The trip today from Vienna to
Ljubljana was the stuff of picture postcards around almost every bend of the
railway line. We climbed very high on our way from Vienna until we were almost
among the clouds and the snow-covered peaks of the Alps were clearly visible.
The trains passes through many smaller villages, and some large cities, the
former being our favourites. The architecture of the houses and farm buildings
is so typically Austrian or Swiss in appearance, and just as you see it on travel
programs of the area. Obviously, the topography is anything other than flat and
the grass is a vibrant green.
 |
| As luck would have it, we arrived in Ljubljana just in time for a hamburger and beer festival - two of my favourite things in the world |
We needed to change trains just
near the Slovenian border, and had just seven minutes in which to get from one
train to the next. Not a problem, we thought (Austrian trains are always
on time). However, we followed the crowd, thinking they were also going to
Ljubljana, until the crowd led us to a bus outside the station. Realizing we
had made a mistake, and don’t forget we had just seven minutes to find the
right train, we managed to ask someone which platform we needed to be on and
hastily ran up two flights of stairs only to find our train preparing to leave.
Had we missed it, we would not have been in Ljubljana on Saturday evening as
planned, but probably on a well-appointed park bench somewhere in Villach. We
flung open the doors, threw our luggage in, and hopped on just as the train
pulled out from the platform. That was just a little too close for comfort, the
moral being; don’t blindly follow the crowd in a foreign country unless you
know where they’re going.
 |
| What Ljubljanans call 'the red church' - it's actually faded to more of a pink colour |
We settled into our compartment,
which had only one other person, and prepared for two and a half hours of
relaxing sightseeing, or so we thought. The other person in our compartment was
a Croatian national living in Hamburg on her way home to visit her Croatian
mother. She’d been on the train for about nine hours already and had another
five or six to go, so I think she relished the company. Her English was
reasonably good, but our Croation was non-existent, so our conversation was
interesting, if at times laboured. Although we saw almost none of the scenery
(what we did see was stunningly beautiful), we really enjoyed the time we spent
with her. We learnt all about her two children, and she about ours, her
upbringing in Croatia and how she dreamed of returning one day, and how Germany
was changing forever due to the influx of migrants from Syria. We really
enjoyed the opportunity to interact with someone who could explain the recent
history of this area, including the time under Tito (when Slovenia was part of
Yugoslavia) and the terrible Balkans War.
 |
| This is the oldest building in Ljubljana, somehow it survived the 1895 earthquake (although I reckon it looks like it didn't survive) |
Today, we spent most of the day
walking the streets of Ljubljana by doing one of the ‘free’ walking tours
(payment is by way of a tip – our tip was for the guide to love his mum, lol).
The tour went for a little over two and a half hours and was really very
informative. Following the tour, we took a forty-five minute trip on a boat on
the river; very relaxing. The old part of Ljubljana is very lovely, and is
really divided in half by the Ljubljanica River. One side is very old and
features mainly baroque architecture, while the other half, which was destroyed
by an earthquake in 1895, was rebuilt in the Austrian secession style (Slovenia
was once part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire).
 |
| Some typical streets in the old city, looking towards Ljubljana Castle |
 |
| That's the castle on the hill |
The old city looks very medieval
and is best described as quaint. The newer parts of Ljubljana are best
described as a mix of Cold War Soviet architecture and twentieth century Western
styles. Tomorrow we plan on going to Bled, a town probably best known for its
lovely lake. It’s about ninety minutes away by bus, and should give us a second
chance to take in the beautiful countryside. Note to self; don’t get dragged
into conversations with locals this time.
 |
| The lovely river running right through the old city |
 |
| Our little boat - handmade out of wood by a man from Bled |
No comments:
Post a Comment