Central Eastern Europe 4. Slovenia - mostly

 

the castle at Lake Bled during the day and floodlit at night,
both from our hotel room

The answer to the question I posed in blog 3 about our Bratislava hotel is that to our astonishment it was built in 1931.  My thanks to those of you who sent an answer.  Only one was even close and as my brother wouldn’t appreciate the publicity I won’t say who it was.

 

Ljubljana from the castle, ascent by funicular

 

you've left the converter plug behind !

I know I’ve said a lot about trains but I can find no sensible explanation for the fact that a single ticket from Bratislava to Vienna is more expensive than a return.  This wasn’t a misread on our part, it was pointed out to us by the helpful woman in the Bratislava ticket office.  Surely there must be a black market or an App which for a small consideration will match up people who want to go to Bratislava with orphan return tickets.

 

Once we’d left Vienna our journey to Lbubljana didn’t run through Slovenia but through southern Austria parallel to the border for most of the trip.   This part of Austria is new to us but has picture-postcard views wherever you look.  Absolutely beautiful countryside dotted with traditional looking villages and churches and full sun all the way.   Just before we changed trains while still in Austria to head south into Slovenia, I’d gone to the gents and then before I’d finished there was a hammering on the door, I shouted back and more hammering.  When I opened the door there were three police officers standing there.  I looked at them, they looked at me and then without a word they just walked further along the train.  I knew I hadn’t committed an offence because the train wasn’t even standing in a station.

 

one of Ljubljana's many dragons

 

and the river as it runs through the middle of the city

Ljubljana has a fairly small centre but is a beautiful neat little city, again with a virtually traffic free centre, lots of lovely looking buildings, some Art Nouveau, some Austro-Hungarian empire, a castle on a hill, a big open air fruit and veg market and in the sunshine too.  It has a reasonable sized river, the Ljubljanica, cafes strung along both sides and a number of bridges at very regular intervals, the best of which is the bizarre triple bridge.  Supposedly when the city wanted to improve one of the bridges in the late 1920s, the architect suggested widening the existing bridge and having a footbridge either side of the existing one but not quite parallel to it.  That’s what they have, all crossing the same bit of river in the traffic-free zone and one of the oddest and most wonderful bridges you’ll see anywhere.

 

the triple bridge

the castle across Cobbler's Bridge

a manhole cover dedicated by the
Ljubljana Medieval Guild of Pizzerias
to the Master Pizzaristas of the city

Food has ended up being a bit of a problem for us despite the huge number of cafes and restaurants.  As you’d expect, a lot of them are local, serving the sort of hearty heavy meat-based dumplingly ballast this part of the world is noted for.  Not much for vegetarians with pizza, pasta and risotto being about all the choice there is and there’s a limit to how much meat I want to eat.   We did find a very nice restaurant a little out of the centre, with a delicious pork tenderloin in a chanterelle sauce for me.   Having got most of the way through my meal I moved a garnish of basil leaf and smelt something very odd, had a good look and another smell and realised it was a sprig of a plant called Rue.  It has a distinctive, not very pleasant pungent smell.  Now Rue is used in tiny amounts in some herbal and homeopathic concoctions but the plant is toxic.  The sap can cause blisters and I can’t even touch the plant without gloves on.  I even checked my suspicions on the internet and I can confirm that the internet was correct.   Then I was stuck.  Did I mention it and cause a potential ruckus or be British and stay quiet.  I had to hope that their fungi supplier was more skilled than their herb provider but unfortunately that didn’t occur to me until far later.  I wanted to point it out discreetly and Heather thought we should just keep quiet.

  

two inside photos of the dramatic and
impressive marble filled National Library

and on a more lighthearted note, one of the
Art Nouveau buildings on Miksolic Street

Our one trip out from Ljubljana was an hour bus ride to Lake Bled, probably the most famous tourist spot in the country.   It is as you might have deduced a lake, which has an island with a church, a castle on a rocky outcrop high above the water and an encircling set of heavily wooded hills and mountains.  The sort of landscape you’d expect to see in a book of fairy stories.  It is as beautiful as it sounds and though touristy it is all within reasonable bounds with no loud music playing anywhere which was a definite plus.  There are boat rides on the clear water of the lake, horse and carriage rides around it and a little toy train ride.  If you decide to walk around it, you’ll get no change from 6 kilometres.  We had a great view from our hotel bed of the castle, bathed in sunshine during the day, spotlit at night and invisible the next day when what fills the lake fell in torrents all day.

 

the island with the church, Lake Bled

What for us was a very unusual three week trip was nearly over, we had a final day in Ljubljana before a long train ride eastwards through Slovenia and into Hungary for a day and a bit in Budapest before a flight of a fraction over two hours to get back to Bournemouth.

 

Budapest is well known (by those who know it) as a place with a number of thermal baths and we spent our morning in one.  Indoor and outdoor pools ranging from 36C to 40C, a sauna, cold pool, steam room, lots of marble and a splendid old building.  All very pleasant although I still felt a bit damp after I’d got dressed.  The warm sun once we got out into the street afterwards was very welcome.

 

Budapest, us, the Danube and the Elizabeth Bridge

Liberty Bridge

the old market hall, Budapest

We didn’t mention the Rue to the restaurant although I think I should have but I refuse to make the play on words some of you would expect me to at this point.

 

 

this is my new passport
with the cover I use

Covers 22 September 2022 to 29 September 2022