Surprising Slovenia
05.11.2016
11 °C
The railway from Venice to Ljubljana is broken at the moment so we were forced to travel north to Villach in Austria by coach to catch a southbound train through the mountains for the rest of our journey. The alpine scenery was spectacular as we weaved our way alongside rivers and through forested passes painted red and gold by winter's approach...
We really had no expectations of Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia, but we were heartened by the warm reception we received, in English, from the hotel receptionist and restaurant waiters. We soon learned that almost every Slovenian speaks good English and they are proud of their city – as they should be. The old city which spans the river is dominated by the castle... 
Beneath the castle are numerous elegant buildings and ancient churches...
But there is nothing 'ancient' about Ljubljana or its citizens. Our hotel had the fastest internet and best selection of English language television channels so far in Europe, and a machine in the central market square dispenses litres of fresh milk for a euro...
Cars are banned from the historic streets so a free electric taxi will take you to your hotel...
An untra-modern all glass funicular will whisk you up to the castle and part of the deck on Ljubljana's historic Trnovo bridge has been glazed – but are you brave enough to trust it?
And we met another world traveller on one of the other bridges in the city..
This is Abhishek Sharma from India. He is travelling the world the hard way – by E-bike – and has already clocked up some 20,000 kilometres in an effort to promote peace and harmony between peoples and to highlight the dangers of climate change. His website is: www.abhishekkumarsharma.com
Another day – another market. We seem to run into markets everywhere we go and Ljubljana was no exception. But here the sauerkraut was the main attraction and dozens lined up to buy it by the barrel load...
Ljubljana is a great little city full of interesting sights and excellent restaurants. One day was sufficient to see the sights and we have to push on to Croatia to keep ahead of the weather, but we would happily have stayed.
Posted by Hawkson 09:09 Archived in Slovenia Comments (6)
