After way too many museums, I felt I needed to have a day of rest in Ljubljana. It’s a peaceful city for the most part (when you aren’t caught in an inexorable flow of determined tourists). But I hadn’t experienced it. So for my last day I made no plans (and thankfully most museums are closed Mondays). There were a few interiors I hoped to see but really not much I felt I needed to do. Except have coffee and relax in the sunshine.

I started by sleeping in, having a slow cup of tea, listening to funny podcasts (as opposed to upsetting news ones), and packing up my stuff as I must leave before 7 tomorrow. Then I took a very leisurely stroll to a couple of baroque churches. The first, a Franciscan one, is the pinkish church in Presernov Trg near the Triple Bridge. It’s next to a Franciscan monastery and thus the moniker. For an atheist I actually like churches. So much work and fuss goes into them. But they’re usually hushed and peaceful, like this one. The chapels to the side were particularly personal and quiet.

The main church is a bit ornate for my tastes and there was a man taking every form of selfie in the nave which was a bit distracting. So I wasn’t destined for a long visit but I’m also a sucker for frescoes…

Anyway then off to the St Nicholas’ Cathedral. Still baroque. More gold inside. Less hushed (I’ve always loved the Franciscan monks so I may be biased here). I mean they were playing some kind of medieval music through the loudspeaker system but a mike kept clicking somewhere which interrupted the calm. Thr outside isn’t very impressive but I really liked the doors. They’re huge bronze sculpted doors. I just looked it up and they were added in 1996 before a papal visit. So hardly historic but they are cool. So much for churches. I had a belated realization that I haven’t eaten in many restaurants here except just a few nights — all else were street fair or a fish food truck (if you can believe it — I had broiled squid, really tender). And I had been reading reviews on TripAdvisor. One favorite cheap place sells the kranjska klobasa I’d already had (it’s a sausage, I guess like the Polish kielbasa) with a side of horseradish and mustard and bread. Delicious. It was barely noon but worked for me!

But I still needed a coffee and sweet. (Hey Germans eat sausages for breakfast all the time.) Anyway there was another highly recommended place that’s considered homey and they actually hire people with disabilities to work there which of course appealed to my social worker side. Called Druga Violina (second violin), I found out they have an incredible lunch special of only three choices each day and it’s 5 euros or so. Since I wasn’t actually hungry I chose a dish with a dessert (beef stew with whatever sweet) and got my coffee with dessert.

The food was good but the funny thing is they don’t have small tables so I was at a large one and eventually an older gentleman was seated with me. We chatted (of course) and Boris was an interesting character. Born in 1941 in Berlin to a Slovenian mother and German father, his family flew to Ljubljana after he was born to avoid the bombings. He’s worked and lived in Vienna, Berlin, Munich and Ljubljana — and the family has a house in Slovenia on the Adriatic so near Italy. He speaks German, Slovenian, Italian, and some English. In fact when I heard he spoke Italian I switched because his English wasn’t his strong point — but as a fourth language I’m not complaining!! I just thought Italian might be easier. He repeated a lot of questions in English so I thought either his language skills or his memory aren’t that great (but hey at 77 I wouldn’t be doing any better). Anyway I did manage to make him laugh with the little German I can remember — German drinking songs (danke, Herr Brink)! “Schnapps, das war sein letzes Wort” and “nach Hause, nach Hause, nach Hause gehen wir nicht” — frankly all WWI soldier songs about drinking and dying in war. You gotta love those pessimistic Germans! (And for this I was in AP German. Pretty horrifying that’s all I can remember.)

Boris was shocked I was in NY during 9/11 and he had an interesting perspective that I hope is not generally shared. He thought it must be an “inside job” — meaning Americans did this to ourselves. I actually started tearing up when I talked about AA flight 11 where they fought back after they knew airplanes were being used as weapons in their own country. I mean I’m not exactly Ms Patriotic but I cry every time I think about what it must’ve been like to be a passenger in a plane that’s being used to attack your own landmarks. It breaks my heart. And I don’t think it’s only because I was in NY at the time.

Sorry, bummer aside, it was a charming lunch. Afterwards I wanted to give Plecnik another chance and see the inside of his famous national library. You have to pay to see the really interesting reading room but I was fine with the entrance. And it was solid. If Plecnik’s architecture is indicative of the Slovenian mentality (and there’s no saying that it does or that my opinion means anything!) but I’d say it’s solid, realistic, aspirational, and beautiful in a linear way. No flights of fantasy– nothing whimsical here. I wouldn’t say they’d believe in fairies but I can see dragons …

Oh well perhaps you can tell I’m back at my Airbnb and had a few glasses of their (very good and amazingly cheap) wine. Their limestone and water and everything else makes for great wines. I’ll have to look for them when I return to the states. Here are the two grapes my host suggested and I like them both. The only reason I finished the white first is because I figured it doesn’t last as long and I’ll leave the leftover red for my hosts. They’re both dry and the white wasn’t oaky which I hate. I was recommended to have a Slovenian Pinot Noir last night to accompany my chicken liver pate (which was amazing – best thing I’ve eaten here but it was also covered in truffle oil – OMG!) and baked octopus entree, but I didn’t like the wine as much as either of these. Just a side note.

They do take wine and vegetation seriously here. I went back to the castle after my lunch and they’ve replanted ancient vines — same thing in Bled. I guess it’s a thing in Slovenia to replant original species! Anyway I had a lovely last afternoon at the castle. I seriously almost fell asleep sitting on a bench with a beautiful view in the sunshine.

Here are my last attempts to photograph the Julian Alps. I guess it’s finally not too cloudy out there! Oh but before I sign off on Slovenia I just have to say how incredible it is with respect to making tourism easy. The entire country’s population is about the size of Chicago (3M people, not including suburbs) — but the country is maybe the physical size of NJ. So there’s a lot of room for everyone (except perhaps in high tourist season 😬). Seriously I think there’s a lot more space here — the city is small but I never felt crowded. And in the pedestrian zone they have a free green shuttle for anyone who doesn’t feel they can walk to wherever they need to go. It’s kind of amazing. I don’t know if it’s just for older, infirm tourists or people with physical handicaps but its pretty fabulous in theory (I didn’t take one so don’t know if they work as well as advertised– though I saw them around quite a bit).

And they’re just a few hours at most from real mountains or real beaches. Kind of amazing.