Lovely Ljubljana, Slovenia

Have you heard of Ljubljana? It is a wonderful city located in Slovenia which used to be the old Yugoslavia. Slovenia is a relatively new country, it was established in 1991 and is a wonderful country to explore.

I went for a week to Ljubljana and had a wonderful time. We flew via Easyjet into Ljubljana’s airport from London Gatwick, this is the only UK airline that flys there and got a private transfer to our apartment. We used Go opti which was great, you can either get a shared transfer with other guests in a minicoach or for a couple of euros extra you can get a private transfer. It took about 30 minutes to get to our accommodation.

We had booked with Fine Ljubliana apartments and had a mini duplex apartment which was located south of the city, about 15 minutes walk from the city.

The downside… no running hot water for 36 hours. We had to use a kettle and boil a saucepan. Needless to say I have been chasing them for compensation which has not been forth-coming. An awful shame…

So what to expect from this delightful city? It has a population of over 200,000 with an average of 60,000 students, therefore it is easy to walk around and there’s a feeling of space! Slovenia has a population of over 2 million.

The capital city was noted as the greenest environmental city, there are pedestrian roads, electric cars which can be hailed for free and bicycle lanes.

A Slovenian architect helped to put his stamp all over the city, his name was Jože Plečnik. He designed bridges in the city and recycled stones from a Franciscan Monastery to build the Central Market.

There is plenty of interesting architecture too, some from the Communist era of Tito, Art nouveau, Art deco and lots of interesting street art to boot! Look up around you!

As always, I recommend a walking tour, we went to Preseren Square which is named after a Slovenian Poet. There is a pink Franciscan Church which is the meeting point of the tour. Make sure you get there for 1045 with an 11am start. The tour website is: http://www.ljubljanafreetour.com. The tour was fantastic, plenty of information and fun stories too

We saw this:

We saw the Triple Bridge which is intriguing!

We visited St Nicholas’ Cathedral which to put in one word is.. WOW!

The ceiling, the art, the chandelier, wow!

We went to the Central Market which you must visit. There is a daily farmer market from 7am-3pm which has everything to offer, an abundance of fruit, vegetables oils etc. You can buy local wine too.

There’s a beautiful flower market too!

There’s a meat and fish market, fruit and veg, you can purchase Slovenian wine, beer, cheese, cakes, icecream and souvenirs too!

We walked to the funicular which is located at the back of the Market and bought our tickets for the funicular andentrance to the castle.

The views were amazing from the top of the tower, if a bit chilly!

After this we walked around Congress Square and took in these sights:

I loved this building:

We then stopped in this fabulous cake and marmalade shop…

We had:

We found this arty street:

We walked here too..

The next day we used vouchers from the free walking tour on a boat trip. There is only one wooden boat operator and we were so impressed. It cost us 14 euros for an 45 minute trip, we had some Slovenian Champagne and a large doughnut with apricot jam!

I thoroughly recommend taking a boat trip along the river, it was enchanting, the hosts were lovely and good fun too!

We saw the city from a different aspect on the river, especially the Dragon Bridge…

After so much walking, I sat down and read my Lonely Planet Guide and had some lovely Slovenian speciality pastries, local beer and local wine and did research for the next day…