TRAVEL ALPHABET

The A-Z of My Favourite Travel Destinations — Ljubljana

Only spent a day here — not long enough

Our day in Ljubljana

Waking up to a bright, sunny day, (and I mean bright!), we decided we’d take a run into Ljubljana to check out the city. (We were staying about 20 minutes outside of the city — best option when you have a car.)

It seemed like we hadn’t seen the sun for weeks but in fact, it was only about 8 days.

The first obstacle was our car was covered in ice! We had to try scraping it off, rubbing it off, using the wipers, and putting on the hot demister. Eventually, I went back into the house and found a squeegee when wet with hot water did the trick. It was -2C, the coldest we’d experienced so far. Fresh snow had fallen on the mountains and it was a beautiful drive into Ljubljana apart from the “closed road”.

We thought we’d try it again and drive on the footpath as we had been doing previously, but it was actually being excavated by a huge digger, so we had to turn around in the narrow road and try to find an alternate way around ourselves — no DETOUR signs here, and the GPS was no help at all, again.

We arrived in the city, well the suburbs actually, which were just masses of unit blocks, and traffic! We kept following the signs to the city centre, and tried to find somewhere to park. Keeley pulled into a parking lot, but the turn was so tight the car wouldn’t fit so we had to wait till the traffic stopped for us to reverse out — we didn’t think there were any spots left anyway!

Then saw a sign for the Castle, so thought we’d find a park there. We eventually spied a parking lot and pulled in and parked. There was no parking attendant or meters — it turned out to be a private parking area for the apartment blocks. We took note of our surroundings so we could find our way back to our car, and headed up, up, up to the castle. There were lots of steps, and I was happy I had my hiking pole to help me up.

Ljubljana Castle

We came through the gate into a huge courtyard and found the toilets down below, many, many stairs down below. Then we bought tickets to the castle — 6 euros was a fair entry price — we thought it entitled us to just the castle, but thought we’d climb the tower — more stairs — as it was such a clear day and the view would be spectacular, and spectacular it was. Worth every stair!

Down again and checked out the Chapel, which was also the Scriptorium, and had our names written in 15th-century writing, similar to Old English, before heading to the coffee shop for a bite to eat. I couldn’t choose between the berry tart and the pina colada mousse so bought both, as well as a cup of cappuccino.

Keeley chose a chocolate pie, two little homemade chocolaty things and a cup of hot chocolate, which was so thick she thought she had to pour water in it as she was given a glass of water as well. It turned out the water was just to wash all the chocolate down, as her choices were so rich! Mine were just simply mouth-wateringly delicious. Best sweets since Paris, and much cheaper! The whole morning tea (which was actually our lunch) was less than 15 euros.

We staggered out to the courtyard to venture down to the toilets again. As soon as I got to the stairs, I realized I had left my hiking pole in the café, so had to walk all the way across the courtyard to retrieve it from the café. I’d forget my head if it wasn’t screwed on!

The funicular

We prepared to walk down the mountain again when Keeley suggests we try the funicular. You’ll know how much I wasn’t looking forward to that walk down when I tell you that I agreed! It might be a faster and more painless way down. We followed the signs to the entrance, and Keeley used our castle tickets to get through the turnstiles. Unbelievably the barcodes worked even though we hadn’t purchased tickets to the funicular either! Maybe, they give you the same ticket no matter how much you pay for it. The tower and the funicular were supposed to be extra!

We waited for the cable car, or whatever it is called, to come up; Keeley — with excitement, (she loves things like this) and me with trepidation and a small amount of fear. We started talking to a couple of English guys, one of whom was actually worse than me (he wasn’t even game enough to climb the tower) but we chatted all the way down, which made the ride seem quicker. We left them after they had taken a photo of us with a kangaroo (a statue, not a real one!)

The Christmas markets

We had seen markets along a canal from the top of the tower and started walking in that direction. We found the canal and kept walking, soaking up the atmosphere of what must be the old city — very pretty!

We eventually came to the markets and purchased a cup of hot mulled wine to go. It was hot, and burned all the way down, but it did warm us up from the inside. (It was bloody freezing!)

Keeley bought some Christmas soaps from one stall where the woman picked us as Aussies after two words!

“How much?” She told us she’s visited Australia 10 years ago, but still, we were amazed that she picked us as Aussies immediately. She spoke English very well, not like you would expect from a Slovenian stallholder at all. Further along, Keeley bought an Advent calendar from another gentleman who had only a smattering of English. Both gave her hand-written receipts!

We took our bearings from the mountain on which the castle stood and decided we were more than halfway round, and if we just keep walking around the mountain we’d come to where we’d parked our car, which we did, but it was a LONG way round, maybe 3–4 kilometres altogether. At least we couldn’t get lost! My feet were starting to protest, my knees and back joined in, and eventually, we reached the car. I was so pleased to get in, sit down and activate my massage seat!

The road back to our airbnb was still completely closed but we managed to get around it without getting lost (we simply took no notice whatsoever of the GPS!) and arrived safely back to our warm mansion. (That’s another story!)

We’re off to Venice tomorrow, which was a last-minute change of plans, as I had booked 4 nights on Lake Como but we were so close to Venice that I couldn’t resist. I love Venice! And Keeley hadn’t been there at all! We will now have just two nights in Lake Como before heading back to Paris where Keeley has a very long 3-flight trip back to Australia and I fly off to Istanbul for my “Festive Turkey” tour.

Thanks to Sam Millichap for the inspiration for this series. She’s up to S!

If you haven’t already read Anne Bonfert’s H, here it is!

Michael Rhodes has picked up on the challenge and is running with it. He has already written his favourite A, B and C. Here’s his A — Atsugi.

Jerry Dwyer has joined the fun with his first favourite A — Auckland.