Lovely Ljubljana

Can't resist. Have to start with a minor whinge about our hotel. Which is completely unfair because it is a beautiful building in a fantastic central location, staffed by brilliant, accommodating staff and with superb comfortable beds. But ... sack the bathroom designer/architect.

Not content with creating an avant garde space in which you can watch your partner cleaning their teeth through the "wall", or designing a shower space in which you have to hang your towel inside, he (it is bound to be a "he") has designed a toilet sensor light that comes on when you roll over in bed, and then switches itself off in mid ablution! Ok, to be fair it did eventually transpire that ours was buggered, but what is wrong with a simple light switch?! But the charming staff were full of apologies and they not only moved us but upgraded us to a room with a view of the castle. So not all bad. Yes, a whinge about nothing. Problems of the privileged!

Which leads me to ... the castle. Before the rain set in for a few hours yesterday afternoon, we explored the symbol of both Hapsburg power and now Slovenian independence.

A funicular arrival gave it a certain exotic feel and the displays around the castle were certainly worth the modest entry price. (Only one idiot in shorts - who do you think?)

Looking back down

Amongst other highlights was the oldest wooden wheel in the world!

And great views over what is a rather attractive city.

And the castle itself

We discovered on our arrival evening the walk along the river, with its range of excellent looking restaurants and bars, was worth coming for, even if we did little else. I am never quite sure how one generates a "good feel" for a city, I guess it is a combination of architecture, vistas, people, language, food etc, but I already have that kind of "good to be here" feeling in this city. Strolling along the river last night bookended by an excellent Indian curry and glass of cheap Slovenian red in our local bar was just ... well, exciting but also comfortable. Felt good to be here, without really knowing much about the place.

Embarrassingly, rather like the Nordic countries, one does not need to speak the language as just about everyone speaks virtually perfect English. I suppose nobody other than Slovenians are going to learn Slovenian, so there is perhaps little choice if you want to communicate with visitors from all over the world, whose common tongue is the only one we can speak! Shame on us. However I have done my best to get my "please" (prosim), "thankyou" (hvala), and "good day" (dober dan) in whenever I have the opportunity, almost certainly with appalling pronunciation. But hey, at least I am trying, even if it mostly amuses the locals who instantly respond in flawless English.

One of the countless interesting cafes earmarked for a return. Rob & Eric, you'd love this!

We have of course crossed a border, although you would be hard pushed to know it if the sign below had not been spotted from a train window.

So we were on an Austrian train, crossing from Italy into Slovenia and nobody even had the job to check passports. I wondered at the time if our island status and colonial history have led us to so believe in our own exceptionalism, that too many of us generally can't conceive of this free movement that others in Europe take for granted. Yet another reason why we made the utterly counterproductive decision to raise the drawbridge and cut ourselves off from the rest of Europe. Here, they simply take moving from one country to another as a matter of routine, and, having reviewed the post Second World War history of Yugoslavia in the castle Museum of Slovenian History, I a pretty sure the vast majority of Slovenians see the the European Union as an expression of freedom. Unlike the little Englanders who see it as an oppressive straitjacket designed to rob us of our "sovereignty". Freedom of movement, an entire continent of opportunity, free trade versus a spurious and meaningless sovereignty? I know which I prefer and judging by the young people around here, I know who has made the better choice. Phew, got that off my chest. Sorry, you've heard it all before!

Yesterday afternoon's somewhat inclement weather led us to take one of our usual options when on the road and indoors looks more appealing - a trip to the local cinema in the hope of finding a film we can at least understand. Many times this has been an abject failure - a Bollywood extravaganza in Hindi (Delhi), and a Hollywood blockbuster dubbed into Italian (Como) - but we don't give in easily and with optimism borne of the superb quality of English by the locals we were richly rewarded with an English version of Priscilla, screened in a wonderfully quaint stylish cinema. (We have also previously seen a Japanese classic, in Japanese, but with English subtitles in Norway!)

The cinema was fab and the film was ok too. Interesting the hear the story from her perspective. She was 14 when she met him! I kept wanting to shout "walk away, now!"

Another experience clocked up and so we come to our last day of this latest adventure. I have loved Ljubljana, but let's face it Venice and Trieste were not too shabby! A nine day journey through some amazing European history and architecture. Might have to do this again sometime! We finished off with breakfast at an excellent local cafe,

... a stroll round the city museum (spot the idiot in this montage of Ljubljanan characters),

... and an extended wander along the Ljubljanica River, in the (almost) spring sunshine.

Punctuated by a glass of wine or two, of course. We will be back down this way for dinner this evening - if this afternoon is anything to go by it might be rocking!

Think that will do for this trip. Tomorrow has nothing more interesting than making our own way to the airport and heading home for beans on toast. You can have too much of a good thing!

I'll close with the "Dragon Bridge" a symbol of the city of Ljubljana, because, as everyone knows, Jason (and his Argonauts) slayed the dragon on the marshes just outside Ljubljana. That's what they say, and who am I to doubt it? Bye for now.