2006-08-01

My girlfriend and I were in Ljubljana for a few hours on May 22, 2004, in connection with the Women's Handball European Champions League final in the evening.

We arrived in bus, together with 195 other Slagelse FH fans, early in the morning, had some breakfast outside the Kodeljevo sports hall, where the game were to take place in the evening, and then Louise and I walked in towards the center of the city.

The only map we had was a print from the Internet (From Ljubljana Tourist Information), and it wasn't very detailed outside the city center. Still, we somehow managed to take the right turn from the beginning, and so we walked up Poljanska straight to the city center. It being a Saturday morning there weren't all that many people on the street, until we reached Vodnikov Targa (Square) with it's market with stalls selling mostly clothes and vegetables. Very lively, though. Bordering the market square, and separating it from the river is a long colonnade, built in 1939-40 - very beautiful, as you can see on some of the pictures.

We spent about an hour walking about the market, finding a better map at the tourist office (on Poljanski, next to the market - very helpful young lady), and visiting the beautiful Cathedral of St. Nicholas , and then headed across the river, by means of the Triple Bridge (Tromostovje), which is actually three small bridges right next to each other (a stone bridge from 1842, and two side ones from the 1930s, added by the same architect, Plecnik, who made the plans for the colonnade). On the other side of the bridge lies the Presernov Square, dominated by the franciscan Church of the Annunciation (Cerkev Marijinega Oznanjenja).

At this time we were both a bit hungry, so we found a nice Italian restauant by the river. near the Kongresi Trg. (Congress Square). The small Ljubljanski river is very charming, and there are many great views to be had just walking along it - fine old houses and green areas, as can be seen below.

After we had lunch, we walked back across the river over the Cobblers Bridge, up the Cankarjevo Nabr. (Nabr. is short for Quay), from where we took the picture of the restaurant where we lunched, up to the old municipal hall, and south one of the paths going all the way up to Ljubljana Castle (Ljubljanski Grad). This is a very steep walk, and if you're not all that fit you might want to consider taking the small road train driving once an hour from Presernov Square up to the castle. We walked, however.. We didn't go into the castle itself, but we had some refreshments (which was indeed very much needed after walking all the way up there) in the courtyard, and walked around the outside areas for a bit. Then we walked down again, taking another path which took us to the market square from which our walk through the center of Ljubljana had begun some 4 hours earlier.

By now, we were tired of walking, and my feet hurt quite a bit (new sandals, which hadn't quite adapted to my feet yet), so we visited a few cafés for the next few hours, before we found a bus taking us back to Kodeljevo.

The actual game in the evening (and the bus tour itself) is another story, which is much better told and illustrated by other people.