Week 601 · Ljubljana & Koper, Slovenia
Ljubljana
We had a good guide on all three of our excursions in Slovenia and Croatia — the one here in Slovenia was probably the best and provided a lot of background history on the 2-hour drive from the port at Koper to Ljubljana.
She really went out of her way to emphasize how all the religions get along now, while the Croatian guides still said there are issues underneath the surface. Similar to Trieste, Ljubljana was a mid-size city that was very compact, had a lot of pedestrian areas, and was very Habsburg-inspired and very Austrian. I was a bit surprised that there were no pictures of Luka or Melania — two very prominent Slovenians right now.
Very picturesque town — so we then had a choice to wait in line for a funicular to go to a castle at the top of a mountain, or find a place to eat a decent lunch and explore the town some more. We chose the food. We ate at one of the famous places — very Germanic, with heavy stews and beef with sauerkraut.
The castle sits above the city on a hill — accessible by funicular if you are willing to queue. We were not. The view from below was sufficient evidence that the view from above would have been good. We had the beef stew instead. The castle dates to the twelfth century and was a key defensive position through the Habsburg period. Ljubljana became the capital of independent Slovenia in 1991.
"I was a bit surprised that there were no pictures of Luka or Melania — two very prominent Slovenians right now."
Once back in Koper, we had a little time to explore the town, climb the bell tower, and walk along the shore. Nice little town but would have been a bit boring for an 8-hour shore trip.
