From Lake Bled I took a short train trip to the capital city of Ljubljana, where I had less than 24 hours to spend before my departure for Venice. The historic part of the city is small and the only thing I wanted to do apart from wander around was to visit the castle. So, although I would have liked a little more time, I was able to fit in everything that I really wanted to see. Here are some pix.

First I walked along a quaint part of the river to the old town.

I meandered through streets that looked like they were out of a Brothers Grimm fairy tale.

Above and below, the famous Triple Bridge.

I took a break from walking to ride a funicular up to Castle Hill, where a castle has sat for about a thousand years. The current exterior is from the 15th century, I think. I had spent a lot of time at the castle in Lake Bled the day before, so I didn’t buy the ticket that allows extensive access to all the various parts of this castle complex.

Wandering the city was what I felt like doing that day. So after taking a brief look around the parts of the castle that were open to non-ticket holders, I took the funicular back down to the Old Town. To be honest, I liked the funicular ride more than the castle itself, because it offered up stunning views.

Once back in the Old Town, I stopped in to two churches.

One (the Franciscan Church of the Annunciation, above) was very nice, and the other (St. Nicholas’s Cathedral, below) was stunning. I should say that I’ve been so spoiled by jaw-dropping cathedrals over the past few years that I’ve been forced to adopt a description system based on relative beauty instead of objective beauty. Hence, stunning cathedrals become very nice cathedrals, and stunningly stunning cathedrals become, simply, stunning ones.

Finally, I walked down a street chock full of my own personal cathedral, the Art Nouveau building. Here are two of the most beautiful ones.

Next stop, Venice!