Day 28. Tuesday 28 April.

A fair day forecast ahead of possible rain tomorrow, so we opted to do ‘outside’ stuff today. But first stop was to the closest Mercator supermarket to get supplies for breakfast. Had an interesting conversation with the lady on the checkout – her English was very competent. She spoke of ‘depression’ as a national characteristic, brought on by excessive Government intervention. Like Stella in Dubrovnik, she mentioned cost of living issues, and low wages – and a reluctance of the young to work (guess she would have been in the 50-60 age bracket).  And politics: one learns to ‘zip the lips’. She spoke of a brother living in the US, who’d had heart surgery, but who would never return. Didn’t quite get to the end of that story: pity we were interrupted by another customer!

With main breakfast supplies of bread, milk, yogurt, banana we were set up for the day. Spent some screen time wondering about car rental versus bus travel and the next accommodation. The ease of bus is inviting and from Ljubljana day trips are do-able but there’s something about the prospect of getting quieter accommodation, for which you need a car. T is particularly conscious of others above (water running, furniture scraping, feet…). Booking made for Jesenice, a town in the Bled area, accessible by bus and maybe train. From there we’ll hit the big spots of Bled & Bohinj and take the scenic Bohinj rail trip through the Soca Valley( return)…lots of tunnels.

Setting out for a tourist day, we passed through a mixed market – fresh produce, flowers, clothing – that the tourist office told us opens every day except Sunday and public holidays. So much produce! It can’t all be sold.

We then spied the little green tourist train, and having established it as a (limited) hop on/hop off ride, boarded.

 It arrived fairly quickly at Ljubljana Castle where we alighted. A coffee to get us kick started – T ordered a Florentine, D ordered the Apple Strudel.

The table was dive bombed by sparrows keen to join in, but were waved away. Afterwards, a couple came back for the crumbs, as well as a Mediterranean Crow. Very cheeky birds.

T was keen to learn more about Slovenia’s history, so that was our first destination. Well, in summary, it’s all about conquest, struggle, reconquest, revolution….Romans,  Ottomans, the the Austrians, Venetians, the Slavs, the French, Italians, the Germans….the Yugoslavians (more recently).

To clear the brain fog we climbed the tower for a panoramic view of the city, the plain and the surrounding mountains, including the Julian’s in the north still with a lot of snow.

Dragged ourselves into the Museum of Puppetry, because it was included in our ticket, and pleased that we did. There’s still something magical about the pre-digital world of puppetry.

Back to the very bumpy green train to finish the tourist circuit. A loud bang and the train stopped, with the driver getting out with his walkie talkie to check. Turned out a kid had jumped on the running board of the last wagon, and opened and slammed shut a door. T reckons she saw him sitting inside: the driver said no and that he was ‘disgusted’ with ‘kids these days’. The commentary on the bus regularly referred to Ljubljana’s status as an exemplary ‘green’ European city, a reputation that needs to be held onto. This may be so for the moment… (getting rid of cigarettes would be a positive thing) but economic development/productivity/energy demands in a fragile Europe must be a serious issue.

In search of dinner…ingredients for 2 pasta meals from Lidl & then back to our abode, passing through lots of folk with disposable income.