Ljubljana Day 2

Well, I don't need my earplugs overnight, the flat was wonderfully quiet (the advantage of the pedestrianised area). I did wake a few times though, on Thursday night. Dragged myself out of bed on Friday for that walking tour - one of those free, two-hour, pay-what-you-want tours. About a five-minute walk for me.. but I didn't get up in time to get anything to eat, given that the only options were cafes, which would have required me placing an order.

The walk took me up a slightly vertiginous flight of steps - and to the other side of a park:

(I've been surprised by the number of sculptures with a Roman theme - but it turns out this was a major Roman trading centre, being at the crossroads of various routes through Europe.)

I took a seat at the bottom of a monument around where we were supposed to meet.. I was early. Had hoped to find somewhere to buy something to nibble on, but well..

Our group arrived rather slowly.. by the time the guide came, I think only Bobo and I had made it. He turned out to be a very gruff, and irate, Italian - as he told us during the walk, he lives here because he married a Slovenian. Well, was he pissed off to discover that we weren't entirely sure of our group numbers - it didn't help that, as I say, people came in dribs and drabs. Honestly though, he could hardly have been more unpleasant. Not a good way to start the tour!

Nor was I impressed with his machine-gun delivery when he did get started - firing facts at us so fast that it was impossible to take them in. Oh, he knew his stuff.. but someone should tell him that this is no way to run a walking tour. Much of what he told us, I've since forgotten, of course - I think this was a branch of the university.. and if so, this was where he told us how miffed he was that his daughter didn't want to go there, given that it would've been free! (To be fair, he could be funny - we just got off to a terrible start:

I do remember that this was a music school:

There was apparently a monument to Napoleon at the end of the street, although we didn't go down that way - he made an entertaining analogy between Napoleon and that distant uncle, who shows up maybe once in your life, and showers you with praise, never to be seen again. Napoleon was, apparently, the first ruler to treat Slovenia as a separate entity. Didn't last long, mind.

Josef Plecnik came up a lot, his architecture being all over town, his preferred medium concrete. He designed, for instance, the Tromostovje (three bridges) that gave my apartment block its name! Also this, the university library.. apparently, the front door is very heavy (I didn't try it), to symbolise the difficulty of acquiring knowledge. Then the windows on the first floor are large, to symbolise the acquisition of wisdom - the windows on the upper floors take the shape of open books:

I remember him giving us a long lecture about the Slovenian language as these people paddled by. Sounds difficult.

Stories differ as to why the city's symbol is a dragon:

We were taken to a wine shop to sample some blueberry liqueur!

This was by way of introducing us to the concept of Ljubljana as a green city.. they're big on recycling, no waste was to be seen.

I did learn a little Slovenian - this means "Old Square":

And we were led to a pleasant town square:

Ironically, he was just talking about recycling when we had to move out of the way of a recycling truck! There's a very relaxed attitude to pedestrianised areas, BTW - bicycles weave merrily between the pedestrians, who also occasionally have to step out of the way of official vehicles - it's quite relaxed, and I was never afraid of being squished by a bike, as I so often have been in London!

Yep, there they are, advertising their green credentials again!

The city's flag, the national flag - and the EU flag, which you'll see everywhere. Have to say, that made a nice change from the lack of them in the UK..

The shield on the national flag, BTW, represents the triple peak of Mount Triglav, the country's highest mountain, with wavy blue lines underneath, representing the Adriatic, on which the country has a small coastline.

The cathedral:

Around the corner was this door, depicting Pope John Paul II leaning from a window. The door's design incorporates many other symbols, but again, I can't remember what:

Down at the market - why, what should we see but a weighing scale! They do like to make sure they're getting the correct amount:

Yeah, another of those bridges of locks:

Wouldya look at the Roman design at the edge of the market! and yes, there were stalls in there:

Back in the square beside Tromostovje, and this was apparently a famous poet, after whom the square is named:

Perched above him is a naked muse.. and our guide told us a story that might be true, about how the adjacent Franciscan church planted trees to block this scandalous view:

Well, that was the end of the tour - we hit the market for lunch, which is only open on Fridays, and has a huge selection! Not wanting to queue, I ended up with a Smash burger, which would have been a lot better if I'd realised that was my burger as he was making it. Because I could have told him not to put in the gherkins, which I ended up having to fish out with my fingers. Ick. Anyway, I then joined the others, who'd managed to find a free table - and I grabbed a glass of wine from one of the wine merchant stalls. I tell you though, I'd have been better queueing - what came out of that stall was delicious, as I discovered when Bobo let me have a taste. Meanwhile, someone was playing a cover of Country Roads - jeez, I'd been in a singsong of that in Cruden Bay! It's really following me around..

After lunch, we decided to take a stroll down to the Plecnik House, which of course has as its subject the aforementioned architect. This is actually the street outside my apartment, lined with cafe tables:

The other side of the river was bedecked with informational posters.. and this striking statue:

And boy did I wish I'd brought my sunglasses - it hadn't been as sunny when I set out!

I would have liked to have had a peek in here:

Another interesting business name:

Puss!

So apparently this is the work of a street artist who, like Banksy, pops up out of the blue to decorate public surfaces - but unlike Banksy, chooses Space Invaders as a subject:

And outside the Plecnik House, a Plecnik.. abacus?

And so to the Plecnik House:

..which has a timeline of his life. What, mind you, they're doing with a photo of an elderly man corresponding to his birth year..

.. and that was as much of the house as we saw - the exhibition was confined to one room, and the group didn't think it worth it. (Me, I wasn't actually that interested in him anyway.) So we decided to head for the City Museum instead.

John the Baptist, apparently:

This display is intended as evocative of the variety of people in the city, and makes for a striking introduction:

Oh, I do love a good model! This is the city in the middle ages:

Memories of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, of which Slovenia used to be a part:

Evening dress, 1938:

An old car. The group coming along behind me had great fun staging photos with this, because you could get in..

Well, that was the top floor - we'd been advised to start there and work our way down. The level below hadn't much to recommend it:

The basement had archaeological artefacts - and this sand pit, where you could try your hand at finding your own!

I was first to finish, and headed for the cafe - where I had a lemonade (a bit sour), with an interesting, brass straw.. and the most exquisite, triple-chocolate cake! (Accompanied by the obligatory glass of water.) When the others joined me, someone raved about the marble cake too. One who had the lemon drizzle cake wasn't as enthused. Anyway, we stayed there a good while, and I had a glass of wine.

Some downtime then - at which point I managed to finish the post about Friday - and later, to dinner at Hisa Pod Gradom, meeting first for drinks at Loo-blah-nah, which seems to be how the locals pronounce the city name! And this was where I found out that - gee, although they only list 0.1l glasses on the menu, you can specify how large you want the glass to be! You then multiply the base price by however many multiples you want! What a revelation.. we also met with Alice, who'd been doing her own thing, and had a great chat before we had to go.

The restaurant had been chosen for its traditional cuisine, and we were seated at a big table in the basement. A few of us decided to go for the "Ljubljana steak", which turned out, basically, to be a schnitzel comrising pork, chicken, and cheese. Cordon bleu, if you will. Which was fine. Bobo, as I recall, had goulash. But oh, the absolute highlight for me was the wine - unfamiliar with any of them, I'd gone for the "sauvignon breg", which I figured was a Sauvignon Blanc, given that it was a white Sauvignon. When I asked for a bottle, the waiter had asked me how many glasses I wanted, and winked when I said "one":

OMG it was gorgeous.. with an unusual taste, it turned out to be one of the best I'd ever had! Went down like cream. I had two bottles there, and took one home, drinking most of it that night. Between that, and our early start on Saturday, there was to be no blogging that night.

More in the next post..