Zmajski Bridge (Franz Joseph's Bridge, Dragons' Bridge)

We arrived in more beautiful sunshine.

After a 10 minute walk, we found our home, with our lovely friendly host, Marija.
Her place was a really beautiful old building in the heart of Ljubljana - she is the only umbrella-repairer in all of Slovenia and was very house-proud of her rooms 💪

We wander off, and were soon acquainted in this small but character-filled city.

We discovered we had arrived in the middle of their annual film festival, so we went to see an engaging tense dystopian tale named “We Might As Well Be Dead” at the stylish Slovenska kinoteka.
In true film festival style, there was a quirky film festival intro followed by a welcome and thank you from the German director. After the film we all clapped, then reverently sat through all the credits before finally leaving!

With no energy for food hunting, evening pizza & beer was procured at the Cutty Sark, with some football on TV.
Back at base we found the most channels on our TV yet, including one showing some snooker: hurrah, the World Championships were under way, & this was the first time in 4 years we hadn’t gone to see a live session.

Our second full day here saw us join a guided walk to make sure we hadn’t missed much.
We learned about the main architect of Slovenia, Jože Plečnik. He apparently got wackier in his old age, producing the huge University Library that has walls allegedly representing a carpet…..
We also discovered the tale behind Dragon Bridge (& how there are only 4 on it - the rest were wyverns!)
In a break, we snacked on some cheap and tasty bread products from the well hidden indoor market, next to the main street market 👍

After the guided stroll, a nice cuppa beckoned, before we walked up the park to the Castle on the hill: rather more focussed on selling features, & we heeded the wise earlier advice of our guide to avoid bothering to pay - you can walk around the courtyard for free!

Finally dined at Sarajevo’84 for some Bosnian-Serb cuisine - very filling!Lue lisää