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Susanna and Bev like to have a cafe stop before doing anything intellectual, so when we arrived at the city’s history museum they demanded to have a drink and a piece of cake. It all looked a bit decadent for me if I’m being honest. As an aside, it also turned out that Susanna and Bev had never visited a KFC, so this shows that they have quite a narrow understanding of food and drink, but I didn’t say anything.

My mind wasn’t changed after seeing all of this, I like an espresso but it felt a little overblown. So, I decided I wouldn’t have anything and would wait for the others, as I’m kind and thoughtful like that.

Here’s Susanna in the main part of the coffee shop, it’s all quite minimalist and on-trend. It’s also very positively reviewed online, so they’re clearly surprising and delighting no end of customers.

Bev wasn’t best pleased though, she decided that her flan wasn’t cooked properly on the base. Not afraid of looking like an angry tourist, she made clear her views on the matter much to the excitement of the staff members. Steve pretended that he wasn’t with Bev at this moment, but we’ve all been there.

It transpired that the flan was bought in and so not directly the fault of the venue, but the quality was really very low and so that is their fault. Anyway, Bev punished the venue by promptly buying another cake, so that taught them.

I left pleased with the arrangements though, I got a free glass of tap water and a little sit down. I note from the photo that I was looking at the list of craft beer bars that I had been given by the bar the previous evening, so I must have been more focused on that. I also note that I’d better switch to my new wallet as that one looks more ravaged in the photo than I realised.

Anyway, with that we went to look around the museum with Bev only stomping about for around 45 minutes before she calmed down about the flan.

This artwork is by Mihael Stroj (1803-1871), an Austro-Hungarian painter who became known for his paintings of the wealthy. He himself used the name Michael Stroy, perhaps in an attempt to attract a wealthy international clientele or perhaps just to ensure that his name was pronounced correctly. He’s helpfully signed and dated the artwork 1854 on the left hand side, which to be fair does help with the identification.

Stroj had connections with Ljubljana throughout his life, but he settled in the city permanently in 1842 when he married Margareta Berghaus. The couple had five children and that seemed to put an end to Stroj’s travels.

I don’t know much about his subject in this artwork other than it’s Dr Jožef Mader who was a medical doctor in the city. Clearly he had some money to spend on being permanently remembered in the form of an artwork as well as being able to afford quite a nice chair by the looks of it.

It might not be the most important artwork in the country, but I rather liked the snapshot of time that it represented. The middle class were becoming wealthier and wanted to show off their prosperity, something not just limited to the nobility. It was also painted at a time of upheaval across Europe, just after 1848, and the rise of the Slovenian demands for some sort of independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Located in the city’s museum is this sculpture of Pope Pius VI (1717-1799). He looks quite serene here, which I think is something that Popes do tend to work on. He was in his Papal role for 24 years and I think it’s fair to say that they were quite stressful years for him.

He was born Giovanni Angelo Braschi and he became Pope on 15 February 1775. This proved problematic for him, as the French Revolution kicked off in 1789 during his period in charge and losing the Catholic Church in France was sub-optimal to say the least. The privileges of the church were stripped away, assets stolen and there wasn’t much that the Pope could do other than to complain quite a lot. At this point, the future of the Catholic Church was in serious danger, there was perhaps nothing inevitable about its survival, or at least, not losing its independence.

As if this whole French situation wasn’t bad enough, the French military marched into Rome and exiled Pius. Napoleon wanted to bring back the Catholic church at this point and stealing the Pope was quite handy in that arrangement, but Pius was to die in Valence, located in south-eastern France. His successor, Pope Pius VII, was appointed six months later and he ultimately also ended up being exiled in France.

Pius VI was one of few Popes who died outside of Rome and when he was allowed to actually live in the Vatican he made improvements to the museums and galleries there. Not only did he try and add some culture to the Vatican, but he also oversaw early excavations in Herculaneum and Pompeii. He also oversaw the building of the rather lovely Pio-Clementine Museum and did something of an excellent job of improving the Vatican Gardens. Unfortunately, the Swiss Guard struggled somewhat at this time, so perhaps he might have been better to deal with his armies rather than his gardens, but there we go…..

Back to the sculpture in question, it dates from around 1782, although it’s not known who created it. This would have been something of a halcyon period for the Pope, which is perhaps why he doesn’t yet look entirely stressed.

These are the steps down to St. George’s Chapel located at Ljubljana Castle. The chapel was constructed in the fifteenth century, although there was a large earthquake in the area in 1511 which might have required some rebuilding. We thought at first that it was shut as Bev man-handled the door to get us in, but it just transpired that we needed to use the internal entrance.

It’s a beautiful and peaceful space, that would have once been the spiritual heart of the castle.

The colourful ceiling and the crisp stencilling and decoration on the walls. Some of this was a Baroque modernisation from the eighteenth century, as they wanted to make the interior feel that bit more on-trend.

There are Austro-Hungarian coats of arms, but there are also some from the Carniola Duchy. This Duchy had been important and powerful, but the 1815 Congress of Vienna fiddled around with the wider political landscape. This is also the gallery where the wealthier folk would have watched mass from a dignified distance, the two storey nature of the whole arrangement was quite handy for separation of the rich and the poor.

There’s St. George and the dragon theme is important to Ljubljana as it’s their city emblem.

This was one of my favourite rooms in the castle complex, it was colourful, vibrant and peaceful. It was restored during the works that took place a few years ago as part of the restoration of the entire castle complex.

Being brave, we decided to walk up Castle Hill to the, well, castle and then we thought that we’d take the funicular railway back down.

The start of the walk.

Sufficiently firm underfoot, which I always appreciate.

Much of the view lower down was rather blocked by trees.

Looking up at the funicular railway.

Our first clear views over Ljubljana and beyond.

There was evidence of an older path, but they’ve clearly spent a fair sum of money on this new wooden path.

This photo was taken from just above the funicular railway station, the square type pod is visible at the bottom which transports people up and down. The walk to the top takes around ten minutes, or around three hours if you’re with Richard (I’m sure he won’t mind me saying that).

And the view at the top, which I thought was rather lovely. Lots more about these mountains, and indeed other ones, in future posts. And, no, I didn’t climb any despite now being a climbing professional. Anyway, the main reason for climbing to the top was to look in Ljubljana Castle, so more of that coming as well.

I have to frequently remind Bev and Susanna, who act like children, that we need to try not to look like tourists…. However, Bev walks around like she’s Judith Chalmers, so everyone is very aware that we’re tourists. Steve and I don’t say anything, we just try to separate ourselves from them. Here they are in the giant deckchair near to the city sign….

Located in the city’s history museum, this looked like a nineteenth century painting of a child of wealthy parents. However, the information board notes that this is Peter Kozler (1824-1879) in an artwork painted in around 1840. It is indeed the case that he had wealthy parents, which is why there’s a painting of him in existence, but he is what could be called a high achiever in life of his own accord.

I’m quite engaged with knowing that Kozler founded a brewery, indeed Union Brewery which is still going, but he also became the national cartographer. In many ways, the backdrop of the painting with the rolling hills is perhaps a pre-cursor to his future career.

The particular work that he perhaps became best known for, and his own Wikipedia page for, is what is known as Kosler’s Map, created between 1848 and 1852. This was the first map of the Slovene lands and this annoyed the Austrian authorities who seized a lot of his work and put him in prison.

He also looks like quite a focused little boy and he must have been quite determined to end up redesigning the borders of Slovenia and starting a brewery. So, here’s a national icon during the years of youth, before he started to try and map a way of having a coexistence of German and Slovenian culture in what would become a united Slovenia.

Here’s Susanna and Bev, I’ll let my loyal blog readers establish which one was complaining about the cold again. Note that the central O in this sign is a water feature, although that might not be entirely obvious from the photo as the young ladies are standing in front of it.

Anyway, at the back of the photo is the city’s castle and our morning mission was to walk up that big hill (David Morgan would have been very proud of me) and get the the funicular railway back down it.

One of the sights of the old town is Dragon Bridge which was built in 1900 and has the honour of being the first concrete bridge in the city, something which might surprise and delight my friend Liam who likes civil engineering things. It was originally named the Jubilee Bridge of Emperor Franz Joseph I (the then Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary) but global politics rather changed after the First World War and it took its current name in 1919.

The Dragon Bridge replaced the Butchers’ Bridge which had been constructed in 1819 but was made of wood and needed some updating. Wood wasn’t strong enough for their new bridge, stone was too expensive and so concrete seemed the best plan, supervised by the architect Professor Josef Melan (1854-1951). Some sources note that the reason the concrete bridge was built here, rather than in Vienna, was that it would cause less fuss here if it fell down. Incidentally, it seems that none of Melan’s bridges collapsed, so he must have known what he was doing.

Here’s a photo from the late nineteenth century of the old Butchers’ Bridge.

The dragon elements were designed by Jurij Zaninović (1874-1946).

Anyway, it’s a rather lovely bridge, but we didn’t linger for too long as Bev commented negatively on the refreshing wind that was blowing down the river….

I might not be able to do DIY or anything useful, but I do consider myself rather good at picking excellent restaurants. Tasked with finding something light, I decided a stodgy food could be turned into a little snack.

Susanna was surprised and delighted by the soft toys everywhere.

Bev thought it looked like me and I think it’s clear that it does, annoyed at excessive frivolity. Susanna asked the waiter if he spoke any English and he replied “I speak English perfectly, I’m American” and aside from the obvious joke there, the service was friendly, conversational and personable throughout. Incidentally, this was also one of the rare occasions where Bev managed to get through a meal without visibly annoying a member of staff, so that must count as something of a milestone.

The menu which is, as expected, quite dumpling focused. Susanna wanted a starter, but it was agreed that we couldn’t be faffing around with that.

The beer was a local lager from Pivovarna Lasko and I’ve had worse, it was clean tasting and didn’t offend me.

Some noodle type salad was brought over, I rather liked the texture of this. I can’t use chopsticks as I’m an idiot, so I had to improvise.

Chilli sauce on the right, I like a bit of spice to add to the meal.

The interior of the restaurant, which was cosy and relatively small. I thought that the temperature was just right, but Bev informed me that it was cold. She’s quite demanding though.

A portion of spring rolls that Steve treated us to, crispy and delicious.

Three of us ordered the Dragon Dumplings, which are pork based, that were the ones recommended by the waiter. The first one arrived and I let Bev have it as she gets grumpy if not fed. Mine then took a long time, but I was placated with free chicken soup, so I was more than happy.

I prefer fried dumplings to steamed dumplings and although these look like the latter, they were fried on the base. I like that textural contrast and these were excellent with a depth of flavour from the meat.

At the end of the meal, we were given some plum wine by the restaurant and this was also rather lovely. The payment process was also made easy for us and we paid individually at the end which the server didn’t seem annoyed about.

This venue didn’t let us down, it was clean, welcoming and slightly quirky. I like it when there’s something a little different about a place and the limited menu worked in their favour. The food met my expectations in terms of the taste, temperature and presentation, with the free soup for my wait being much appreciated. Definitely recommended.