Ljubljana Slovenija

I should explain, Marija is a qualified curator and historian. Absolutely passionate in her knowledge and a great narrator. We are so lucky! We are getting a personal guided tour by two lovely people AND their dog. Oggy should get a mention here, he is part labrador and part sheepdog, pure black shiney coat, brown eyes and the cutest smile in town. He is so sweet natured, we became best buddies from the start.

Lake Bled! No photo does it justice. The mountains all around with picture postcard houses clinging perilously on the edges. Flowers on every balcony. Blue skies. Blue lake. The island and monastery in the middle. Oh how I wanted to take off my ankle brace and dip my toes in that water. Emir found a perfect spot and Marija and I did just that, we sat on a rocky edge and dangled our legs in. It was blissfully cool. I envied the people swimming but was happy to just dangle!

Then we went up to Bled Castle. This is seriously clinging to the edgetop, how many men fell off building it I wonder. Again Marija was a mine of information. We were looking at pottery in the castle museum and wondered at why the oldest pieces were so wonderfully decorated, then in the next period they were quite rough and then once again became decorated again. There was a wedding being prepared in the courtyard at the top of the castle, I think the bride needs to be very beautiful to outshine that view.

Ljubljana - another lovely city. Capital of Slovenia. Cobbled streets God, I hate cobble stones. I am going to start a campaign `CAC` Campaign Against Cobblestones. After my run in with them in Warsaw I dont trust them anymore. And the blighters are everywhere. Even on a nice new beautifully paved area they spoil it with a pattern of cobblestones. Why? Anyway rant over. Ljubljana is lovely, we went into a private museum which was a collection of ordinary household things. It was fascinating. Coca-Cola was packaged differently here. There were mascots from the olympics. Collapsible bicycles. Household bits and bobs. It was great. A history of people and what ordinary people had. The river runs through the city and cools the air. And they had a weather machine which generated rain in the square, I dont know how it worked but it was very effective. Felt just like home! Ha ha, I know at the moment there is a heatwave at home, but rain always reminds us of England.