Breakfast over, we headed off back into town, again walking through the peaceful gardens to avoid the main roads. The rain had stopped, and although not sunny, the temperature was very pleasant. 

Gitti pointed out the main places of interest recommended in her guide book, including the first ‘skyscraper’ in Southern Europe and the public library (designed by a student of the well-known Viennese architect, Wagner). Our walk took us up the hill to the castle that overlooks the charming city. A castle in some form or another (originally in timber) has stood here since about 1200. We chose the audioguide option, as we had just missed the guided tour and the next one was almost 90 minutes later. With a little difficulty, we located the sites numbered on our map, pushed the relevant buttons, and listened to information regarding the structure and history of the castle. It was saved from demolition by the city’s mayor in the early 1905. His vision was to establish a city museum in it, but instead the site was used to house poor people until 1963. Renovations, taking about 35 years, then began. In the 1990s, it began to be used for weddings and cultural events. The modern elements seemed at odds with the earlier components of the castle, but I can imagine in another two or three hundred years, tourists will marvel at the changes that were made to the castle in our era! It has clearly been evolving over the centuries.

Within the castle grounds are various museums and displays that our entry ticket allowed us to enter. The highlight was probably the view over the city from the tower — I do like to get those birdseye views of my surroundings. The audioguide mentioned that on a clear day one can see about one third of the whole of Slovenia from the top of the tower — it is certainly a small country!

Our meanderings through the castle took us about 90 minutes. Hermann had headed back to the hotel, but amazingly we bumped in to him in the market area at the bottom of the hill. He had already eaten, and so continued on whilst Gitti, Michael and I stopped for coffees. (Not surprisingly, Michael found himself another kremsnitte — the custard-cream cake which is so famous in Slovenia. A little later on, we bought a couple more to take back to the hotel with us.)

Before heading back to our hotel, we had a closer look at the Triple Bridge — goodness knows why they needed to build 3 bridges so close to each other! I just looked it up: In order to prevent the 1842 stone arch bridge from being a bottleneck, the architect Jože Plečnik designed in 1929 the extension of the bridge with two footbridges at a slight angle on each side of it. Construction started in 1931 and continued until spring 1932. The bridge was opened for traffic in April 1932 and was renovated in 1992. All three bridges have been part of the Ljubljana pedestrian-only zone since 2007.

Back at the hotel, we met for pre-dinner drinks and another ‘iPad party’! Last year, Gitti & Hermann didn’t have iPads, but after travelling in Norway with us, Hermann went out and bought them each an iPad Pro — so now we can all be on our iPads at the same time! ;-)  When together, we just used them to airdrop photos to each other and look up information. :-)

Michael had already been out on a reconnaissance to check out a nearby restaurant recommended by the receptionist at our small hotel. Trip Advisor reviews were also positive. The prices were reasonable (around $16 for a main meal) and so he booked us a table. The short walk through the quiet streets to the foot of the hills was very pleasant. Determined to never again lose my precious cardigan, I tied it to my shoulder bag with multiple knots!

The traditional menu included ‘medallions of foal’ which, needless to say, we did not order! Michael and I shared a mixed grill which contained far more meat than we could both manage to eat — very unusual for Michael to leave anything on his plate! 

By the time we started walking back to our hotel, the temperature was cooling down, and so my cardigan came in handy, as well as Michael’s jumper which he kindly lent me to wear as well.