Ljubljana has a long and interesting history that's worth reading about here. What's extra unique about Ljubljana is that it is home to the world's oldest wooden wheel. Even though I didn't see this ancient wheel during my visit, I had a great time exploring this beautiful city with my dad.
After meeting up with my dad in Budapest, we caught a train to Zagreb, Croatia where we rented a car and drove to Ljubljana. We rented a room at Hostel Tabor which was decent enough. I'm pretty sure the building used to be a school.
We dropped off our bags and went out to explore the city. We took the Castle Funicular up to the castle on the hill and enjoyed the view.
There were some strange sculptures on the hill. It would turn out that these sculptures were actually fairly normal compared to the other sculptures that we would find in the city. Besides old wheels, Ljubljana is home to some very weird sculptures.
The style of Ljubljana is very appealing. Nice little intricate details on the buildings, interesting structures, and a placid-looking river running through the city makes for a beautiful place.
The old town area was fairly busy with tourists and locals, but it never seemed as crowded as other tourist destinations like Berlin or Barcelona. Finding seats at restaurants or attractions was never a problem for us.
The walkway next to the river was a lovely place to walk, hang out, or pull up a seat for drinks or food.
While staying in Ljubljana, we took a trip to Postojna Cave. I attempted take photos, but none turned out looking decent. I ended up going to caves or mines in Poland, Slovenia, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Colombia, and probably other places. I don't think I have a single good looking photo from inside a cave.
The Postojna Cave is pretty impressive. It's a 24 KM long network of caves, and is one of the largest in Europe.
After the cave, we stopped at Predjama Castle which is a little more photogenic. It's a big castle built into the mouth of a cave.
After our day-trip to the cave and castle, we returned to Ljubljana for one last evening before checking out and heading to our next destination.
The city impressed my dad so much that he returned a couple of years later with my mom. I would love to return to Ljubljana, but haven't had the opportunity yet.
That concludes my short tour of the charming city of Ljubljana. Stay tuned for the next episode. We'll be venturing further into the beautiful country of Slovenia.
Something unique about Ljubljana
Early in this post I mentioned a weird-but-not-that-weird sculpture. Here are some of the weird sculptures.
It's like something from the mind of H. R. Giger. Horror movies are cool and everything, but do you really want horror movie sculptures in your city? I guess the answer is yes in Ljubljana.