Sheilaclapkin's Blog;

Sleep # 26:  Koper and Slovenias Capital – Ljubljana

Koper is a beautiful seaside city with a small and quaint city center, but we moved on quickly as we had a long drive to see  Ljubljana located in the center of Slovenia. In retrospect, we wish we would have had more time to spend wandering in Koper.

Ljubljana is the capital of Slovenia and is a lovely city.  Jason, of Jason and the Argonauts, appeared in some of the early literature as being the founders of the city of Ljublijana.

We floated down the Ljublijanica River in a glass boat, and one of the first sights were lovely bridges. The Dragon Bridge was named alluding to the time when Jason, was to have conquered a dragon on the site and cleared the way for the city to begin it’s new life.

Dragon's Bridge

There are two magnificent dragon icons on both ends of the bridge.

We all wondered why the locks were locked onto the Butcher’s Bridge and found out that it is a tradition when lovers cross the bridge; they bring a lock and lock it so that their love will stay locked together, forever.

Other lovely river scenes.

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Greeting us as we entered the city was a huge wine tasting festival and a lovely vegetable and flower market. It seemed like everyone crowded into all of the squares in the city center.  I took a few photos of people doing their thing in Ljubljana.

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After viewing many of the not to miss  sights, and enjoying the crowded festivals, we were treated to a traditional Slovenian luncheon.  Delicious. Two dishes will remain a wonderful eating memory. One was the huge bread bowl containing a wonderful hot, very hot mushroom soup. The other was a seven-layer cake with a flavor that was good,  not delicious, must be an acquired thing, but all the same, I can bring back those layers and each individual flavor and the collective ones as well.  Why am I going off on this dessert, well, because I will never taste it again and I want to remember it as being memorable?  The bottom layer was the crust, the layer up were poppy seeds, next a layer of baked cheese, then pastry layer, followed by another poppy seed layer, an apple strudel type of filling and to top it off it had a layer of finely chopped nuts.  Oh, I forgot to mention that a thin layer of cake separated each layer! Imagine that. Not delicious, just admirable and flavorful.

Many of the main streets in Ljubljana are named after the directions in which they are going,  For example: Austria Street is going in the direction of Austria,   Italia Street, is going to Italy, of course. Or if you see Trieste and you want to go to Trieste, take the street.

Everyone of us on the tour are double and triple layered with clothing. We are cold, especially when the wind blows and it blows! Our guide said that this is a hot day especially for November. Hot day? Not for me, as I was layered, zipped and hatted. (probably no such word, but you get the idea)

There is a wonderful ancient canoe in one of the lovely museums in Slovenia made by early people as they had to travel through marsh land to go from place to place.  Now they have the land pumped out and bridges span what marsh is left. But my interest is in the canoe, carved from one tree trunk, which was found, and now preserved for all future generations to see.  I imagined the man or men who hollowed out this tree trunk talking and generally shooting the breezes with each other. They had no idea that what they were doing on that day would be noted and remembered for all time.  It is a thought for us to remember.  Not that what we are doing on a specific day will be found and remembered throughout time, but it is important to remember that what we are doing on many of our days is and will remain vital.