August 10-12 is when these events occurred. Ljubljana, Slovenia. [lyoob-lyee-AH-nah. It took me a while to get it right. Although after all that practice, one of our Slovenian guides (who spoke perfect English with a clipped, crisp British accent) told us to just forget about pronouncing the "j's."]
I. August 10th
The trip out of Zagreb went easily and smoothly. We were soon back on the toll road and after paying one toll, we were quickly approaching the Slovenian border. We stopped at a gasoline station and attempted to exhaust our accumulation of kunas with a fill-up. When that did not suffice, we purchased almost $14 of junk food and drink.
I was surprised that even through we were passing from one EU country to another, we still had to go through immigration for both countries. However, the crossing went smoothly and quickly.
Slovenia is a very small county. It is half the size of Switzerland and has about 2 million residents. It has a very different feel than the other Balkan countries that we visited. It seemed to be more prosperous, more organized, more punctual and more western than those other countries. Indeed, it is a bit hard to fathom that it was once part of Yugoslavia. Unlike Serbia and Georgia, and to a lesser extent Croatia, we did not see any Soviet era rusting factories or hulking, ugly, apartment buildings. The country was long ruled by the Habsburg dynasty and has a strong Germanic flavor, but it seems nicer and more laid back than Germany or Austria. In 1990 a reformer was elected in Slovenia's first free elections and the communists were removed from office. The new leader sought to pursue a Swiss-style confederation with the rest of Yugoslavia, but he was rebuffed. In the face of Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic's nationalist rantings about protecting Serbs no matter where they resided, [It seems that Putin's playbook is not original.], when a vote on independence was held later in the year, 88% voted in favor of independence. In 1991, Slovenia seceded from Yugoslavia and declared its independence. Slovenia is 90% ethnic Slovene, and because Milosevic was probably preoccupied with the Serbs in Croatia and making war on the also newly-independent Croatia, Slovenia managed to escape Yugoslavia with only a 10-day war and a few dozen deaths. No one else in the world speaks Slovenian, so virtually everyone, at least in Ljubljana, the capital, speaks English.
It took us less than an hour after we crossed the border to reach Ljubljana. It was a toll road and like Turkey, without any means to pay the toll on the road. However, while Slovenia is in both in the EU and the euro zone, T-Mobile does not have a plan there. So as we entered Ljubljana, we were driving blind when we were seeking our hotel, Lev. However, Ljubljana is not very big, but also not very car-friendly, and after driving around, but not in, the center city (which is largely a pedestrian zone), we spotted signs for our hotel and arrived there easily in mid afternoon. We were given a nice room on the tenth floor as they took our car away for parking. [By the way, a portion of the pedestrian-only areas is a result of the super-efficient, keep-your-promises, popular mayor, Zoran Jankovic, who turned to politics after being forced out of his supermarket corporation.]
Ljubljana's history goes back a long way. It too has a good founding story. The local legend is that when Jason and his Argonauts (we have encountered that group several times on this trip) were passing through on their way home with the Golden Fleece, they were overtaken by winter and stopped at, and founded, present day Ljubljana. The legend also says that he killed a dragon while out in the marshlands and that is the reason the dragon is the city's mascot.
More likely is that the marshes outside of town were settled by lake dwellers. In the City Museum we saw the remains of what is claimed to be the world's oldest wheel, used by the lake dwellers around 3300 BC. The area was at various times overrun and ruled by the Celts, Romans, Huns and Slavs, but from the 14th century it was ruled by the Habsburg dynasty, which accounts for the pronounced Germanic flavor of the city. During a brief period of Napoleonic rule, Ljubljana was made the capital of the Illyrian Provinces, Slovenian became an official language, and the Slovenes got a taste of nationalism. However, after the Congress of Vienna, they were stuffed back into the Habsburg box under Austrian rule.
During WWI there was extensive fighting in what is now northwest Slovenia on the Soca/Isonzo front. Unlike the western front which got much more publicity, this was fought in the mountains in trenches that had to be dug into rock. Soldiers from 22 different nationalities (mainly from the disparate parts of the Austrian Hungarian empire, but also from Italy's colonies) fought on this front. With German assistance, the Austrians were beating the Italians -- even today, Italians supposedly refer to a disaster as, "at least it's not a Caporetto" (their name for the battle). However, when the Germans pulled out, the Austrian army collapsed under the weight of British and US assistance to the Italians.
There were two notables who participated in those battles. Erwin Rommel experimented with Blitzkrieg tactics that he later employed very successfully in North Africa in WWII. Earnest Hemingway served in the Red Cross Ambulance Corps on the Isonzo Front. When his ambulance was hit by a mortar shell, he allegedly packed his wound with cigarette butts to stop the bleeding. "A Farewell to Arms" was based on his experiences in this fighting.
After WWI Slovenia was included in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, later renamed Yugoslavia (south Slavs). During WWII Slovenia was occupied first by the Italians, and then by the Germans. The latter found the Ljubljana resistance movement too difficult to suppress, so they encircled the city in barbed wire and turned it into a giant prison for three years. It has lots of schools and the average age of its population is 30, the youngest of any capital city in Europe.
[A digression: There was a large Slovenian emigrant community on the west side of Cleveland when I lived there, and for years it was represented in Congress by Dennis Kucinich, a perennial candidate for President for a while and Mayor of Cleveland when the Cuyahoga River caught fire (not his fault) and the municipal electric utility went bankrupt. The latter was his fault. I occasionally went over to that side of town to eat.]
We discovered that a Ljubljana Tourist Card gets you free admission into most of the city's sights, free travel on city buses (there was no tram system) free guided tours and, as the booklet said "much much more." So we purchased two-day passes online (10% discount for that), but then had to find the Tourist office to pick up the passes. The walk into the town center was less than 5 minutes. We found the first tourist office, which directed us to the tourist office that handed out the passes.
We signed up for a one-hour riverboat cruise (Ljubljana River) that was leaving soon and after that, a tour of the Castle and a city walk. Just flash the pass. The river cruise was guided by a young Slovenian who spoke English with an English accent. No explanation for that. The only other cruisers were an Australian couple. The river is lined with cafes and restaurants and is forded by many bridges, most with a unique history. Butchers Bridge is based on a design by local famed architect Joze Plecnik, and has several bizarre small sculptures along the railings. It also has Adam and Eve statues and lots of padlocks, following the Paris craze. Dragon Bridge has four dragons and commemorates the 40th anniversary of Emperor Franz Joesph's rule, 1848-1888 imprinted on the side. Cobbler's Bridge is a columned bridge also based on a Plecnik design, (the original bridge was lined with cobblers, or shoemakers as we know them) which new design was conceived as a square over the river. (The cobblers did not make the cut on the replacement.) Finally, there is the Triple Bridge that joins Ljubljana's main public areas, Preseren Square and the Town Square. The middle span is the widest, but Plecnik added two other spans to help funnel traffic out of the square.
The riverside market and colonnade is yet another Plecnik design and is based on an ancient Greek agara design, similar to what we saw in Ephesus.
Plecnik was a native of Ljubljana and through his work in the first half of the 20th century, he has had a strong impact on how the city looks today. His style seems to be a synthesis of historical and modern elements. He was also the chief architect for the renovation of the Prague Castle after WWI. He was very religious and fell out of favor with the post WWII communist regime. After his death in the 1990s, his reputation was revived and his designs have been incorporated into several recent projects; his work definitely gives Ljubljana an idiosyncratic sense of style.
After the boat ride, we walked over to the Town Square for the next tour. The tour began in the Town Hall. Built in the 15th century and still used as the city hall, it has lots of artwork in the courtyard and a big clock tower. The fountain in the square is the Fountain of Three Carniolian Rivers, representing the areas' three main rivers, the Ljubljana, Sava and Krka. It resembles the fountains in Rome, which is not surprising since it was designed by an Italian, Francesco Robba. His claim to fame is that in all his sculptures, he joins together the two middle fingers on the left hand. He has many sculptures in Ljubljana, which can be spotted by the hand signals.
We then took a tourist train up to Ljubljana Castle. The hill upon which it sits has a commanding view of the town and countryside looking out as far as the Julian Alps. It has had settlements going back to prehistoric times. The Romans built the first fortress and it was added to over the years. In the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries, it was used as a penitentiary and a POW camp, and has been rebuilt as a tourist attraction. We toured the free exhibits, the penitentiary, a small chapel and the Slovenian history exhibit. The Italians do not get "credit" for this, but they ran some pretty bad concentration camps, too.
We walked down a long winding ramp to Gotnji Trg (upper) square which is one of the town gates of medieval Ljubljana. That led into Stari Trg (old) square that constitutes the center of old town Ljubljana, with the castle overshadowing it. This street is now lined with shops, restaurants and cafes. Most of the buildings along this street had only three horizontal windows, the medieval city's vehicle for limiting the size of buildings within the walled city. The Schweiger House was purchased by a rich merchant who combined two houses for his mansion (thus, six windows wide).
We ate dinner outside at a restaurant on Stari Trg that employed disabled people and thus was subsidized by the government. It served Slovenian food, and we had kranjska klobasa, a Slovenian sausage as well as Slovenian wine and beer. The former allegedly has a growing international reputation. We followed that up with some very good ice cream at a shop on the same street.
II. August 11
The breakfast at the Lev had the largest selection of foods that we encountered on the trip. No cooked to order, but it had multiple fruits and an unending supply of chocolate coussiants.
After breakfast we took the bus (just flash the pass) to the National Museum of Contemporary History that is located within Tivoli (shades of Copenhagen) Park. This museum focused on Slovenia's history from the beginning of the 20th century, essentially starting with the last years of Habsburg rule. During WWII Slovenia was invaded by and chopped up between Germany, Italy and Hungary. There were exhibits of the socialist era that were not as negative as those we saw in Georgia and Croatia. However, they also showed the prison camps and secret police of the early Tito years. Tito remains popular here and there was both his bust and a book detailing his trips to Slovenia. There was great focus on the War for Independence in 1991 and the actions of civilians in blocking the barracks of the Yugoslav People's Army, some of whose conscripts were Slovenians There is one exhibit which decries how Yugoslavian bombers at one point were herded to the city but were called back by a Yugoslav officer who was Slovenian. It culminated in the Army sailing away with its equipment. The most moving exhibit was one describing the trials and tribulations of about 30 Slovenes who had been displaced by various wars and their efforts, sometimes over many years, to return to families that had no idea they were still alive. One of these returnees even ended up in Ft Dix in New Jersey as a POW.
Then we took the bus back to the old town area and explored the artificial rain storm in Preseren Square. This is now pedestrian only. (The current mayor has made large sections of the center city car-free. A boon for pedestrians, but I imagine a burden for people who live in that area.) At the center of the square is a large statue of France Preseren, a 19th century nationalist poet. In most other countries you would find a military hero there. The statue shows him being inspired from above by a naked Muse. That did not sit well with the local Bishop whose church, Franciscan Church of the Annunciation, sits on the square and faces the statue. I was told that for years the church covered the scandalous statue each night with a tarp, and the model who posed as the Muse could no longer find work and had to permanently emigrate to South America. Preseren's gaze is directed to a picture in a second story window of Julija, the unrequited love of his life. Not as romantic as it sounds. I was told that they met when he was in his 30s as a teacher in her father's house and she was a child. She might have inspired him, but she married another, opting for wealth and status. All he could offer was poverty and fame.
We then took a cirquitious route to the City Museum. Lots of city history which showed how the city has been ruled by 10 different states during the past 200 years. Imagine being the buyer in the school district trying to keep up with the different textbooks. They had an old Fiat Zastava 750 car that was popular in communist Yugoslavia. There was a Faces of Ljubljana exhibit, a Roman road and and an exhibit on water usage. Seems to me that unlike California, they have plenty of water here. I even drank it without getting sick, another sign that we had returned to Europe.
After that we crossed back into old town and took the funicular (just flash the pass) up to the Castle. This time we used our pass to visit the paid exhibits. Most prominent were the torture museum (it is amazing how creative, and cruel, people can get when they want to torture someone) and the puppets museum. We ate dinner in the Castle's courtyard at the Gostilna na Gradu restaurant. Nice dinner of Slovenian food with small portions, but affordable prices.
On the way back to the hotel, took a detour, maybe even got a bit lost, and so we passed through Congress Square and Square of the Republic. The former is ringed by cultural buildings while the latter is ringed by commercial buildings and is where Slovenian independence was declared in 1991. It also houses a tower with a gigantic digital sign flashing the time, temperature and date. We also passed the US embassy during our walk, which I think is the only US embassy, other than the US embassy in Delhi where my son works, that we saw on the trip.
III. August 12
Another big breakfast at the Lev. We then walked back to center city. First we went to the post office to purchase a tollway sticker. 15 euro for one week. Then we went to an athletic store to purchase running shoes, thinking that they would be too expensive in France. Turns out they were expensive here too, but good on French country roads. We then turned away from old town and passed a big department store, Galerija Emporium that dates back to the late 19th century, the Grand Union Hotel, (where I wanted to stay, but it was pretty expensive), with its domed spire that has been replicated on many other buildings in the city, a government building that was hideously painted in red, blue and white colors (Slovenian flag) and finally, a noisy, pink zigzagged building that houses a bank.
By early afternoon we took off for Germany, not knowing where we would stay, or even in what city, but secure in our knowledge that we were good with the Slovenian toll road authority.
I. August 10th
The trip out of Zagreb went easily and smoothly. We were soon back on the toll road and after paying one toll, we were quickly approaching the Slovenian border. We stopped at a gasoline station and attempted to exhaust our accumulation of kunas with a fill-up. When that did not suffice, we purchased almost $14 of junk food and drink.
I was surprised that even through we were passing from one EU country to another, we still had to go through immigration for both countries. However, the crossing went smoothly and quickly.
Slovenia is a very small county. It is half the size of Switzerland and has about 2 million residents. It has a very different feel than the other Balkan countries that we visited. It seemed to be more prosperous, more organized, more punctual and more western than those other countries. Indeed, it is a bit hard to fathom that it was once part of Yugoslavia. Unlike Serbia and Georgia, and to a lesser extent Croatia, we did not see any Soviet era rusting factories or hulking, ugly, apartment buildings. The country was long ruled by the Habsburg dynasty and has a strong Germanic flavor, but it seems nicer and more laid back than Germany or Austria. In 1990 a reformer was elected in Slovenia's first free elections and the communists were removed from office. The new leader sought to pursue a Swiss-style confederation with the rest of Yugoslavia, but he was rebuffed. In the face of Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic's nationalist rantings about protecting Serbs no matter where they resided, [It seems that Putin's playbook is not original.], when a vote on independence was held later in the year, 88% voted in favor of independence. In 1991, Slovenia seceded from Yugoslavia and declared its independence. Slovenia is 90% ethnic Slovene, and because Milosevic was probably preoccupied with the Serbs in Croatia and making war on the also newly-independent Croatia, Slovenia managed to escape Yugoslavia with only a 10-day war and a few dozen deaths. No one else in the world speaks Slovenian, so virtually everyone, at least in Ljubljana, the capital, speaks English.
It took us less than an hour after we crossed the border to reach Ljubljana. It was a toll road and like Turkey, without any means to pay the toll on the road. However, while Slovenia is in both in the EU and the euro zone, T-Mobile does not have a plan there. So as we entered Ljubljana, we were driving blind when we were seeking our hotel, Lev. However, Ljubljana is not very big, but also not very car-friendly, and after driving around, but not in, the center city (which is largely a pedestrian zone), we spotted signs for our hotel and arrived there easily in mid afternoon. We were given a nice room on the tenth floor as they took our car away for parking. [By the way, a portion of the pedestrian-only areas is a result of the super-efficient, keep-your-promises, popular mayor, Zoran Jankovic, who turned to politics after being forced out of his supermarket corporation.]
Ljubljana's history goes back a long way. It too has a good founding story. The local legend is that when Jason and his Argonauts (we have encountered that group several times on this trip) were passing through on their way home with the Golden Fleece, they were overtaken by winter and stopped at, and founded, present day Ljubljana. The legend also says that he killed a dragon while out in the marshlands and that is the reason the dragon is the city's mascot.
More likely is that the marshes outside of town were settled by lake dwellers. In the City Museum we saw the remains of what is claimed to be the world's oldest wheel, used by the lake dwellers around 3300 BC. The area was at various times overrun and ruled by the Celts, Romans, Huns and Slavs, but from the 14th century it was ruled by the Habsburg dynasty, which accounts for the pronounced Germanic flavor of the city. During a brief period of Napoleonic rule, Ljubljana was made the capital of the Illyrian Provinces, Slovenian became an official language, and the Slovenes got a taste of nationalism. However, after the Congress of Vienna, they were stuffed back into the Habsburg box under Austrian rule.
During WWI there was extensive fighting in what is now northwest Slovenia on the Soca/Isonzo front. Unlike the western front which got much more publicity, this was fought in the mountains in trenches that had to be dug into rock. Soldiers from 22 different nationalities (mainly from the disparate parts of the Austrian Hungarian empire, but also from Italy's colonies) fought on this front. With German assistance, the Austrians were beating the Italians -- even today, Italians supposedly refer to a disaster as, "at least it's not a Caporetto" (their name for the battle). However, when the Germans pulled out, the Austrian army collapsed under the weight of British and US assistance to the Italians.
There were two notables who participated in those battles. Erwin Rommel experimented with Blitzkrieg tactics that he later employed very successfully in North Africa in WWII. Earnest Hemingway served in the Red Cross Ambulance Corps on the Isonzo Front. When his ambulance was hit by a mortar shell, he allegedly packed his wound with cigarette butts to stop the bleeding. "A Farewell to Arms" was based on his experiences in this fighting.
After WWI Slovenia was included in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, later renamed Yugoslavia (south Slavs). During WWII Slovenia was occupied first by the Italians, and then by the Germans. The latter found the Ljubljana resistance movement too difficult to suppress, so they encircled the city in barbed wire and turned it into a giant prison for three years. It has lots of schools and the average age of its population is 30, the youngest of any capital city in Europe.
[A digression: There was a large Slovenian emigrant community on the west side of Cleveland when I lived there, and for years it was represented in Congress by Dennis Kucinich, a perennial candidate for President for a while and Mayor of Cleveland when the Cuyahoga River caught fire (not his fault) and the municipal electric utility went bankrupt. The latter was his fault. I occasionally went over to that side of town to eat.]
We discovered that a Ljubljana Tourist Card gets you free admission into most of the city's sights, free travel on city buses (there was no tram system) free guided tours and, as the booklet said "much much more." So we purchased two-day passes online (10% discount for that), but then had to find the Tourist office to pick up the passes. The walk into the town center was less than 5 minutes. We found the first tourist office, which directed us to the tourist office that handed out the passes.
We signed up for a one-hour riverboat cruise (Ljubljana River) that was leaving soon and after that, a tour of the Castle and a city walk. Just flash the pass. The river cruise was guided by a young Slovenian who spoke English with an English accent. No explanation for that. The only other cruisers were an Australian couple. The river is lined with cafes and restaurants and is forded by many bridges, most with a unique history. Butchers Bridge is based on a design by local famed architect Joze Plecnik, and has several bizarre small sculptures along the railings. It also has Adam and Eve statues and lots of padlocks, following the Paris craze. Dragon Bridge has four dragons and commemorates the 40th anniversary of Emperor Franz Joesph's rule, 1848-1888 imprinted on the side. Cobbler's Bridge is a columned bridge also based on a Plecnik design, (the original bridge was lined with cobblers, or shoemakers as we know them) which new design was conceived as a square over the river. (The cobblers did not make the cut on the replacement.) Finally, there is the Triple Bridge that joins Ljubljana's main public areas, Preseren Square and the Town Square. The middle span is the widest, but Plecnik added two other spans to help funnel traffic out of the square.
The riverside market and colonnade is yet another Plecnik design and is based on an ancient Greek agara design, similar to what we saw in Ephesus.
Plecnik was a native of Ljubljana and through his work in the first half of the 20th century, he has had a strong impact on how the city looks today. His style seems to be a synthesis of historical and modern elements. He was also the chief architect for the renovation of the Prague Castle after WWI. He was very religious and fell out of favor with the post WWII communist regime. After his death in the 1990s, his reputation was revived and his designs have been incorporated into several recent projects; his work definitely gives Ljubljana an idiosyncratic sense of style.
After the boat ride, we walked over to the Town Square for the next tour. The tour began in the Town Hall. Built in the 15th century and still used as the city hall, it has lots of artwork in the courtyard and a big clock tower. The fountain in the square is the Fountain of Three Carniolian Rivers, representing the areas' three main rivers, the Ljubljana, Sava and Krka. It resembles the fountains in Rome, which is not surprising since it was designed by an Italian, Francesco Robba. His claim to fame is that in all his sculptures, he joins together the two middle fingers on the left hand. He has many sculptures in Ljubljana, which can be spotted by the hand signals.
We then took a tourist train up to Ljubljana Castle. The hill upon which it sits has a commanding view of the town and countryside looking out as far as the Julian Alps. It has had settlements going back to prehistoric times. The Romans built the first fortress and it was added to over the years. In the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries, it was used as a penitentiary and a POW camp, and has been rebuilt as a tourist attraction. We toured the free exhibits, the penitentiary, a small chapel and the Slovenian history exhibit. The Italians do not get "credit" for this, but they ran some pretty bad concentration camps, too.
We walked down a long winding ramp to Gotnji Trg (upper) square which is one of the town gates of medieval Ljubljana. That led into Stari Trg (old) square that constitutes the center of old town Ljubljana, with the castle overshadowing it. This street is now lined with shops, restaurants and cafes. Most of the buildings along this street had only three horizontal windows, the medieval city's vehicle for limiting the size of buildings within the walled city. The Schweiger House was purchased by a rich merchant who combined two houses for his mansion (thus, six windows wide).
We ate dinner outside at a restaurant on Stari Trg that employed disabled people and thus was subsidized by the government. It served Slovenian food, and we had kranjska klobasa, a Slovenian sausage as well as Slovenian wine and beer. The former allegedly has a growing international reputation. We followed that up with some very good ice cream at a shop on the same street.
II. August 11
The breakfast at the Lev had the largest selection of foods that we encountered on the trip. No cooked to order, but it had multiple fruits and an unending supply of chocolate coussiants.
After breakfast we took the bus (just flash the pass) to the National Museum of Contemporary History that is located within Tivoli (shades of Copenhagen) Park. This museum focused on Slovenia's history from the beginning of the 20th century, essentially starting with the last years of Habsburg rule. During WWII Slovenia was invaded by and chopped up between Germany, Italy and Hungary. There were exhibits of the socialist era that were not as negative as those we saw in Georgia and Croatia. However, they also showed the prison camps and secret police of the early Tito years. Tito remains popular here and there was both his bust and a book detailing his trips to Slovenia. There was great focus on the War for Independence in 1991 and the actions of civilians in blocking the barracks of the Yugoslav People's Army, some of whose conscripts were Slovenians There is one exhibit which decries how Yugoslavian bombers at one point were herded to the city but were called back by a Yugoslav officer who was Slovenian. It culminated in the Army sailing away with its equipment. The most moving exhibit was one describing the trials and tribulations of about 30 Slovenes who had been displaced by various wars and their efforts, sometimes over many years, to return to families that had no idea they were still alive. One of these returnees even ended up in Ft Dix in New Jersey as a POW.
Then we took the bus back to the old town area and explored the artificial rain storm in Preseren Square. This is now pedestrian only. (The current mayor has made large sections of the center city car-free. A boon for pedestrians, but I imagine a burden for people who live in that area.) At the center of the square is a large statue of France Preseren, a 19th century nationalist poet. In most other countries you would find a military hero there. The statue shows him being inspired from above by a naked Muse. That did not sit well with the local Bishop whose church, Franciscan Church of the Annunciation, sits on the square and faces the statue. I was told that for years the church covered the scandalous statue each night with a tarp, and the model who posed as the Muse could no longer find work and had to permanently emigrate to South America. Preseren's gaze is directed to a picture in a second story window of Julija, the unrequited love of his life. Not as romantic as it sounds. I was told that they met when he was in his 30s as a teacher in her father's house and she was a child. She might have inspired him, but she married another, opting for wealth and status. All he could offer was poverty and fame.
We then took a cirquitious route to the City Museum. Lots of city history which showed how the city has been ruled by 10 different states during the past 200 years. Imagine being the buyer in the school district trying to keep up with the different textbooks. They had an old Fiat Zastava 750 car that was popular in communist Yugoslavia. There was a Faces of Ljubljana exhibit, a Roman road and and an exhibit on water usage. Seems to me that unlike California, they have plenty of water here. I even drank it without getting sick, another sign that we had returned to Europe.
After that we crossed back into old town and took the funicular (just flash the pass) up to the Castle. This time we used our pass to visit the paid exhibits. Most prominent were the torture museum (it is amazing how creative, and cruel, people can get when they want to torture someone) and the puppets museum. We ate dinner in the Castle's courtyard at the Gostilna na Gradu restaurant. Nice dinner of Slovenian food with small portions, but affordable prices.
On the way back to the hotel, took a detour, maybe even got a bit lost, and so we passed through Congress Square and Square of the Republic. The former is ringed by cultural buildings while the latter is ringed by commercial buildings and is where Slovenian independence was declared in 1991. It also houses a tower with a gigantic digital sign flashing the time, temperature and date. We also passed the US embassy during our walk, which I think is the only US embassy, other than the US embassy in Delhi where my son works, that we saw on the trip.
III. August 12
Another big breakfast at the Lev. We then walked back to center city. First we went to the post office to purchase a tollway sticker. 15 euro for one week. Then we went to an athletic store to purchase running shoes, thinking that they would be too expensive in France. Turns out they were expensive here too, but good on French country roads. We then turned away from old town and passed a big department store, Galerija Emporium that dates back to the late 19th century, the Grand Union Hotel, (where I wanted to stay, but it was pretty expensive), with its domed spire that has been replicated on many other buildings in the city, a government building that was hideously painted in red, blue and white colors (Slovenian flag) and finally, a noisy, pink zigzagged building that houses a bank.
By early afternoon we took off for Germany, not knowing where we would stay, or even in what city, but secure in our knowledge that we were good with the Slovenian toll road authority.
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