Back again! so continuing on with our Slovenian journey, we left Bled and headed back down out of the alps, toward the capital city of Ljubljana. Oddly, the in car GPS isn’t any help. It doesn’t recognize Ljubljana, which is probably a spelling thing, but regardless, trying to find anything is impossible. So, we sort of navigate ourselves into town, following the “centre” signs. We pretty much make it, although we pass the Center of town, and have to go back to a parking garage that I found on the map.
But – once parked and organized, it turns out we are right in the heart of the old town, just across one of many bridges spanning the Ljubljanica river. This is a charming little old town, filled with different architectural styles, statues, plazas and fountains. The river running through it just adds to the beauty and charm –with cafes and restaurants lining the broad walkways on either side of the blue waters.
We are at once at home, it’s a nice comfortable feeling to meander through the cobblestone streets, window shopping and menu reading. Speaking of menus, it’s close to eating time, so we peruse the offerings and settle on Sokol, a traditional Slovenian Inn and Wine cellar right near the square that leads to the 3 bridges (famous bridges crossing the river – designed by Joze Plecnki, who had a huge influence on the architecture of this town).
Serving traditional food, Sokol has a great old world atmosphere, not to mention incredible food! We had to wait about 10 minutes for a table, but it was well worth it. Ed had a Sausage platter that included a local sausage (didn’t write down the name, but it was spicy and good), paired with cooked cabbage (a lighter version of sauerkraut). Totally yummy. I had the mixed grill platter which included mince meat steak (the best hamburger type “steak” I think we’ve ever had – different flavor, mix of meats, tender, texture, everything – just great), a different type of local sausage, a meat skewer that we think was marinated veal (yummy) and a pork chop. Needless to say, we shared all the food!
Now totally full, we wander off to explore the old town. It’s a beautiful day, so we just meander about, here and there. this town is a Photographic Mecca. Everywhere you turn there is a new angle, new buildings, new photo ops. We’re having fun just snapping pix walking off our meal as we make our way uphill to the town castle. It’s a long winding walk, but good for us to walk off the calories, and good to be rewarded with scenic views down into the old town and out around the countryside.
We climb back down to town, reclaim our car from the car park, and slowly make our way back down to Koper. We arrive a little ahead of schedule, but both rental agents are in the office, so we turn in our cute little brand new Opel Corsa (yes, brand new car, but our luck is going much better this trip with brand new cars…thankfully!!!) and they drive us back to the ship.
We still had plenty of time, so we sat outside at a café on the water for a final beer and wine (really, really good Slovenian wine!) before boarding the Silhouette for our short run to Croatia.
No comments:
Post a Comment