Ljubljana

Today would have been a good day to sleep in. Those of our group who are flying back to the U.S. tomorrow went to get the required Covid tests (everyone was negative), so the rest of the group did not gather with them until 10:45 a.m.

We used the time to do some walking and exploring. On Sunday morning, very few things were open and very few people were in the old city center. The sun was shining (even though the forecast had been for rain) so it was very pleasant and we had the city to ourselves.

First stop was the "pink church," as it it known to tourists because of its color, next door to our hotel. Officially the Church of the Annunciation of Mary, it is known to most locals as the "Franciscan Church" because a Franciscan monastery is next door. So it is a church with three names. People were just arriving for mass, so we just slipped in for a few minutes to look things over.

We walked on, past the historic opera house, and found the Church of Saints Cyril and Methodius. If one could not guess by the name, this is the main Orthodox church in Ljubljana. 

The service was already in progress, and the place was packed. Standing room only -- not only because Orthodox churches often don't have pews, but because there were a lot of people. We stood together at the back until I noticed that I was surrounded by women, and men were on the other side. So I stepped over.

From here it was only a few steps into Ljubljana's Tivoli Park (yes, same name as the famous park in Copenhagen, Denmark). The guidebooks describe this park as "sprawling," and it certainly is. We only saw a small portion of it, because we could have walked around in it all day.

Originally the manor house of a noble, the Art Center is the main feature of the small corner of the park we were able to explore. A couple observations: Europeans don't cut their grass nearly as often as we do in the U.S. and art is everywhere, including many sculptures scattered in parks, as well as around the city.

Time was slipping by, so we walked an "alternate route" back toward the city center. Along the way, we saw a very interesting old building and decided to walk closer to take a look. It turned out to be the U.S. Embassy to Slovenia. The guidebook calls it "the quaintest embassy in Europe." But the German embassy, in the house next door, probably gives it a run for the title.

In the old city we visited the Katedrala Sv. Nikolaja -- the Cathedral of Saint Nicholas. The main entrance was closed and we were directed to a side door, which forced us basically to enter at the front of the church, where everyone could see that we were late for mass!

The service was just ending as we arrived. We scrambled for a pew and stood with the rest of the congregation for the final blessing. But then we got to sit for a very nice organ postlude as everyone else left.

We returned to the hotel and joined the group to walk to a place on the River Ljubljanica where an excursion boat was waiting for us. We got on board for a 45 minute cruise, and we were served a glass of sparkling white wine. 

The cruise was pleasant enough, but the wine was really the high point. There wasn't a lot to see from the river that we hadn't already seen from above.

That was it for the day, as far as group activity. A few of us walked through the Sunday flea market, looking at tables full of antiques and collectables. Then we strolled back to the hotel. 

A bit later, we went out and sat at an outdoor cafe, the two of us enjoying our wine and beer and watching the crowds pass by. The city had become much more active on a beautiful spring Sunday afternoon.

Slovenia has a goal of becoming the "greenest" (most environmentally friendly) nation in Europe, and Ljubljana is trying to be a leader in this. It's the first place we've seen electric car charging stations in any number. Also, in the pedestrian area of the old city, if you get tired of walking you can flag down one of these little electric taxis that will take you pretty much wherever you want to go. And they're free!

Our tour group, with the mayor of Ljubljana, on the steps of the city hall from our tour a couple days ago.

At 5 p.m. our group reconvened for our farewell dinner.

Bled & Radol'ca

Rain followed us from Ljubljana to Bled this morning, and we used our umbrellas to get around Bled Castle. Fog and clouds dulled the experience of one of the world's most beautiful spots.

The drive took a bit less than an hour, and as we traveled west, toward that corner where Italy, Austria, and Slovenia meet, the villages began to look more Bavarian or Alpine Swiss in character. Indeed, we are in an area known as the Julian Alps.

Bled Castle, which dates from the 10th century, was the seat of a succession of bishop-nobles who ruled this area for some 800 years, until Napoleonic times. Because the bishop was in charge of secular, as well as religious affairs, there was no separation of church and state.

While it looks imposing from below, the castle is remarkably small. Yet it manages today to house two cafes, a wine tasting room, a museum, and at least two souvenir shops -- but little else.

There are some nice views, obscured today by rain and fog, and a chapel with some well-preserved frescoes. Otherwise, the walls and courtyards are pretty much all that is here,

We finished our visit in a half hour or so, then followed our tour leader's recommendation to split a piece of Bled cream cake.The bus took us from the hill, down to the lake shore, where we got on board a traditional, gondola-like wooden boat called a pletna.

The pletna is operated by an oarsman who stands at the rear of the boat, pushing the oars.The role of the oarsman dates back to 1740, when Maria Theresa of Austria granted 22 local families exclusive rights to ferry religious pilgrims across Lake Bled to worship on Bled Island, where there is a church. The profession is still restricted, and many modern oarsman descend directly from the original 22 families.

On arrival at Bled Island (the only island in all of Slovenia), we got to climb 99 stone steps to visit the church. Tradition holds that if you make a wish and ring the church bell three times, your wish will come true.

We found that it's very tricky to get the bell to ring exactly three times, because pulling the rope is hard when getting started, and the bell then doesn't want to stop.

We climbed 90 more stairs inside the church tower. Views from here would have been better without the rain, but getting a look at the 200+ year old pendulum clockworks was interesting.

Our tour director suggested that we all needed to taste potica here. This is a traditional Slovenian cake. Four of us split a piece of the sesame seed variety. Tasty, but a little dry.

That was two desserts already before lunch! And as soon as the pletna oarsman put us back on shore, we went once again to our bus and were driven to the quaint little village of Radovljica (written everywhere in the abbreviated form of Radol'ca).

The claim to fame here is a large music school, newly restored with EU funds. Students used to come from far and wide to live here and study. Local students still study music here, and the auditorium is used for concerts, but the dormitory areas are now a museum.

We had a very nice lunch here, with a choice of two soups, salad with pumpkin seed oil (very good!), pork, chicken, a superb potato dish, and of course, yet another dessert. This one is unique to the Bled area and called blejska grmada. We can't pronounce it, but it is very good! It's a cake soaked in rum and topped with whipped cream.

We spent some time and some money in the little shops in the old center of Radol'ca, then got back onto the bus for the 45 minute trip back to Ljubljana, where we tried to rest and digest all of those desserts.

In the evening, we gathered with several other group members for drinks. Our O.A.T. group trip is winding down, and tomorrow will be the final day.

Postojnska Jama

The spell has been broken on our extraordinary run of excellent weather. Today we awoke to clouds, rain, and temperatures in the low 50s.

The cool, wet weather did not deter us from exploring the nice botanical park right next door to our hotel. Others had told us how nice it was, but we had not found the opportunity to walk there. The rain abated long enough for us to take a walk there after breakfast.

We also walked a couple blocks along the main street of Opatija. The town no longer has the feel of a winter refuge for Hapsburg dynasty nobles, but some very neat old buildings remain.

It was only about a 20 minute bus ride to the Slovenian border, and Croatia seemed to care not at all that we were leaving. Processing at the Slovenian entry point was efficient, so with our passports freshly stamped, we traveled on.

Slovenia (or Slovenija, to use the local spelling) is a beautiful country, even on a cloudy and somewhat foggy day. One instantly notices that the farms and villages are just a bit better kept and more prosperous looking. Fruit trees in bloom everywhere added to the natural beauty.

Our first destination was the town of Postojna, the location of Postojnska Jama -- or literally, the cave of Postojna. Slovenia contains the foothills of the Alps, and these limestone hills hold hundreds of caves. The largest, and one of the few open to visitors is Postojnska Jama.

The cave is large with more than 25 km (almost 16 miles) of connected caverns documented. This doesn't make it one of the largest in the world, but abundance of stalactite and stalagmite formations makes it very scenic.

The cave was "discovered" by accident by a shepherd boy in the early 1800s. But in fact, the Pivka River flows out of the ground here, not as a small spring, but as a wide and deep stream. So people must have suspected a lot of underground activity here from ancient times.

To enter, we boarded a small, open-air electric tram which took us on a fairly rapid, 10-minute ride deep into the cavern. We then walked for more than an hour -- about 2 miles -- while underground. The lighting was especially well done.

Not the hotel, but a former bank building across the street.

After exiting the cave, we enjoyed a very nice included lunch at a nearby hotel restaurant. Then we continued about 45 minutes into central Ljubljana. Our original hotel had some sort of booking problem, so we were taken to the venerable Hotel Union, right in the heart of the old city.

After settling in, we met a local guide for a walking tour. The city is very charming, with many old buildings. Damage from 20th century wars was minimal here, so many 17th century structures remain in use.

The city is also very lively, especially on a Friday afternoon, with lots of people shopping or enjoying outdoor bars and restaurants. An event tomorrow, celebrating the city's liberation at the end of WW II, has brought even more people to town.

An unexpected bonus, our tour guide was about to show us the city hall when she interjected, "and here is our mayor!" A man in his 60s or so, clad in bluejeans and a sweatshirt, came over to greet us and ask where we were from. We chatted awhile, and then he asked if we wanted to see his office.

The mayor led us into the old town hall, took us up the stairs, through the city council chambers, and into his ceremonial office. He seemed to be having a really good time. Then he said he would show us his real office.

We went through some beautiful wooden doors with the city crest on them, and into his private office, where there were photos of the mayor (in business attire) shaking hands with all sorts of celebrities -- Queen Elizabeth, Bill Clinton, and even Vladimir Putin, among a number of others.

Our local guide said that even though she is a lifelong resident of Ljubljana, she has never seen some of these rooms before. She was probably more surprised and astounded than we were.

The tour continued, and our OAT tour leader brought some sausage out to us from one of the shops so that we could taste a local specialty.

On our own, we went with a few other group members to do a bit of shopping. Then we stopped for dessert. And finally, we joined so many others in the city for a seat at one of the many sidewalk bars to enjoy a beverage and some interesting people-watching.

Motovun & Hum

Today's tour was optional, but 11/12ths of our group opted to sign up. A local guide met us at the hotel and we boarded our usual bus to drive west from Opatija inland, to the heart of the Istrian peninsula. The drive through the mountains was very scenic.

Most of Istria now belongs to Croatia, but the northern sections of the peninsula belong to Slovenia and to Italy. We are not far from either border, and this is a place where cultures merge.

We arrived at the village of Motovun. Celts and Illyrians lived here in Roman times, when the town had the name of Montona. When the city-state of Venice ruled these parts, in the 14th-17th centuries, they called it Montona d'Istria. About 40% of the village population still speak Italian as their first language.

As the name Montona implies, the village is situated at the top of a mountain. Our bus could only take us part way up. From there, a smaller shuttle bus brought us to the outskirts of the village. From there we walked up hill on the main street of the village.

This area is one of three main places in Europe where truffles are found. One is in France, another in Italy, and the third is here. Several shops here specialize in truffles, and we were brought to one for a bit of a lesson and rather generous samples of several types, plus samples of local wine.

Our group continued up hill to the old city walls, parts of which date from the 12th century, though the main gate through the wall bears the coat of arms of Venice. We walked part of the ancient walls and admired the panoramic view. The steep hillsides made for natural defense, as well as excellent vineyards.

After completing our wall walk, we had more than half an hour on our own. Shoppers looked for the pricey truffle delicacies and other souvenirs. We spent our time in a shop that specialized in brandy and chocolate, and which was also very generous with samples of both.

After taking the shuttle back to our bus, we were driven a short distance down the mountain to a spot in the woods with absolutely nothing around. Our local guide walked us a short distance into the trees where we were introduced to a truffle hunter and his dog.

With translation through the guide, we learned that truffle hunters must be licensed to work on public land, and that almost all of them train their own dogs (in France, truffles are hunted by trained pigs, but dogs do the work here). The mixed breed dog was extremely friendly, and loved the attention from the tourists. But at her master's command, she was all business.

This was a demonstration, so the hunter had hidden a truffle for the dog to find -- a common training technique. In peak season, man and dog may work up to eight hours a day. Sometimes he comes home with his pockets full, and other days he returns empty-handed.

The bus turned toward the east once again, through the mountains, but detoured to the tiny village of Hum, which bills itself as the tiniest city in the world. Certainly, there are places as small or smaller than the 28 residents of this unincorporated village. But it's good marketing.

Hum has a restaurant, which served us an abundant and excellent meal. Lunch began with a bean soup and bread still warm from the oven. Main courses were beef with gnocchi and pasta with truffles. A couple glasses of wine were also included.

Hum's other claim to fame is an old house made into a museum, and operated by the same distilling company in whose shop we had enjoyed generous samples of brandy and chocolate in Motovun! The museum created late 19th century venues in various rooms, including a pharmacy, post office, school room, shoe shop, tailor shop, and of course, distillery.

Then the samples started. The company makes more than 20 different flavors of brandy, and we were welcome to try as many as we liked. There were also more chocolate samples, even more than had been offered at their shop in Montovun.

Well-oiled from wine at lunch and generous samples of brandy, we barely managed to stay awake on the bus back to Opatija. Once there, we decided it would be best to get some exercise. We walked the promenade along the sea for more than a mile, to the fishing village of Volosko, and then back. By then it was dinner time, but we didn't have the stomach for it.