Ljubljana

What a surprising little city. Two hundred and seventy thousand people call it home,sixty thousand of those are students so some links to Dunedin.
There is free education here for people which is a hangover from the Communist days but is a marketing jewel for the city. Holidays at present so the city does not reflect the youth culture currently.

The buildings here are magnification and a mix of Baroque, Renaissance and art nouveau styles.
A large earthquake last century mean the city on the newer side of the city reflects the Art Nouveau era. The Dragon Bridge is another landmark along with the St Nicholas Cathedral with amazing iron doors built to honor Pope John Paul in 1992 although they look like they have been in place since the cathedral was built.
Plecnik was a famous architect who has designed many of the notable buildings including bridges and the cemetery! His name was on the lips of our guide today as he described many of the features of the city. The Triple Bridge is another of his creations as well as an outdoor theatre space.
Another feature which marks the city is that it has a statue to a poet, Preseren as centerpiece to the town square instead of a general! Slovenia has been occupied a number of times but lacked war heroes as figures of prominence or so our guide told us.
We arrived by train yesterday on a very hot afternoon to find we could not get into our apartment.A lovely young couple at the local restaurant provided us with coffee as they tracked the owner down for us.He was an agent and he had sent us an email in the morning but of course we were away from Zagreb by then and no email access.Anyway very helpful people here.A lady we met on the train carried our suitcases off and escorted us to the taxi stand and negotiated a ride to our apartment.
Eventually we were escorted to the apartment,four floors up but everything we need for the next few days.
We went to the Food Market for our evening meal.Lots of the big restaurants have stalls here to showcase their best dishes.Lots of fun sitting out with the locals and tourists alike dining in the warm evening air.
Today we went and bout our breakfast things there and then did the free walking tour of the old town with Peter our guide before heading back for lunch.