I am hardly left speechless but this exquisitely beautiful tiny city would have to be one of the most gorgeous places I have ever visited. I was sitting on the edge of a wall outside the university and a lovely young local medical student gave me a history lesson. Alex told me that the people here are incredibly friendly and I don’t think I have ever visited anywhere friendlier. Ljubljana was originally a Roman antiquarian city called Emona. Many of the beautiful buildings reflect the Habsburg rule. There was a massive earthquake here in the late 1890s (or perhaps a dragon attack) and many buildings were destroyed. It reminds me a little bit of a more beautiful Vienna or Salzburg (if that is possible) but guess that is not that far up the road. There are also many beautiful Venetian buildings but then that is just down the road. The symbol of the city is the Ljubljana Dragon and there are dragons everywhere and the bridges that line the Gruber Canal are just stunning. It is still cheap so guess that is what attracts all of the young people.
I went up on the funicular to Ljubljana Castle and was again convinced I could see flying dragons. I did expect to see Daenerys appear at any moment. The city is full of beautiful bridges: The Dragon, Butchers, Triple, Fish, Cobblers, Trnovo and Hradecky. It is quite easy to walk around the whole city in a couple of hours. After last nights rain, it was a bit overcast this morning but there was a basketball and tennis carnival on in the main square so there were lots of young people around. It does feel like an incredibly young city, but then as my young history teacher told me, it has one of the best universities in Europe, especially for medicine, and of the 200,000 population, almost a third are bike riding students.
I do love a good hotel and the Hotel Cubo has to be one of the loveliest I have ever stayed in. None of the dry toast, cheese and boiled eggs for breakfast here. The food is amazing. By far the best Eggs Benedict that I have ever eaten with crispy prosciutto. The service is fantastic, the coffee lovely and the comfiest bed ever. if I was a beer drinker I could just sit here sipping out of the ‘free’ mini bar all day staring at the beautiful buildings and the dragons that would be definitely out there if I emptied the mini bar. I will definitely be back as the stunning Lake Bled is on the list for next time. Car hire is incredibly cheap and the lack of traffic means even I could take to the other side of the road.
Sleeping under the stars 