Keysie57

Enjoying your trip report and your writing style. Looking forward to more…

KarenWoo

Beautiful photos of Ljubljana! The river, the beautiful bridges, and the gorgeous architecture are what make Ljubljana so special!

Tdiddy12

We started our tour this morning and did a walk through Ljubjlana. So many beautiful buildings. Here are just a few.

This is the main Administrative Building on Congress Square for the University. Slovenians pay a boat load of taxes but they have free education and healthcare. We don't like paying any taxes and our kids have tons of student debt and are sleeping on our couches! LOL

Sidewalk cafe with the Castle up on the hill

American Embassy. This would be a good gig!

Moses in front of the National / University Library

National Library by Plecnik

Random apartment building that looked really interesting

Tdiddy12

Here are a few more buildings and streets scenes. It has been raining here so we haven't seen as much as I would have liked, but did get to walk the streets, learned a lot about Ljubljana from our tour guide and finally got some sun for a couple of days. I don't know all of the names of all he buildings but will add in what I know.

The Hotel Union which is on the main street down from the train station. Luckily the day we arrived it wasn't raining as we walked down the street past this building and the one across the street

Across the street from the Hotel Union

Another shot of the Preseren Square

And Mr. Preseren, watching over his Square. He was the National Poet and wrote the National anthem.

I believe this is the Hauptman Building. Look at that Architecture

Photo of a square on the back main street in the old town. This statue is in front of the Town Hall. Which dates from the 1400 hundreds. Meanwhile, I remember when the first Krispy Kreme came to Los Angeles in maybe 2010? Not the same.

Street scene leading up to the Castle

Tdiddy12

We did get a short break in the rain the second day we were here and managed to head out to Tivoli Park which is a very large park just outside of the main city. So you can be walking along the river and really in less than 15 minutes you are in a big park surrounded with walking paths, trees and a restaurant with some great sculptures

Dancers in front of the museum and restaurant in Tivoli Park

This fountain is at the end of a long walkway that has giant photos on either side, actually an exhibition that changes peroidically.

Great gardens through out the park

KarenWoo

Wow! You have some amazing photos of Ljubljana! How many nights were you here? You have more street scenes and architecture shots than we do. I especially love the pink building across the street from the Union Hotel. I remember walking past the Union Hotel but I don't remember that pink building. Also especially love the shot of the cafe with the castle in the background,. And we never made it to Tivoli Park. Did you take the "free" walking tour? That's what we did, and we enjoyed it very much.

Tdiddy12

Hi Karen - I'm glad you are enjoying the pictures! We spent 4 nights in Ljubljana. Two on our own and to with the tour. The red building across from the Hotel Union is the Cooperative Bank building. Such colors. We didn't do a "free walking" tour, although we generally do them, but we had a walking tour in the Rick Steves book, two actually, and our guide gave us another tour. There is so much to do in Ljubljana. We only made it to the City Museum and went up to the Castle. I will add some pictures from this experiences.

progol

Tdiddy12,
Another happy follower of your trip! Our first trip after the covid pandemic began was to Croatia and Southern Italy. We never made it to Slovenia so am enjoying the pix of Llubjana. That architecture is remarkable!

We also found Zagreb an enjoyable city and very walkable and your photos are making me smile. I was literally jumping up and down when we arrived, I was so excited to be traveling again!

Tdiddy12

prolog - I know exactly how you felt. We travel to Mexico a lot, but this is our first time back to Europe and it's been a lot of fun. I have a lot of Trip Report left but I've been falling down on the job!

Tdiddy12

Last Photos of Ljubljana - As I mentioned we didn't have enough time to go to all of the places we wanted to, but we did make it to the City Museum and it was a real treat. A very comprehensive look at the history of the city, but the best was a display/ exhibit of all these people from the history of the city. It is a special display because first of all it is 3D and it consists of paintings and statues. You step off the elevator and it's the first thing you see, then you realize you can walk around and through it. Very nice. We also did the Castle which was so-so. A lot of climbing around with not a lot to see.


Standing in front of the people of Ljubljana


Now looking at it from the side. There are two aisles to walk through and around to see all of the art work. Really brilliant.


Ljubljana from the castle


Castle grounds from the ramparts


Standard bridge with locks, from all the star crossed lovers who then throw the key into the river, claiming their love will last forever. Most of these people will end up in the Museum of Broken Relationships in Zagreb

Adelaidean

What a lovely city…

, …had to laugh at your love lock comment.

progol

Ditto to both comments - but especially to the one about the love locks!

dreamon

You've got to love a community which has a poet and storyteller immortalised in the main square, instead of someone who won a (literally) bloody battle. And I love that there are so many young people living in Ljubljana - the student population is really high.

Tdiddy12

There are young people everywhere. We were staying right next to the University. One night I found a recital of a violin player w/ pianist doing her masters recital. Well I got the date wrong by one night, but it happened there was another young pianist doing her practice, it wasn't a recital. Other than the player and her professor we were the only ones in this nice little concert hall. Almost at the end the teacher turned around and saw us and was surprised. We, however, had a great private concert!

KarenWoo

I agree with your comment about the poet and storyteller! And we saw lots of young people, too, when we were there in 2019.

Tdiddy12

Lake Bled and Kobarid - We left Ljubljana on our tour and drove to Lake Bled, boy am I excited. I will be walking around the lake, taking a boat, seeing the beautiful scenery. Got that wrong, it poured rain like no one's business. I never really understood that saying like, "no one's business", Is it raining out? Mind your own business! Anyways, it's been raining for a few days, so walkways filled with mud, freezing and not a great time, but I did manage to take a few photos. We started up at the Castle and it is far more interesting than Ljubljana's castle. Then off to find a Kremsnita. All in all it was an OK experience, We stopped at the World War I museum in Kobarid on the way to Bovec. Hemingway was in Kobarid and " A Farewell to Arms" was roughly about his time there. Bovec is a nice little town but it was pouring the whole time so didn't get to see much.


Chapel at the Castle.

Photo of the Island from the castle.


Amazing art on the walls of the little chapel


The Holy Grail, Kremsnita, and it was good, lived up to it's reputation

Finding religion, or at least a dry place to sit and pray for a dry Lake Bled. Didn't work this time.

World War One Museum highlighting the Soca Front, which is not well none, had never been a movie, and is a pretty sore subject for Italians.

Bell Tower in Kobarid

Inside the museum. A very well done museum. Some say World War I didn't end until the end of World War Two and for people in this region, it didn't end until the end of the Balkan War.
a sunny Lake Bled in St. Martin's church

KarenWoo

We were very lucky with our day visit to Lake Bled from Ljubljana. We had a warm, sunny day; it was very summer like. People were still swimming in the lake. We didn't have time to visit the castle. We didn't make it to Kobarid either. "A Farewell to Arms" is one of my favorite Hemingway novels. This makes me want to re-read it.

Are you on a group tour? Or a private tour? What company? Sounds like you are spending a good amount of time in each place which doesn't always happen with group tours.

I hope you are having better weather now.

Tdiddy12

Hi Karen - We are on a Rick Steves Tour called Best of the Adriatic. I'm not a shill for Rick Steves, we are generally DIY travelers but we took a shot and have loved it. He has a very good general tour manager and guides at a lot of the places we have stopped. I would recommend them.

Tdiddy12

One of the things we have liked about the Rick Steves tour is that it stops at places most tour groups don't go to. For instance between Lake Bled and Bovec we stopped at the Planica Nordic Center. This is a place with one of the largest ski jumps in Europe. Many ski jumpers come here to train. I know nothing about ski jumping but was amazed how it looks when you see the ramps in person. Also at the end of winter, they take the snow and truck it into the subterranean parking structure, keep it cold, and then use the parking lot for indoor cross country skiing! When were there, the Italian paraplegic skiing team was practicing, so we could see them going round and round in the parking structure looking for that lost Lamborghini

Tdiddy12

Bale-Valle Istrian Hill town - After our visit to Kobarid, we stopped for the night in Bale. This little town isn't even in most tour books but it is a great jumping off place to visit Rovinj and Pula. We spent two nights here so I got to walk around. It is a medieval town with a lot of interesting alleys to see. It also has a small palace / castle and some old churches


Little Church of the Holy Spirit from the 14th century


Altar of the Church


Close up of the Altar


Frescos inside of the church. The church was closed the first time I walked by but I was rewarded with this view, in the morning, the day we left.