the Franciscan Church. We went inside to gawk (usually with a horde of other gawkers), but surprise! Local folks sitting in the pews were actually worshipping with a priest! That was a pleasant switcheroo for us . . . 

We were here the second week of September; tourist season is almost finished so it wasn't crowded. 

Hundreds of charming places to eat outside on both sides of the river.

This shabby chic restaurant (below) opened all its doors and windows . . . Vicki and I have noticed that in Europe, bees and pigeons are accepted at outside dining tables with grace. Pigeons are respectful of "human dignity" and bees can easily be diverted with a sacrificial piece of mango cut open on a plate in a non-conspicuous place.

We stopped at many restaurants to read their menu's; twas fascinating reading! That's Vicki in photo below, studying a menu; all their menu's are posted outside. We've become foodies.

Too many good menu's, what shall we do?! So we decided to do a progressive restaurant thing, one shared dish at each tempting restaurant until we're full. I'd explain to the waiter or waitress what we were doing so there'd be no hard feelings. We shared a salad that was simply brilliant red juicy tasty marinated tomato slices with mozzarella cheese balls; heavenly!

Appetizer at another restaurant was chicken liver pate with truffles, it was beyond heavenly! On crusty toast, it was like no other pate.

By the time we were satiated several hours later, we were in love with Slovenia's capital city. Vicki's smile says it all.

Up the hill is a castle (below photo) and the tourist map showed a steep short-cut to the castle.



Off we went, in search of the twisting winding short-cut . . . no signs pointing the way, just our tourist map.



It was a challenging walking path! Crumbling concrete and some steps were missing, plus steep terrain near the top (pulling ourselves up steep short wooden steps on a rope handrail). Unlike the USA, European life isn't constrained by personal injury lawyers. Vicki and I would walk somewhere and look at each other and smile and say "No lawyers here!"

The view at the castle is gorgeous. Slovenia's geography is an interesting mix, click here for information.

At the castle, it wasn't the old architecture that fascinated me, it was the museums it housed, particularly the Museum of Puppetry. Their puppetry theatres during WWI and WWII were very similar in nature to the short-scripted humor and cynicism of our USA's Saturday Night Live television show.

As for the castle, it's location on top of a hill is ideal for a fortress, and there is evidence of settlement there since 1200 BC. Today, it's a maze of extensive renovation works. Saint George's Chapel (below) dates back to the 15th Century.

Ljubljana's architecture is an interesting mix; mostly because it suffered two major earthquakes, one in 1511 and the other in 1895. Most of the buildings in the Old Town area were reconstructed in various styles after 1895. 

This building (below photo) caught our eye, mostly because it was well-guarded with a high wrought-iron fence and two guards walking around inside. Hmmm, we wondered, approaching cautiously . . . until the guards handed us an informative pamphlet about the building, explaining this was the US Embassy!

Of all the old towns we've visited in Europe so far, I would put Ljubljana (I can't even pronounce it) at the top of the list for enjoyable restaurants with tons of ambience. It's fun to saunter down the cobblestone alleys with restaurants on both sides; photo below shows folks sauntering with bikes, a baby carriage, sitting at outside tables. I'll always remember this city's old town ambience.

The sidewalk blackboards, the gingham tablecloths, the bowls of dried and fresh flowers, the peeling stucco, the solid wood old doors and shutters . . . plus the slow moving river with seven beautiful bridges and pedestrian traffic only on both sides of the river, twas all perfect for relaxing, drinking, eating, and exploring.

Back at the bus station in Ljubljana, we board a bus for the 80 minute bus ride to Lake Bled, a popular resort area among Austrians and Slovenians which "remains largely unknown to tourists from other countries". The lake is located just south of the Karawanks mountain range between Austria and Slovenia. Every hour, there's a bus leaving for Lake Bled.