Lovely Ljubljana

Day 14, continued - Arriving in Ljubljana

We had an easy drive to our apartment from Lake Bled. The apartment has so much character! It's in the top attic floor of a building and has exposed dark wood beams, a cute doorway, and much needed air conditioning. The washing machine was in English and easy to use. I ended up doing 4 loads of laundry during our three night stay. All caught up! This is what about $85 a night can get you in Ljubljana.

The best thing about Ljubljana is their easy to use bicycle share program. You pay one Euro to subscribe and can ride as many bikes as you want for FREE for a week, as long as they are returned within an hour. There are places to park the bikes all over the city and a bike stand right by our apartment. I have ridden over a dozen bikes during our stay. It's so easy and a fun and efficient way to see the city. The kids are especially appreciative after all the walking we have been doing.

We settled in and found a burger place for dinner. Kind of fun to have easy burgers and chicken sandwiches with fries for dinner. There are a ton of burger places in this town.

DD#2 and I rode bikes to the old town and walked around to get a glimpse of the city. So many beautiful buildings, bridges, and happy people enjoying this great town. We even did a little shopping this evening. We walked by one bar and a bunch of people were gathered around the big screen watching the World Athletic Championships - IN OUR HOMETOWN! So cool to see our town on TV in the middle of Ljubljana.

It was getting dark, so we rode our bikes back and were eager to explore the town tomorrow. So many bikes in this town!

Day 15 - Ljubljana Castle, the old town, and some breweries

DH and I started the day at a local coffee shop. His first cold brew of the trip. I drink hot coffee even when it is scorching outside. We grabbed pastries at Mlinar, one of our favorite bakery chains that we remembered from Croatia. DH and I headed up to explore the town's castle while the girls went shopping.

On the way, we walked past some pretty interesting vending machines. Fresh milk and eggs!

The castle was a mix of old and new. They created spaces for art within the castle and built modern walk-ways along the exposed castle walls. We hiked up all the stairs to the top of the castle tower for a nice view of the town. There were lots of stairs and areas to explore around the castle. It was well worth the sweaty trek up hill and entertained us for over an hour.

Lunch was at a local Slovenian place called Klobsarna. We had delicious sausages and horseradish and mustard along with a "sour" soup. All were specialties of the region and we polished it off easily. Yum!

A few pics around an artistic enclave just outside of the center. Such interesting street art!

It was getting very hot so the family biked home while I wandered around a bit more and popped into some shops here and there. I was getting hot and thirsty so I decided to get an Aperol Spritz on the rooftop of the Skyscraper building. It was only on the 12th floor but also had nice views of the town.

We regrouped and cooled off before heading out for a little brewery tour. Why not? It gave us an excuse to ride bikes through the nearby Tivoli Park and see a different part of the city. We started at Godec Pub which had a nice selection of local microbrews.

Then we moved on to my favorite stop, Tektonik Brewing. It was one of those perfect breweries. Nice atmosphere, cute logo, and delicious varieties of beer.

Lastly, we finished off at Ljubljana's most famous brewery, Union Pub. We had a giant meat and veggie plate for dinner.

The girls and I went out on the town to see what Ljubljana is like on a weekend night. The town is "bopping" is all I can say. (The girls are really irritated when I say bopping so I have to keep doing it!) Loads of people were out enjoying the beautiful downtown. We had gelato, watched people, and took more pictures. Such a fun day!

Day 16

We all slept very well after all the heat yesterday. Our AC is working hard and doing a great job in our little apartment. DH got up earliest and had a nice cool walk. DD#2 and I weren't far behind and biked to a cute coffee shop where I even bought a t-shirt. R&B Cafe is highly recommended!

We all met up around the Saturday produce market where we bought figs, peaches, and fresh yogurt drink. Everything was so fresh. However, the bees were really drawn to all the watermelon. Crazy!

We hopped on bikes yet again and went out to the suburbs where the girls and I enjoyed swimming at Atlantis Waterpark. It was a pretty low-key place with a lazy river, two slides, and more outdoor & indoor pools. We spend over two hours cooling off and enjoying the water.

The suburbs were also home to lots of air-conditioned shopping and gelato. We spent nearly 2 more hours enjoying delicious gelato at Cacao and shopping at Zara and Stradivarius. The kids love these European stores and found some great deals.

We had a challenging 40 minute bike ride back to the apartment in 100 degree heat. It was rough! We hydrated and regrouped. Phew!

DH and I went out for happy hour at Lajbah Craft Beer Bar. So many choices from all over Eastern Europe. We were so surprised to see a "Beervana" poster on the door from Portland, Oregon. So cool!

We met the kids for dinner at an Asian Fusion place. We were feeling done with meats and enjoyed a lighter dinner. We ended the night with more gelato, a night bike ride home, and showers after enduring this 100 degree beat. On to Hungary tomorrow!