Ljubljana, Day 1

We wanted to go see Slovenia, and although this country would easily take two weeks to see, we had only three days. So we rented a car (it is nearly impossible to get there otherwise) and drove the 4.5 hours to Ljubljana, Slovenia. This is the ‘dragon city’ as the dragon is the city mascot, and we stayed in a small hotel right on the river beside the Dragon Bridge. The bridge has these cool dragons on either side, watching out for the city.

Ljubljana has some really weird metal statues. A few are human-like, although they look like they have been sitting outside for millennia or disintegrating under the sea. Another bridge is the Butcher’s Bridge, which is where all the locks are placed. Locks are even on the sculptures! My favorite sculpture was the one that looked like dragon skulls. Like all the others, it is pretty weird.

The most famous bridge in Ljubljana, the Triple Bridge, is—well—three bridges. The bridges are right next to each other with the two outside bridges angling in toward the middle bridge. It is pretty neat looking, but difficult to get a picture of.

Prešeren Square is one of the main squares and where the Christmas market stalls are set up. However, not many of the were open. There are some nice Art Nouveu architecture in Ljubljana, including this lovely building in the square. In many cities there are these metal models of the city, square, or building, and there was one of the city here in the square. You can see Willow’s horse ruling the castle on the hill!

The Franciscan Church of the Annunciation is in Prešeren Square and is a pretty salmon pink color. There were flower lights hanging in front of the building, but these were hard to get a picture of when they were lit at night.

The inside of the church was pretty. We have seen a lot of fancy churches, and this was similar to the others. It was dark in there, and even though there was a beautiful painted ceiling you couldn’t really see it.

The best part of the church was this huge nativity scene at the front. We went around the corner doors and into the front alter area. This was covered up in front (you can see the blue curtain) so you couldn’t see it from the main part of the church, only by coming around to the side of the front altar. It was really detailed and Ronin especially liked it.

We walked over to the Nebotičnik Skyscraper, which is only 13 stories tall but was the tallest building in the Balkans when it was built in 1933. It has this great spiral staircase and a restaurant at the top. The view is great, particularly when the sky is clear. There sky was very clear at top, but there were clouds a little lower down which impeded the view a bit but not too bad. You could see the castle, which looks like it sits up in the sky above the town. On the other side you can see the mountains, which we aren’t going to get to see closer but it was cool to see the peaks of the mountains.

From here we walked to Tivoli Park but didn’t actually walk around the park since it was cold, getting foggier, and the trees looked pretty barren. I am sure the park is lovely in the summer and fall, but it is a little drab in the wintertime. By the park is the Saints Cyril and Methodius Church, which is an Eastern Orthodox church. It is a typical blue and gold, which is really pretty and much different than the Franciscan church. We have been in a few Orthodox churches now, and the kids always think it’s weird when they see people kissing the pictures of Jesus and other icons.

We passed this little pancake stall, which made mini pancakes with different toppings. The pancakes are bite-sized, and we got chocolate sauce and powdered sugar on ours. Everyone got two, although I am sure we could have eaten an entire order each! They were pretty good, but at the end of the day, just pancakes.

We walked around the picturesque Old Town area, which is mostly a pedestrian area. There were lots of shops, stalls, and Christmas vendors. There were many people selling roasted chestnuts and candied nuts. The kids tried roasted chestnuts when we went to Gödöllő, and they did not like them! We walked by one guy who was actually making the candied almonds there, and said to JonPaul, “You’ve got to try my hot nuts!” Of course, we had to try some then! They were really good, and for the rest of the time we were in Ljubljana the kids kept asking to go back to get more ‘hot nuts’.

We kept walking through the Old Town and saw lots of lights. In every square there was a Christmas tree, and lights hanging in almost all the streets. My favorite was the blue swirl that looked like a planet. On the second picture you can see the faint lights from the castle, although it got pretty foggy the longer the evening went on.

Here is a view of the river with one of the cruise boats sailing down it. I wish the camera did justice to just how pretty all the lights are, and how magical these towns are at night during Christmastime.