Ljubljana, Slovenia

One of the books I read when preparing for the cruise.

 Ljubljana, Slovenia

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2023

We took the excursion organized by Azamara.

 The Azamara guide gave us a couple of hours to do our own thing.   Most of all, I wanted to visit the National & University Library on Narodna in Univerzitetna Knijiznica to “enter through the main door (note the horse-head doorknobs” . . . find yourself in near darkness, entombed in black marble. 

As you ascend the steps, you’ll emerge into a colonnade suffused with light – the light of knowledge, according to the architect’s plans.” (Lonely Planet)

  Bryan and I also enjoyed The City Museum which has the “reconstructed street that once linked the eastern gates of the Roman colony of Emona (today’s Ljubljana) to the Ljubljanica River”.  (Lonely Planet)

We did not have time to see The National Museum of Slovenia which has “a Celtic pail from the late 6^th century BC and a Stone Age bone flute”.  Also Roman glass and jewellery.

We also hoped but did not get to see the view from 16^th century Ljubljana Castle.

Presernov Square or Preseren Square is the city’s social center. The statue of Slovenia’s greatest poet was, at first, so shocking that the model who posed for the naked Muse was so disgraced that she emigrated.    

             

Standing at the base of the statue, look right and down the first street to the second floor of the first yellow house.  The woman in the picture in the window is the unrequited love of Preseren’s life.     

The rose-colored 17^th century Church of the Annunciation

St. Nicholas’s Cathedral (Ljubljana Cathedral) has an “Italian Baroque interior and bronze doors with intricate, symbolic designs” : Rick Steeves

SOME THINGS WE MISSED: I also would have liked to spend a lot of time just strolling along the river promenade and on the bridges designed by Joze Plecnik, shopping at the Riverside Market, and relaxing at sidewalk cafés.   Rick Steeves says there are great views from the bridge called Brv. 

Also missed:

The Serbian Orthodox Church of Sts. Cyril and Methodius

Tivoli Park

Slovenian Ethnographic Museum

Contemporary History Museum:  Baroque mansion in Tivoli Park

The colonnades of the Central Market were designed by Ljubljana’s famous architect, Joze Plecnik.  

Museum of Contemporary Art

Obviously, too much for one day’s sightseeing!  

FOR FOOD, I was hoping to find Kranjska klobasa (traditional Carniolan sausage), jota (turnip stew or a bean and cabbage soup),  bograc (goulash stew), dodole (roasted dumplings),  struklji, Slovenian sweet or savory dumplings), Postrv (trout from the Soca River), zlikrofi (ravioli), and prsut (air-dried ham).         But the restaurant our guide took us to served us a very nice wild mushroom soup inside loaves of bread. 

For dessert, I looked for emona kocka (layer cake with nuts and chocolate), potica (a nut roll),  and Prekmurska gibanica (poppyseed, walnut, apple, cheese, and cream layer cake).

FOR WINE:    I looked for peppery red Teran and Malvazija, a white. 

FOR COCKTAIL:  Brinjevec: brandy from juniper

 

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BRYAN'S JOURNAL

We were up early to see the rare meeting just before Koper of all four sister cruise

ships: Azamara Quest, Azamara Pursuit, Azamara Journey, and Azamara Onward. We

were able to see much of their assembly manoeuvres by looking out of our stateroom

window. The ships managed to position their bows inward to resemble a compass. Our

ship hosted an on-deck pancake breakfast in honour of the occasion. After an hour the

ships dispersed with the Quest moving on to dock at the port of Koper in Slovenia.

After breakfast, we took our first excursion, a tour of Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia.

Our shipmates from Wisconsin were on the tour with us.

The bus took 1.25 hours

driving over many beautiful mountains and through two very long tunnels to reach the

city of some 288,000 people.

Our tour guide marched us around the old town centre

beginning at Prešeren Square (with its controversial statue of Slovenia’s greatest poet,

France Prešeren, and a naked woman. Our guide pointed out features such as the

picture of Julija, the unrequited love of Prešeren, placed on the outside of a yellow

house; the late 19 th -century department store, Galerija Emporium; the Riverside Market.

and the carved doors of the 18 th -century Cathedral of St. Nicholas.

We crossed a

number of famous bridges;

Butchers’ Bridge (with its many locks fixed on its rails},

The Butcher’s Bridge (Mesarski Most) is a footbridge with glass and granite flooring, also designed by Jose Plecnik. 

Cobblers’ Bridge, Dragon Bridge, and the aptly named Triple Bridge, all designed by Jože

Plečnik.

 She took us to a local restaurant for lunch

and then for a river boat ride.

We

were given some free time to explore the area so we scurried off to see the sights that

Eleanor had already earmarked: the inside of St. Nicholas’ Cathedral with its Italian

Baroque interior and , the stair way at the University Library (It starts in darkness and

ascends toward the bright light from a high window), and the Roman road at the City

Museum.

We returned to the cruise ship by 4:30 pm. After a short nap and a quick dinner we

walked over to Tito Square to have a glass of sparkling wine (it was served everywhere)

to listen to a very talented Slovenian acapella group. It was a beautiful evening – not too

chilly and no rain. On the way back to the ship we were serenaded with operatic arias

from the ship’s upper decks by the Cruise Director. (She did love to perform.)