Ljubljana, pronounced lyoo-BLEE-ah-nah in English, is the capital of Slovenia, a country of about 2 million people. The city itself has a population of roughly 300,000. Jane and I arrived early Wednesday afternoon and, after checking into the Four Points (a little outside the city center), took a quick Uber ride to Congress Square to join the Communist Walking Tour.
Before arriving, we watched a couple of YouTube videos on the breakup of Yugoslavia to refresh our memory on the region’s political history, much of which came up during the tour. Our guide explained how Ljubljana was occupied first by Italy and then Germany during World War II. After the war, under Josip Tito, the Federal People’s Republic of Yugoslavia was established, consisting of Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Kosovo.
In 1963, the country officially became the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and Tito was named President for Life. Each republic and province had its own constitution, parliament, supreme court, president, and prime minister.
Following Tito’s death in 1980, ethnic tensions among the republics intensified, eventually leading to the Balkan Wars between 1991 and 2001, during which approximately 140,000 people were killed. Slovenia and Croatia declared independence in 1991. As our guide pointed out, it was the first time in nearly 1,000 years that Slovenia had been independent.
Enough of the abbreviated history lesson, let’s back up and explain why we are even here.
Back in November, Lela asked if we wanted to take a family trip following their honeymoon in Greece. Since we likely won’t have many opportunities to travel with Lela and Avery over the next few years because of their residency programs, and Kyle, Hannah, and John were on board about a family vacation, we settled on Croatia.
Since Jane and I have unlimited time these days (retirement rocks), we decided to begin the trip here in beautiful Ljubljana.
We flew over on KLM from Dulles. Before the trip, I managed to get a Gold status match with Flying Blue, the Air France/KLM frequent flyer program. I mention this mainly because it allowed me to book seats for everyone flying KLM using transferred AMEX points. But even more importantly, it gave us access to the Air France lounge at Dulles.
Why is the Air France lounge superior to the AMEX partner lounges? Simple: grilled ham-and-cheese sandwiches. I’m underselling this; they were outstanding.
Jane and I each managed to grab an entire row on the flight to Amsterdam, and during our layover we each got a couple hours of sleep in the lounge.
After our walking tour, we grabbed dinner at Smash, where they served, wait for it . . . smashburgers. As Jane said, “a good burger is a good burger.”
Dinner reenergized us enough to complete what we called “the three errands”: buying sunscreen, getting euros from an ATM, and walking to the train station to purchase tickets for our Friday train to Zagreb.
After sleeping off the jet lag, we started today with another tour called Classic Walking Tour, most of which took place in Old Town Ljubljana. We began in Preseren Square, the central hub of the city, crossed the iconic Triple Bridge, and then walked over the famous Dragon Bridge into Old Town.
At the Central Market, I bought cherries. Along the way we saw Town Hall and, as required by all European cities, several churches.
After the tour, we took the funicular up to Ljubljana Castle for panoramic views of the city. We then wandered back down through Old Town and eventually stopped for lunch at Klobasarna, where we had Carniolan pork sausage served with horseradish, mustard, bread, and Union Beer.
Following lunch, we walked to Metelkova Mesto, an area known for its street art and alternative culture. Unfortunately, at 4:00 p.m. there wasn’t much happening other than a local guy playing Johnny Cash songs.
After a little more wandering, we stopped at Cacao, a riverside café, where we each had a beer. Since we are officially “on holiday” (I love that expression), we decided to share a brownie sundae for dinner. It was delicious.
Ljubljana is a perfect city for a one or two-day visit. While small enough to explore quickly, we still managed to log over 20,000 steps (7.6 miles) today. We truly loved our time here, and honestly, it really is Ljublj-awesome. I may need to trademark that.
Tomorrow in Zagreb, Croatia, we’re meeting up with Kyle who is flying in from Dulles, and Lela and Avery who are arriving from Milan after spending a few days with Avery’s family in Santa Margherita, Italy. Hannah and John fly out from JFK on Friday and arrive Saturday for the official start of our family trip.
Traveling Walters 