Hello! We are getting ready to head home, time to wrap things up.
As I lay here in bed I hear the church bells chiming in the Old Town of Ljubljana. We enjoyed a lovely, if a little cool, four days here.
We had a little hiccup in our travels from Venice to Ljubjana, no big deal, we just had to take a bus part of the way where the rail was under construction. This is just part of traveling in Europe.
Regardless, we arrived and found our studio apartment. The manager told us about the market on Saturday - I love a market!
We bought honey, cheese and some salami. All delicious!
Ljubljana has several famous bridges. This is from the Dragon Bridge. This dragon is the one Jason and the Argonauts fought when returning from stealing the golden fleece. The dragon is the protector of the city.
This Jesuit church was originally red but faded and was repainted this lovely salmon color.
This statue in Preseren square is of Preseren. He was a poet as well as a general letch. He was married with children when he fell in love with young Julia (age 17). She, happily, did not return his love and married a younger, more wealthy man. However, their names are linked together forever as there is a bust of Julia across the courtyard for Preseren to stare at for all eternity.
The naked lady above Preseren created quite a scandal for the Jesuit church that shared the courtyard. Many attempts were made to put a cover over the exposed bosom of the statue. All such attempts failed. Finally the church planted some trees in strategic positions so that the naked lady was hidden from the eyes of those entering/exiting the church. This doesn't work well in winter... LOL!
This is Ljubljana Castle. We took a funicular up the hill to check out the views.
Chapel in the castle.
This is thought to be the first wheel. You find all sorts of things in a river.
There are several of the creepy statues around the town. This one is a satyr. All of the statues are unsettling.
Of course at one point this region was under Roman rule so there are ruins of Roman walls and aqueducts. A section of the wall:
This odd-shaped building was one of the only buildings undamaged in the earthquake of 1896. When the owner saw his neighbors doing restoration and renovations to their buildings he wanted to do this as well. He had no damage and no money so he put up scaffolding first and submitted an insurance claim. Voila! 19th century insurance fraud!!
Triple Bridge by Joseph Plicnik.
The Ljubljana marathon was this weekend. There were a lot of people in town and it made crossing the street a challenge but it was fun!
The door to the Cathedral depicts the history of Ljubljana.
Inside the Cathedral:
We found this little bar and had a couple drinks and talked to a local. He was nice!
On Monday we had an excursion to Lake Bled.
The view from Bled Castle.
Bled Castle
After the castle stop we went to the lake. We took a ride on a pletna.
This is the pletnar. He rows the boat to the little island in the middle of the lake.
The little island:
It is 99 steps up to the church. It is good luck to ring the church bell. Very Quasimodo!
We climbed to the top of the tower, another 100 steps.
Bled Castle
That's it. We added more steps around town when we got back to Ljubljana and had some Slovenian food for dinner (venison goulash). We had a great time and learned that there are many more beautiful things to see and do in Slovenia. We definitely will return!!
Headed home Wednesday - take care!
Sheri and Carsten
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