Lake Bled

Another lovely day in Paradise as they say. We are getting used to these lovely mornings,sunny skies and balmy temperatures but it is all to end when we get to Austria where the forecast is promising a week of rain!!!!
We got organised early for our trip to Lake Bled but missed the nine o'clock  bus by a few minutes so we arranged our travel for tomorrow and sussed out platforms etc.We can walk to the station from our apartment in about twenty minutes.
The bus trip was through lovely countryside,rural landscapes.Fields filled with corn - corn is a favourite fast food here and sold on street stalls.So much for Mac burgers!
The farms seem small but well cared for and homes are large and usually double storyed with gardens,fruit trees and vegetables. The mountains looked quite impressive as they came into sight so we were glad we were not walking in this area.

It took about an hour forty to get to Bled itself and then another few minutes to the lake itself and there was the iconic castle image looming in front of us.
It is impressive but anything like the Ljubljana one we climbed up to last night it may well be a disappointment.
We opted not to visit it but took a boat trip out to the island instead.We were rowed out by a good looking young man who had a traditional style of boat used in the area which is paddled from the back.
You could hire boats and some people even swam to the island.
You had forty minutes to explore the island so we climbed up to the church via the steps and spent some time looking around before having coffee with a walnut cake which is traditional here. We have the recipe to try when we get home.
Great views from here but the time went quickly and too soon we were gliding back across the lake.
We wandered around the lake shore and checked out the stalks etc and caught the bus back to town later in the afternoon.By then it was very hot and a relief to get out of the heat.
Our last day in Ljubljana so we spent some time wandering past the sights.It is a Sunday and many places are shut for the day but food is still a business and no shortage of places to eat at.
Tonight we ate at the oldest house in town, 1583 it was built and the owner was the famous author who wrote the first books in Slovenia,the alphabet book and the Bible so it felt very authentic and suitable for our last evening here.

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.