We left Zagreb fairly early today. We were not taking the train this time. Instead, for the next three days we will be using a new service call On Day Trip. Day Trip is sort of something like Uber. It matches selected local drivers to tourists who want to travel between European cities. Passengers can pick one or two side trips along the route. The drivers need to be knowledgeable, speak English and usually German as well, and have some kind of better-than-average vehicle. Day Trip is cheaper than flying, and offers the door-to-door convenience that taking the train lacks.
Our driver was named Davor and he showed up in a fairly new Range Rover. He will be our driver not only today but tomorrow. We liked him right away. He drove us today to Lbubjana, the capital of Slovenia. Now at least until the Trumps burst into public attention, most Americans would have looked blankly at the mention of the country of Slovenia. Even now I suspect that most would have difficulty locating it on a map. This is a pity indeed as both John and I decided it was one of the most charming places we have been in Europe.
A little background. Most of us grew up knowing a country called Yugoslavia. This country had been cobbled together from a small number of previous countries and parts of countries. Yugoslavia means “South Slavic Region.” All the parts of Yugoslavia spoke some kind of Slavic language and most of the people there considered themselves ethnically Slavic. But really, the cultural differences were always more important than the similarities. And so, in 1991, not longer after the Berlin Wall fell, the Yugoslavian project fell apart, too. Today the area is now six different countries — Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia-Hercegovina, Montenegro, Macedonia, and Slovenia.
Each of these countries speaks a somewhat different language, though most can understand each other. Croatia and Slovenia are Catholic, Serbia and Macedonia are Orthodox, and Bosnia has a large Muslim minority. Some were parts of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, some were parts of the Ottoman Empire, and some of the most mountainous areas were always functionally independent.
Slovenia was the first part of Yugoslavia to declare independence. Slovenia was always the most prosperous part of the old socialist country, and the area most closely connected to the west because of its borders with Austria and Italy. Unlike other parts of Croatia, there were no significant groups of Serbs or Croats living in Slovenia. This meant that there was no rationale for the remaining Yugoslav forces, composed mostly of the Serbians, to attack Slovenia. As a result, Slovenia’s independence was established early and fairly easily.
Zagreb is fairly close to the border of Slovenia. We stopped briefly to have our passports checked and stamped: Croatia is part of the European Union, but it is not park of the Schengen area. Almost as soon as we crossed the border the land became pleasantly mountainous. We passed small villages with clusters of small houses surrounding a parish church. “I looks like the Sound of Music,” John commented. And indeed it did.
We were in Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia in less than an hour after we crossed the border. For those not fluent in Slovenian, the name is pronounced “Loo blee YAH nah.” Davor was a little troubled when we gave him the address of our hotel. “That’s in the pedestrian area,” he said. “I cannot drive there.” He took us about as far as the GPS told him to go, into a parking garage near the river. We took our bags and started walking.
We were enchanted by Ljubljana the moment we came above ground. Clusters of beautiful seventeenth and eighteenth century buildings line a small river crossed with many small pedestrian bridges.
We found the hotel without much difficulty. We are staying at the Wander Urbani Resort. This is a boutique hotel right in the heart of the historic district. It has the great disadvantage of that kind of hotel as well — pretty tiny rooms! John and I were ready to do some exploring anyhow, so we left our small room and headed out.
We strolled into the nearby square. This looked like something straight out of any Baroque German or northern Italian city.
The square was dominated by the town hall.
We found an ATM. Slovenia is part of the Eurozone, and it was nice to once again deal with a currency we understood. We noticed the large church with the copper dome and decided to explore it. From the plaque at its entrance, we learned that it is named for Saint Nicholas and that it was the cathedral for Ljubljana. The interior was beautiful.
Nothing in the church was more lovely than the ceiling. I have discovered the best use of the iPhone’s front camera is to use it to photograph ceilings. I am not using it for selfies….
After we were finished with the church, it was time to find our city tour. Our hotel had told us that there was a free tour of Ljubljana leaving each day at 3:00 from the bridge near the old Franciscan church. That particular edifice had once been painted red, but time and the sun had faded it into some shade in between rose and bubble gum. It was not hard to find.
There was a strange “Ljubljana weather” fountain in the square in front of the church. It shot up water, but not where you expected it. Instead, you had the sensation that somehow it was raining. It was a hot day, so John didn’t mind getting wet.
Our tour guide spoke faultless English. I suspect she had lived in the U. S. for some time as a child.
She started off by telling us a bit about the very early history of Slovenia and Ljubljana. I was not surprised to learn that the Roman had settled much of this area. They had not settled the area that is today’s Ljubljana as it was something of a swamp originally. She talked about how the Slavs had moved into the area in the sixth century, and about early efforts to make them Christian. We learned that both the Venetians and the Austrians had struggled for control of Slovenia, and the centuries it had spent as a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
As we started to walk around, she gave us a lot of interesting facts about the buildings. Much of the area around the Franciscan church had been flattened by an earthquake in the nineteenth century. The government gave property owners money to rebuild. On house survived somewhat intact. Instead of being grateful, the owner was angry he was not receiving any money. So, he placed beams on the outside walls as if it were about to collapse and asked for assistance. The ploy worked. Not needing any money for structural supports, he used it to decorate his house in the then fashionable Secession style.
Ljubljana had a lot of pedestrian bridges, and a couple are covered with the inevitable — and annoying — “love locks.” All over Europe young couples take a lock to symbolize the idea that their love will last forever, put the lock on a bridge, and toss the key into the river below. Paris, despite its reputation as the City of Love, routinely cuts all these locks and throws them away. Ljubljana seems more willing to tolerate this nonsense.
Another bridge is decorated with dragons, the city’s emblem.
About halfway through the tour, it was just too hot for John and he went back to the hotel. I continued with the tour. Each street seemed cuter than the one before it.
I also learned a lot. For example, most of the so-called Congress of Vienna, the conference that reestablished European borders after the defeat of Napoleon, took place not in Vienna, which had too many distractions for the dignitaries, but in Ljubljana.
Returning to the hotel, John was feeling a bit refreshed from a nap, not to mention the air conditioned room. He had been told that if he went to Slovenia he really had to see Lake Bled. He had made arrangements with the desk for a cab driver to take us there and back that evening.
A bit of geography and geology. While we usually think of Switzerland when someone mentions the Alps, that group of mountains extends into a number of different countries including Austria, Germany, Italy, France, and Slovenia. The Slovenian mountains are known as the Julian Alps. These mountains are not quite as large as the Swiss peaks as they are mainly made of limestone rather than dolomite. Limestone is softer and wears down more easily. The Julian Alps look more like the Adirondacks than the Rockies.
It took us about an hour to get to Lake Bled. Our driver did not speak much English, and we obviously spoke no Slovenian. He had learned the word “beautiful,” however, and he liberally applied this adjective to everything we saw along the way. After a while I wanted to rebel and say, “No, damn it, it’s not beautiful.” But for the most part, it was. It was just monotonous being told it so many times.
Lake Bled does look like something from a Disney cartoon with a castle on a cliff overlooking the water and a church tower rising up from an island in the middle of the lake.
Our driver pulled into a hotel with a beautiful view of the lake. In his basic English, he told us that this had been Tito’s summer house. He came here a couple weeks each year and brought visitors to stay with him here. It had some of the best views of the lake imaginable, a good example of how, under socialism, some people are just more equal than others. Now, under capitalism, anyone who can pay can enjoy the view from the restaurant or a hotel verandah. Or, for that matter, you can just walk around the grounds like John and I did.
The driver dropped us off in the town of Lake Bled, a somewhat depressing commercial stretch on the far end of the lake. We had no desire to stay there, so we started to do a circuit around the lake. We saw a number of former houses. Some had been converted into hotels and restaurants, and there were others whose current function was not clear. This rather attractive lodge had the EU and Croatian flags on it, indicating some connection to the government, but it did not seem to be in use at all.
There are also a number of campgrounds and recreational facilities not far from the lake. It looks like this may be a popular family vacation spot, though frankly it would seem like a pretty boring place to spend a vacation for me.
After about an hour walking, we still were not quite back to the town of Lake Bled. Fortunately, our driver had given us his card so we call him and had him pick us up and drive us back to Ljubljana. Along the way, he kept reminding us that things were “beautiful.” We nodded and said, “Yes, beautiful” to keep him happy.
He dropped us off at the castle, the fortifications high on the hill overlooking the city. Although it was dusk, the views were still good. Unfortunately, that view showed how the outskirts of the town had been marred by ugly tower blocks and factories built during the communist years.
Oscar Wilde wrote a book called The Soul of Man under Socialism. Wilde assured his readers that life would be not only equal but utterly beautiful under socialism. He was so wrong.
John and I wandered around the castle for a bit, but decided against buying a ticket to look at all the attractions.
I find tourists taking selfies amusing, and when I can I try to catch them in the act.
It’s mean, I know, but I never represented myself as a nice person.
We took the funicular down the hill to the historic center of town. John was exhausted and wandered back to the hotel. I was not far behind, though I stopped at a sausage shop and bought him some food.
Tomorrow we head off to Vienna.
