Ljubljana, capital and largest city of Slovenia, is located along a trade route between the northern Adriatic Sea and the Danube region. 

Slovenia is of course right there next to Italy. 

In case you were wondering. 

The city’s symbol is a dragon. It was thought that the dragon was adopted from Saint George,  the patron of the Ljubljana Castle chapel which was built in the 15th century. In the legend of Saint George, the dragon represents the old ancestral paganism overcome by Christianity. 

Dragons are everywhere and everything seems to have a name with a dragon reference. 

I bought a dragon magnet. 

And wondered where I could squeeze that into an already bulging suitcase, 1/3 filled with bike stuff, 1/3 with wedding paraphernalia and the rest …. well let’s just say the same clothes will be regularly spotted on this trip. 

Slightly off the subject, there is a lot of corn grown here. Obviously not in the city. 

We have however spent the past two days wandering the centre of town. It’s a busy place. Scooters and bikes storm past pedestrians, seemingly without altering speed. 

Dogs are everywhere and being the dog people the four of us are, we stopped to admire quite a few. Alas for Annabel and Doug, not a corgi to be found. 

As if to make up for this huge injustice, Ossie Ostrich and his handler made an appearance. Prancing past the lunchtime eaters enjoying the sun and river views. 

Ossie proceeded to take a poo.

Naturally I didn’t take a photo of his daily ablutions. 

Each day there is a huge food market in the square with amazing fresh organic fruits, vegetables and street food. 

Was fabulous to eat tomatoes again. I can’t quite cope with paying $11 a 250gm punnet in NZ at present. 

We walked up to Ljubljana castle – even though the thermometer was heading north of 29. 

Interesting restoration – the exterior remains authentic but the interior is quite modern and included a pretty spooky puppet museum. 

The view from the turret – as you can see from the above photos, was worth our walk. 

Back in the city, there are lots of statues and Soviet inspired buildings.  The below images were taken in Republic Square.

Classical baroque and Neo-Renaissance buildings were everywhere.

There are many historic bridges including Tromostovje, the Triple Bridge which is a transport bridge in the middle and a pedestrian bridge on each side. There is also a lock bridge with a glass bottom on each side so you can see the tourist boats float right under your feet. I guess they can just look up your frock. If they so desire.

Hip outdoor cafes and restaurants are in abundance along the river.

Around us we heard many different languages but fortunately English appears on most of the important things. Like drinks menus.

Tivoli Park was worth a walk, even though our purpose was to locate the ice hockey arena to buy a jersey. Alas for MOD, the shop was closed. 

As usual I took lots of photos and have pretty much included them here without reference – with the hope that in my old age I will remember what they are. 

It’s been a long few days and it’s time for bed. 

Our cycle tour commences tomorrow – temperature expectation. 32. Tour leader. Interesting and maybe a little inflexible. Group of 11. Varied. Canada, France, Scotland, Australia. Anxiety level. Maybe a little high. 

From what I can gather this is going to be intense so I am apologising in advance for poor reporting on my behalf.

But. Let’s remain optimistic and see what tomorrow brings. 

Night peeps.