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PART 2 |
motorway vignette at a petrol station. It is valid for one month
and costs
€30. Contrary to Croatia, Slovenia does not collect tolls at toll gates but
checks with cameras wether you have a valid vignette glued to your
windscreen. We drive to Ptuj. We have booked a room in
Vladimir Šilak's B&B in the old town. The B&B is
based in a monumental building from the 16th century. Next thing is lunch in Ribič
on the bank of the river Drava. Fine food (trout, steak).
At night we eat at
Minoritski trg.
Across from the café is the Minorite monastery and the
Peter & Paul Church. Both were dammaged during the war and subsequently
restored. Earlier the complex had survived the anti-monastic policies of the
Austrian emperor Joseph II, but during World War II the Germans seized the
building and used as a local headquarters, which was a reason for the allies
to bomb it. The church has a modern interior. We continue passing the post
office and arrive at the town hall, built in 1907 in a neogothic style. In
the middle of the square is the Pest monument with an efigy of St Florian on
top. It is a copy made in 1993.
From there we walk uphill to a triangular
Castle.
The climb is not particularly steep or strenuous. From the castle hill we
have great views overlooking the town. We visit the municipal museum that
now occupies the rooms. The exhibitions consist of weaponry, musical
instruments and the castle's original furniture. There is a music hall and a
chapel inside the castle. We are not allowed to miss a single thing. The
lady who inspects the tickets sees to that. Every time we have finished a
hall or floor she points is the right direction for continuing our visit.
After
the castle visit we have lunch in the town centre.
In the afternoon we take the car to
At night we have a pizza for almost nothing at
Ljubljana.
On our way we pass a number of check points, which we pass through the gate
marked "vignette". It takes about an hour and twenty minutes until
we arrive at
Slamic b&b in the capital. It is just minutes past 10am and the room
is not ready yet. Slamic has a coffee house attached with a roof garden,
which are very happy to use. After coffee we hit the town. The city is
compact and nicely kept. We walk on to the central Preseren square, where a
number of pedestrianised streets converge. Just now a children's festival is
going on. We cross the Triple Bridge. This bridge was
designed in 1929 by the architect Plečnik. Plečnik is also responsible for
the design of the market collonades along the river Ljubljanca, where we see
a large number of market stalls and delicatessen. Next is a visit to the St Nicolas
cathedral. The entrance door of 1996 commemorates the visit of the pope to
Slovenia and the first millennium of Christianity in Slovenia. Inside, the
church is adorned with fabulous frescoes by the Italian Qualio. He made
these
frecoes from 1703 through 1706 and they depict various scenes of the life of St Nicholas.
The altar and the pulpit are beautiful too. We continue our walk towards the
Dragon Bridge. This bridge in
Sezession style was built in 1901 and is flanked by four dragons. We walk
around the vegetable and fruit market, which is a lively scene before get to
Mestni Trg in the old town. Here we find the Bishop's palace and the town
hall, built in 1719. It is one of most noteworthy baroque buildings in town.
In front of it is baroque fountain named after the three Canolian rivers. It
is a replica. The original has been moved to the entrance hall of the
National Gallery. Mestni trg continues into Stari trg, the
oldest medieval square in town. It is more like a meandering street than a
square. It leads us to Shoemaker Bridge. We cross it and have a light lunch
at Zlata Ladjica.
We continue our walk along
WLater in the afternoon we walk up Miklosiceva cesta. After the 1895 earthquake a
lot of houses went up here in Art Nouveau style. First striking example is
the Union Hotel from 1905 and the Cooperative bank from 1922. The wife of
the Slovenian architect Vurnik painted the front in national motives. 200
yds further up on the Miklosic park we find the Bamberg house by Fabiani,
decorated with plaques depicting famous printers. Also by Fabiani is the Krisper
House from 1901 with
guirlande like decorations and a turret on the corner. We then continue
towards Metelkova, a former army barracks. After the departure of the
Yugoslav army in 1991 the barracks were taken over by the alternative art
scene. Various efforts by local authorities to regain control failed. A kind
of cultural free state developed here over time. It apperently wakes up
quite late in the day, because late afternoon it still very dead.
Our alternative is to head for the
We descend again and return to the hotel. In the
evening we go out and eat sushi in the old town at a sushi train eatery.
According to a Japanese idea a conveyor belt carr
We drive to Bled, almost an hour's drive north of Ljubljana at the foot
of the Julian Alps. It superbly situatied on the shores of Lake Bled with a
picture perfect castle on a hilltop and and island with an idyllic church in
the middle of the lake.
The village itself is nothing to write home about, but the views of the lake
and the surrounding mountains are priceless. We have coffee on the lake's
shoreline and then board one of the rowing vessels , called pletna's,
that will take us to the island in the lake. The boats do not leave until
they are filled up with enough passengers, so we have to bide our time. The
boat ride costs 12 euro per person. This allows us 30 minutes to roam the
island. Our skipper is not the youngest anymore, but he still rows with the
best of his collegues. Once on the island we head for the little church.
Inside you can ring the bells (3 times) and make a wish.
Back in the village we have lunch on a modern terrace at the Villa
Preseren, naturally with a view of the lake. After lunch we drive to the Pokljuka
gorge. It is about 7 km West near the hamlet of Krnica. From the
entrance of the national park it is another 20 minutes on a steepish
mountain track to the edge of the gorge. Most seeworthy is the Pokljuka Luknja,
or "Pokljuka Window": a subteranean room with three holes in its
ceiling. We walk back to the car and drive to Kranj, according to our guide
book a nice medieval town. It is a bit of disappointment. It looks
neglected. After quick tour of the place and a drink we drive back to the
city of Ljubljana. In the city we go for a drink on a side walk café on the
embankment. Later that night we have a luxury dinner at Pri Vetezu. We
eat al fresco and enjoy lamb cutlets and duck breast respectively
accompanied with a lovely Slovenian wine.
After dinner we walk to Caffé Open, the only gay café in town. It is rather quiet at this hour. It is located in a side street with and has some chairs and tables on the side walk. After some drinks we walk back along the river, where we see some performances as part of a poetry festival. Young people recite poems. We land again at the Dvorni Bar, by the time that the sky starts cloud up. Just before a heavy thunderstorm starts we make our escape to the B&B. Rain and thunder continues all night.
Weather: cool start at 12 degrees. Hot afternoon 28 degees. Thunderstorms during the night.
It is still raining and it is a lot colder than during the previous days:
only 9,5 degrees. We have breakfast, check out and head for the direction of
Koper. We turn off the motorway at
Divača and drive to the Skočjan caves. The caves total 5,800
meters in length and have been formed by the Reka River. They are considered
to be the most important natural sight in the country. Near the hamlet of Skočjan
the river goes underground. It re-emerges briefly and disappears into the
entrance of the cave. The caves can be visited with a guide. This time of
year three tours a day leave the reception area. We buy a ticket for the
10am tour. There is a quite a crowd waiting for the tour and we are marched
towards the entrance of the cave with over 200 people in tow. At the
entrance the group is split up by language into four groups. We enter the
300,000 year old cave system by means of an artificial tunnel. We
enter a giant underground space with lots of stalactites and stalagmites. We
first walk through the Silent Cave, which has been dammaged by earhquakes ,
but nevertheless has some interesting formations. We go further down (about
150 metres) and get to a large hall with a 30 metre high stalagmite, a giant
more than 250,000 years of age. We continue towards the Murmuring Cave,
where we hear the River Reka stream. Along galleries and stairs we
arrive at a 45 metre high bridge that leads us to a long and winding path
passing several rooms and ending at the Schmidt Hall and the big valley.
This is where we exit the cave.
Those
who have booked the grand tour re-enter the cave system for more natural
marvels, but we walk up a path leading to a funicular that brings us back to
the reception area. Up there we walk to a viewing point overlooking a
valley formed by a collapsed cave.
We drive back to the village of Devica for lunch, but we are not exactly spoiled for choice. We end up at a hotel, where we get a mediocre meal. We carry on through the wine region of the Karst towards Stanjel, where had planned to spend the night in a hotel farm, but turns out to be booked out. The rain has resumed which limits our options of exploring the area. We decide to carry on to the big city, to Trieste one day ahead of schedule.
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