Wednesday, March 6, 2019

Three Days in Ljubljana-Slovenia

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What a NI|CE SURPRISE this beautiful city offered was.  We arrived after a short two hour bus ride from Vienna.  The drive through the farmlands and then into the edge of the Austrian Alps was lovely.  We reached the city late in the day and were met by a very pleasant taxi driver who was both kind and honest.  He dropped us in the old town sector where the pedestrian streets start.  From there it was a short walk to our apartment.   From our windows we could easily see the castle high above us.,  Our self-check-in was a breeze.  Our third floor walk-up for the next three days was an older apartment, in a building from the the early 1900's.  The rooms were spacious, the beds comfy, and there were nice modern updates in the TV, washer/dryer, and it had sizzling Wi-Fi...as has been the case in every place we stayed throughout the Balkins.





We made a nice local styled dinner from our traveling kitchen and settled in early for a good sleep.  We woke to a lazy morning, a nice Bobbie breakfast, and departed later for a free walking tour of the city.  Our guide, Peter, was charming as ever and he has a huge group...about 25 folks.  We wandered the historic area for three hours with lots of stories and tales of Slovenia.  The city is a FAIRY TALE with lovely old buildings, a winding river, numerous ornate bridges, and loads of folks all over enjoying the beautify spring weather.












 







 Following the tour we stopped at a riverside cafe for lunch of barley and pork stew.  Andi went back to the apartment for the rest of the afternoon and we climbed to the top of the hill to visit the castle.  The castle itself was a bit of a diapoointment.  It has been compeltely rebuilt and the only thing that resembled the original was the oute walls.  Once inside we found modern shops, a few museums, and a nice courtyard.  The climb to the top of the tower however was worth the views.




Bobbie and Andi enjoyed a long morning stroll and |I vegged out, watched a bit of TV and caught up on some correspondence.  At 4PM we joined a Food and Wine Walking Tour compliments of Andi.  Our guide was lovely, knowledgeable, and the food and wine were great.  We sampled seven different dishes...nice sized servings...and five different wines.  We ended the tour after dark from the top of the highest building enjoying a local dessert.  It was a great tour.

Our visit ended on the third day with an early morning two hour transfer to Trieste, Italy where we hooked up with a car rental for our drive to Aviano.

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