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| Ljubljana (stock photo) |
This week, Adam had to go to Vienna, Austria for the Rijeka law school's moot court competition. Since I lived there as a student in my early 20s, there was no belaboring the question of whether we would all accompany him or not. But this blog is not going to be about Vienna, rather, it's about the way there and the way home, because Slovenia lies between Austria and Croatia. After conscientiously buying our Slovenian vignette before we even knew if we would be on a highway that required it, we stopped in the capital of Slovenia. We were going to get lunch there, but ended up spending the entire afternoon walking around, eating, and going to the castle. On our way home, rather then hike a bit of the Wienerwald, we drove to Bled in northwest Slovenia, not too far off course. Despite our lingering anger at the Slovenian vignette administrators, who were out to get us in February, we all were a little bit taken with Slovenia. Or as their T-shirts say:
I sLOVEnia.
Ljubljana is the City of Dragons. On the way to the old city, we crossed a gorgeous bridge festooned with all sorts of dragons, so all the tourist tchotchkes about dragons made sense to us. After our appetizer of a $12 pint of raspberries from the Ljubljana market, we ate al fresco in the old town where the waiters had to dress in traditional costumes and clearly resented it. Jonah tried the "hunter's lunch": wild boar, stag, and deer with a cherry sauce. We walked around the old town and then took a funicular up to the castle. The views were fantastic. Unfortunately, my camera was out of battery so I have no pictures of this leg of our trip.
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| Island in the haze to the left, + Adam |
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| About to ride bikes |
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| View from our restaurant |
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| Panorama restaurant |
On the way back from Vienna, we decided to follow up on the recommendation of Adam's colleague Vesna and go to Lake Bled. This is a glacier lake surrounded by hills, forests, snow-covered Julian Alps in the background, a castle, and in the middle of the lake, there is a tiny island with a picturesque little church on it. There are sidewalks around the entire lake for hiking or biking. After our lunch on an outdoor patio looking out at the lake and the mountains in the distance, we separated. Georgie was too little for renting her own bike, and too big to be on the back of an adult bike, so we got gelato and explored the area on foot. Jonah, Lucy and Adam rented bikes, and travelled around the entire lake. After they returned, we went to a cafe and everyone tried the famous Bled creamcakes (this after the Hello Kitty gelato). These creamcakes, by the way, don't do much for me, but they seem to be a favorite in Hungary/Croatia/Slovenia/Austria and everyone else in my family is a fan. Bled was absolutely gorgeous, and although my camera had full battery capacity, the pictures don't do the town justice at all. Not surprisingly, it's a major tourist attraction. Georgie and I picked up a few groceries in a small market while we were waiting for the bike riders, and I heard more American English than Slovenian. To be fair to Bled, I just have to tack on a stock photo that does better at showing how beautiful the area is.
