Sleepy, sunny Ljubljana

  Ljubljana, Slovenia
Sunday, October 14, 2007

We've said so many times that this is such a beautiful place... Our evening walk last night confirmed that...again. We had a nice walk on the fashionable streets on the east side of the river before a traditional Slovene dinner. It was a bit chilly but that makes the walk even nicer! We finished the evening with a hot cocoa and a traditional Slovenian favororite, borovnice (a hot blueberry brandy)!
 
 
 
 



Sunday in Ljubljana is the antidote to Saturday in Ljubljana. Today was, we are told, a typical Sunday in the capital. Fewer people on the streets and most of the shops are closed or only open for a few hours. Even the restaurants and cafes are open shorter hours or closed altogether. But for us, the city looks more beautiful today than ever. It is a crisp fall day with bright sunshine coming through a clear blue sky. Everything looks better in light like this and for a photogenic city, you just can't ask for more.






We slept in a bit this morning and went to Mass at the Cathedral of Saint Nicholas just a five minute walk from here. The church is an absolute beauty -- a baroque hall church in the shape of a cross with wide side alters -- and has occupied its surrent location since 1262. There have been several reconstructions and renovations through the ages and the "new" cathedral wasn't completed until 1706. It was designed by a Jesuit architecct named Andrea Pozzo who built a number of churches in Italy and elsewhere in Europe in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. Somehow, Mass in a beautiful old church just feels like a holier experience. Although the Mass was naturally said in Slovene, the Mass is the Mass wherever you are so following it was no problem.

After church we went to a cafe and had a couple of coffees while we waited for a particular restaurant to open. It was billed as the best place in Ljubljana for a "quintessential brunch" and we looked forward to that. The book said that it opened at 9:00am but when we wandered in at 11, they told us that they wouldn't open until noon. Apparently, that sort of thing happens in Ljubljana on Sunday so we were content to go have a coffee in a sunny cafe and wait for our brunch.

Sunday is also flea market day in Ljubljana so on the way to coffee we wandered past citizen merchants selling everything you can imagine from their basements and attics. Uncle Paul would love this! Victorolas, books, currency from the occupation durring WWII, and assorted other antiques, along with their owner-vendors, lined both sides of the Ljubljanica river.

After coffee we walked back to the restaurant where we had planned to have brunch only to learn that they were "out of everything for breakfast" and that they were only offering lunch. So we had lunch. It wasn't what we had in our minds but it was good! A bit more meandering around after lunch and then we met my Internet pen-pal, Marjorie Carrington, and her husband Stefan. Marjorie is an expat from England who has been living in Ljubljana and playing oboe in the Slovene Philharmonic Orchestra. I found her blog through her website   http://www.marjoriecarrington.co.uk/ while we were doing our research and planning for the trip. We've been corresponding with her by email for about six months and it was great to finally meet her. Marjorie and Stefan are a lovely couple and it was fun to have coffee with them and hear their experiences living here as expats. We're going to a concert of the orchestra next Friday night and that should be nice. She promises to play well!

We've come back to the hotel for some afternoon relaxation and Stephne figured out access to the roof beside our room (through the bathroom window!) so she laid down out there for a nap in the sun. Looks relaxing...

We'll go our for dinner in a bit and then make an early night of it. We want to get up and out early so that we can get a car and head up to the alps.

Not sure what we'll do tonight.