Natural Beauty of Slovenia

Day 3 - Ljubljana

The view from our room! That's the castle we visited today.

So much in one day! Today we explored all there was to see in the town of Ljubljana.  Before I start into that, though, I want to say that the people here are among the nicest we've encountered anywhere.  Just friendly, happy help, everyone speaks English very well, and super accommodating.  And, they love dogs here! We've seen so many very well behaved dogs, and the city is happy to have them.  They walk off leash and are like any other residents of the city.  We saw dogs with collars just exploring around even without an owner in sight, just getting pet by shop owners and cafe goers.  Another reason to love this country.  Anyone who loves dogs that much has to be great!


Onto our day... We started with the castle on the top of the hill.  It was a steep climb to get to it, but it was fun.

The beginning of our steep climb

Once we got there, I have to say we were a little disappointed because the castle yesterday was so cool.  This one was an Epcot version of a castle, almost nothing authentic left in there, just pockets of original walls.  We did get a nice view of the town from the top of the viewing tower, though.

This castle was all gussied up for tourists with restaurants in it and lots of gift shops.

The view was pretty cool, though.

During lunch we saw these river boats and decided to take one of them after we ate, and it was a sweet way to see the city and all of it's pretty bridges.

Champagne please!

The remainder of the day was spent exploring, then stopping at a cafe for a drink, then walking and a cafe, then walking and a cafe.  It's the perfect city for this because it's small enough to get it all in without the pressure of feeling like you missed something.

This city is obsessed with dragons! They are everywhere!

In our exploring, we wanted to see the neighborhood of Metelkova Mesto.  This place is the abandoned army barracks turned punk graffiti art and outdoor party space.  The young rebels of Slovenia took it over, and the when the government wanted to take it down, the neighbors fought to keep it.  We went during the day to take pictures of the art, but I can see how it wold come alive at night.  We are too old for that, but if we were younger, it would have been where we partied one night for sure.

Dinner was spent at a little restaurant tucked into a street we didn't know existed.  Easily our best meal of the trip, Gostalina As was built around a beautiful tree.  The food was incredible and the atmosphere was so romantic.  They served us a 4 course meal (including dessert) that catered to my allergies.  They were so accommodating.