Category: Slovenia

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.

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.

We went right. I chose wisely as requested.

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.

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.