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Ljubljana – Day One (Sir William’s Pub)

It was suggested by the group that we should perhaps at some point find food and I agreed with that, but after we visited a bar. This seemed like a fair compromise. I noticed that this venue was listed on Untappd, so I thought it was a sensible place to visit for a few apéritifs. Six to be precise.

I thought that this looked really quite lovely, a traditional bar with modern craft beers. There were no tables available so I thought that we might as well sit at the bar to be near the beer.

Bar staff hate doing these and I apologised in advance. The barman, who was very agreeable, admitted they are a nuisance to do, especially as Steve wanted one and then another customer saw it and wanted one as well. I probably wasn’t flavour of the month. Incidentally, note that food is provided with this, so I felt sufficiently well fed.

Anyway, the beers from left to right:

(i) Pale Ale brewed by Zmajska Pivovara – this was a malty, fruity rather lovely little number.

(ii) Pale Ale brewed by Pivovarna Hopsbrew – a very rare cask beer in the country, it was hoppy, light and fluffy.

(iii) Maya : Spontaneous Red/Burgundy Barrel Aged brewed by 22brewing – delightful, this was punchy, tart, plummy and delicious.

(iv) Purple Rain brewed by Clef Brewery – this was a pastry sour with a taste of berries and it was gentle, verging on decadent.

(v) Square Hammer brewed by Nova Runda – this was hazy with a taste of grapefruit, a bit of stonefruit and hoppy.

Susanna had a beer as she’s becoming more cultured, whilst Bev was busy downing a bottle of wine or whatever she was doing.

As I don’t get out much, I was excited to see that I had an Untappd friend (ooooh, friend) who was in the same bar. Unsure of whether he wanted someone introducing themselves, I did anyway. I neglected my group of friends for about half an hour leaving them to their own devices whilst talking to him and I now have a list of bars to visit this weekend.

Whilst we were talking the barman heard me say about Polish beers and he pointed out their collection of Funky Fluid beers, which is the best brewery in Europe as far as I’m concerned. And this bar continued to surprise and delight me by stocking such fine craft beers.

I was rushed with my final beer because the others were getting hungry or something. I had intended to stay another three hours, so that plan disappeared but I didn’t complain for long. Anyway, this was the ACCOM from Bevog Brewery and it’s an imperial stout, it’s rich, with roasted flavours, toffee, chocolate, coffee and quite decadent.

I very much liked it here, this is a proper bar where the service was knowledgeable, engaging and friendly. The prices were very reasonable and I liked the range of beer styles that were available. The beer selection is excellent and as it’s my first time in the country, just about all of the breweries were new to me. It was great to meet an Untappd friend in person and I left with a list of breweries to try as well as bars to visit. I’ve made clear to the others that I want to go to them all, but they probably think I’m joking.

November 21, 2025
Ljubljana – Day One (Wine or Beer…..)

We went right. I chose wisely as requested.

November 21, 2025
Ljubljana – Day One (They’ve Arrived!)

The Flixbus sweeping into Ljubljana means just one thing, it’s the arrival of Steve, Susanna and Bev. Slightly world-weary from the day since they were up at about midnight to get here, but they’ve safely arrived.

Steve, still photogenic despite being tired.

Susanna, graceful and excited for the weekend.

And Bev, who was still asleep.

November 21, 2025
Ljubljana – Day One (It’s Christmas)

Just ready for the arrival of Susanna, Bev and Steve, the authorities are rushing up the erection of the Christmas tree and putting decorations on it. It’s a kind gesture of the city and it’s also quite a big tree. But, this all means that it’s near to the big event itself, namely Christmas markets which is a concept that I haven’t really ever engaged with.

November 21, 2025
Ljubljana – Day One (They’re in Trieste)

Great news, they were safely on the bus which rushed them into Trieste. Note that instead of living in the moment and looking out of the window at the beautiful view, they’re glued to their phones. The older generation……

Look at the excitement where there’s food involved. Steve and I are much more interested in the environment we’re in, but the thought of a croissant and Susanna and Bev are totally distracted. Mind you, it’s got them off their phones temporarily.

Very festive….

Their coach from Trieste to Ljubljana is in two hours, so they have potential to explore the city a little in that time….. We’re all going back there on Monday, so hopefully they’re taking the time to recce a nice restaurant for my birthday.

November 21, 2025
Ljubljana – Day One

There is a huge amount of posting necessary to explain how I’ve got from Cardiff for birthday weekend one to Ljubljana for birthday weekend two. It involved a trip to Luton, then a flight to Rome, a train to Orte, a train to Rimini, a train to Bologna, a train to Venice, a train to Trieste and a coach to Ljubljana. But, more on that another time (but hopefully this week) as I have a lot to post about.

Because, I need to switch to more immediate posting from this weekend as Bev (her face neatly blurred from Steve’s photo), Susanna and Steve are flying into Trieste this morning. They then get the same coach service that I got yesterday evening to get to Ljubljana for around 15:30 today. They’ve had a slight delay at Trieste Airport due to the new EU entry system, but they’re through and I think they’re currently on a bus to Trieste.

I, on the other hand, have had breakfast at the hotel and am waiting patiently for the others to arrive into the city. It’s a little cold at the moment, but it’s not quite cold enough to snow, so all is well. Susanna likes hot weather so she’ll likely be slightly put out about the temperature here, but she’s not demanding like Bev so won’t complain for long.

I’m now having lunch at this nice little cafe I’ve found in the centre of Ljubljana called McDonald’s. Bev won’t eat at McDonald’s due to her chicken McNuggets addiction, so I have to visit this now before she arrives.

I’m expecting history, beer, gossip and adventure from this weekend….. What could possibly go wrong?

November 21, 2025
Cardiff – Uber

It was the end of the evening and we decided to get an Uber home. Richard used his Uber account to book the taxi, although he’s not very competent at these younger person’s apps and so he got a bit muddled up where to stand, so we ended up standing in a pedestrianised street.

The biggest crisis though is that Richard has a very poor Uber rating. Liam and I have 5 star ratings from drivers, whereas Ross doesn’t use such technology. I am a naturally courteous passenger, giving consideration to the needs of the driver, which is why I obtain very high ratings. Richard has a much lower rating, but it’s not for me to comment why.

After we found a driver to accept Richard’s low score on the app, we were on the way back to the hotel. The driver was fortunate that he was setting some passengers down in the exact place he was picking us up, although I suspect it’s more likely he suggested that they got out at that spot for his convenience. Either way, everyone looked happy.

I commented to the driver about Richard’s predicament and as Richard promised to tip him, I’m fairly confident that he secured a 5 star rating on this journey. I was glad to be of assistance, but I don’t need any praise for that.

To cover myself legally, can I note that Richard is contacting Uber’s customer service support to contest his rating. He denies any allegations that he is anything other than the perfect customer and he notes that he always tips generously.

November 21, 2025
Cardiff – Cardiff Arms

Our final stop of the evening was the Cardiff Arms, a venue clearly designed more for younger people given the volume of the music playing. There was a friendly welcome from the doorman though and I was eyeing up the outside seating area as being more peaceful, which is where we ultimately sat.

Although the venue has been designed to look like a late Victorian pub, it is only a couple of years old and has taken the place of a Chinese restaurant which was here before. This whole area has been really smartened up over the last couple of years, I hadn’t realised until looking at relatively recent views on Google Streetview.

The beer selection wasn’t entirely decadent, but there were a couple of interesting keg options there. There are sometimes real ales available here, but it’s usually primarily keg.

I went for the Cwtch from Tiny Rebel, a very decent red ale. The temperature outside was moderate (so my friend Susanna would have considered it as freezing) and it was all rather pleasant.

I have to give the venue opposite credit for their Christmas decorations. It would be wrong of me to gossip here about Ubergate, so I’ll note that in a separate post.

The online reviews of this venue are broadly positive for drinks, but it seems that they might be struggling a little with the food. It’s going to be a challenge for them given the number of food options in Cardiff, but maybe it’ll all settle down.

Anyway, it was a bit loud for me now that I’ve reached the age of 30, but the team members were all friendly, it was clean and provided us with a suitable space to think back about the highlights of the weekend so far.

November 19, 2025
Aberfan – BBC Tip Number 7

Following my posts about Aberfan, my friend David Morgan (the one who walks a lot, mostly up hills and generally quite fast) suggested this series of podcasts from BBC Sounds. I’m currently travelling Italy at the moment, so whilst on a flight to Rome and on trains internally, I’ve listened to the entire series today of nine episodes.

The links to the series is at https://www.bbc.com/audio/brand/p09z3n7y.

As a short comment, the way that these families were treated was genuinely shocking. I had realised already that they weren’t respected in the way that they could and should have been, but the treatment was often downright disrespectful. To lose your child and then have to fight to get the tips removed to prevent a re-occurrence, only to discover that it was paid for from the memorial fund is sub-optimal to say the least. Reading old newspapers, it seems that the trustees of the fund begrudgingly accepted the request from the Government to contribute as it was seen to benefit the village, but they shouldn’t have been asked and it was right that the money was later repaid to them.

One of the survivors says that now she’s an adult she simply can’t work out how the families involved coped. Not only did they lose their child, or children, but they faced disinterest and push-back from the authorities in the years that followed. Survivor guilt was also a common theme, how the young children didn’t feel somehow lucky to survive, they were mentally traumatised by what happened and there wasn’t the assistance provided to help them even though some money was made available from the fund.

The worst thing is that no-one was ever held accountable for what happened, there was no-one who lost their job, was demoted or took responsibility for the mistakes that were made. That was what I considered to be the key thing that the locals wanted, they felt that their children had been murdered by the National Coal Board and so they never received the closure that might have helped them deal with the tragedy.

Anyway, they’re definitely worth listening to and the podcasts are well produced.

November 18, 2025
Cardiff – Henry’s Cafe Bar

Apologies about the poor quality of this image, but the next stop on our little tour of the city was Henry’s Cafe Bar. We had run out of Good Beer Guide pubs, or at least ones that were open, so this seemed like an interesting option that was central.

Richard would like it pointed out that he doesn’t own any Christmas jumpers, he just has some that look like them and so he isn’t entering this competition. I hope that this is now clear.

The only real ale available was Brains Special Ale, but unfortunately it ran out whilst pouring, so I had half a pint of Asahi instead as I’m flexible like that.

The barman kindly let me keep the Brains real ale that had poured and it fortunately didn’t taste like the end of the barrel. The Asahi on the right didn’t set my world alight, but there are worse beers out there. Richard had red wine and he seemed content with it, although as all the drinks had to be served in plastic for licensing reasons relating to the rugby, that did take away from the decadence a little. Incidentally, Liam was busy putting his beer on Untappd in this photo, whereas I know Ross wasn’t doing that….

The venue is large inside and it’s a cafe bar in the day, turning into more of a cocktail venue in the evening. The venue is also currently available on Stonegate’s website, although the annual rent is well over £100k and it’s tied on beers and the like, but they’re not a key driver here. There’s food served during the day which is from quite a large menu, with a focus on healthier options.

Overall, it felt a comfortable and safe environment, something with a little class. I’m not sure that I’m really their target customer, but I liked the friendly welcome and also the little touch of giving me the beer they had tried to pour for free, I always appreciate such gestures.

November 18, 2025