Yesterday we left Zagreb and drove to Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia. Locals like to point out to English speakers that theirs is the only country with love in its name - S love nia.
Ljubljana is a pleasant city whose old downtown section is very charming and very walkable. I think I like it the best of the larger cities we've visited, maybe in part because it is relatively flat and easy to stroll. Unlike Zagreb, Ljubljana has no kamikaze streetcars charging along at speed crammed with passengers.
They were holding a concours d'elegance in the Ljubljana main square, reminding us of the one we saw in Baden Baden some years ago. The city has a very nice open-air market with foodstuffs and folk crafts. Built on both sides of a river at the base of a high hill with a castle on top, Ljubljana is a university town which brings money and young people to the city, not to mention faculty and staff.
We did not overnight in Ljubljana but drove on at day's end to Bled. The whole country of Slovenia is green, a majority of it being covered with forest. Bled is even greener, if possible, and the lakes are beautiful, if not terribly large. They hold rowing competitions on Lake Bled, probably because it is almost always dead calm. Bled townsite is anything but flat; anywhere you go you are up or down a hill, often on steps.
The local farmers hang their hay on roofed-over ladder-like structures, we've never seen the like anywhere and we pay attention to farming structures. Standing in a hay rack our OAT guide poured us each an ounce of blueberry brandy - not too strong and very tasty. I suspect I could make something that tasted very like it with vodka, simple syrup, and blueberries, cut with water to the right potency. They leave the berries in the brandy bottle, which is fun. You wouldn't want to spill this blue brandy on your clothes, I think it might stain.
Our guide resembles a robust Valkyrie, I can imagine her wearing a steel bra, a helmet with horns, her long blonde hair braided, holding a spear. She looks like a Valkyrie but doesn't at all act like one, she's a very happy lady, always laughing and a good guide. The other group's guide doesn't look like a Valkyrie but acts like one - her voice is about a baritone and she can be bossy.
P.S. Southern Croatia, along the Adriatic coast, is called Dalmatia, one of the two regions in Croatia. During the several days we were in Dalmatia we only saw one black spotted white Dalmatian dog. I guess that's fair, we only saw one Siamese cat in Thailand.
