Ljubljana and Lake Bled, Slovenia

I decided I wanted to go to Ljubljana and Lake Bled after hearing a podcast interview about a writer who spent his honeymoon biking around the area. It seemed intriguing and the more I learned about the area and saw pictures, the more I wanted to go. 

Ljubljana (pronounced loo·bee·ah·nuh) is the capital of Slovenia. It took us about 6 hours on a train from Munich to arrive at the train terminal. We traveled through Germany, Austria, and the north part of Slovenia before arriving in the capital city. It was a beautiful ride. The train from Austria into Slovenia seemed very old, but was still comfortable. It's the first train I've ever been on with 3 seats across in each compartment.

Once we got checked in to our hotel (we stayed at the Intercontinental, which was very close to the train station), we decided to go explore the city through with a free walking tour. The city core is small and a river runs through the middle. We crossed over 4 of the bridges in town as we walked around the city, learning about the history and culture. There are no cars allowed in the center of the city, which makes it very easy to walk around. 

Slovenia is a small nation, with around 1.5 million people. However, their language is very important. They became a country after declaring independence from Yugoslavia in 1991. They joined the EU in 2004, which has been really important in making this country a modern capital. 

Ljubljana is known as the dragon city and you can see their symbol on the Dragon Bridge. 4 large, imposing statues stand on the 4 posts on both sides of the river.

Everywhere we walked was very beautiful. The evening light with the castle on the hill was perfect!

After we finished the tour, we walked over to a restaurant to get dinner. It was a restaurant I found randomly on TripAdvisor, but it turned out to have excellent food! We shared an appetizer of potatoes with ricotta on top (left) and my chicken with polenta (right) was one of the best meals I've eaten in a long time. I hope we go back to this restaurant at some point!

The next day, we decided to take a bus to Lake Bled. We didn't have much of a plan, but wanted to walk around the lake and see what else there was in this small town. It took about an hour from the bus station in central Ljubljana to get to Lake Bled.

The weather was incredibly beautiful on this day. The sunshine made the water sparkle as we walked 3 miles on a path around the lake. 

We didn't bring our bathing suits, but we saw plenty of people enjoying the water. We did take a beach towel and spent some time lounging in the grass-it was very nice!

Brennan's always stretching and thinking ahead to his next run. He's doing great with his training for the marathon in October!

Other than the beautiful lake, Lake Bled is known for cream cake. It's made of a layer of puff pastry dusted with powdered sugar, a layer of whipped cream, a huge layer of custard, then another layer of puff pastry. It was a delicious end to our time in Lake Bled!

On our last day in Slovenia, we decided to go up to the castle. We took a funicular up, which gave us a great view of the city. 

Ljubljana Castle was not what I was expecting. It's a mix of an event space, historical castle, and has several restaurants. 

We were able to watch a video about the history of the castle, which helped us understand a bit more. No ruler has ever lived at the castle-it was used as a military fort and gathering place throughout history. The city has owned the castle for about 100 years. In addition to it being a historical museum, we saw a gallery of photographs and they had it set up for an outdoor movie in the evening.

We had great views across the city from the very top of the castle (above). 

Once we walked back to the hotel, we went up to the rooftop and saw a storm roll in. It was very interesting to see both perspectives on Ljubljana. 

We had a great time in Slovenia, despite some less than desirable weather for two of the days. While getting to Ljubljana from the US is challenging, this city's charm and history made it a great place for us to spend a few days. I'd definitely go back and spend more time in Slovenia!