We had a tour to Lake Bled this afternoon so we rode our bikes to the city center for lunch and more exploring.
‘Faces” by Jakov Brdar features around 700 bronze sculptures of faces with different expressions: some happy, some sad, some grotesque. We all have faces and all those faces can make different faces!!! Very profound!
We found a South Korean restaurant called Sarrbing that had all 5 ratings from 526 reviews on Google. We have never seen that so we ate a yummy lunch here.
After ramen and dumplings, we had Bingo Soo that had been finely shaved.
Time for our tour
We traveled by air conditioned van with a group of other tourists. I told Rob to pack his swimsuit. I sat next to the driver in the front row and donned my carsick glasses. He did not yell, but I brought earplugs just in case.
Slovenia is the size of New Hampshire. The country is small but diverse. The Sava River runs through Ljubljana and joins the Danube River in Belgrade.
Slovenia is bordered by Croatia, Italy, Hungary, and Austria.
Slovenians excel in individual sports like cycling, skiing, and ski jumping. As of March 30, 2025, the longest jump ever recorded in any official competition was 835 feet set by Domen Prevc. As of March 14, 2025, the women’s world record stood at 774.3 feet, set by Nika Prevc, and yes they are related.
Team sports are not popular according to our guide, Primož, because people want to be the best which is not possible in a team sport.
The Slovenian language has no Y, W or X. Additionally, there is no sound for a J.
The high mountains in the north are The Alps. The mountains in the front of them are called the Prealps. I thought that our guide was joking, but any foothills at the base of the Alps in Europe are called Prealps.
Slovenia has many caves. They have identified 12,000 but think there might be as many as 32,000 caves.
Fifty-eight percent of Slovenia is forest. Bears, lynx, and wolves thrive in the mountainous forests.
They have a big problem with too many bears. Bears have seen in the marshes near Ljubljana.
Ljubljana Marsh is a marsh on a mountain plateau. This elevation seems very unusual to me for a marsh. I think of marshes as wetlands near oceans and lakes.
Lake Bled
Lake Bled was formed when the glacier moved and hollowed out a spot that was filled with melting water to form a glacier lake.
We stopped at a honey shop as beekeeping is a national product and hobby. Anton Janša wrote the book on beekeeping which is still referred to today. Honey tastes different from different flowers.
A reproduction of the Gutenberg Press was showcased at the Bled Castle. The printer demonstrated the technique used years ago. The device used to put ink on the plate is made from dog hide. Dog hide is not porous since dogs don’t sweat.
Uppercase and lowercase is not what you think. It refers to the location of the letters on the printing shelf.
When learning to set type, one needed to “mind your p’s and q’s”. This is because the letters are identical and since one has to put them in as a mirror image, one needs to pay special attention.
It took seven years to become a printer. Their ability was assessed by how quickly that they could put correct words together. It is akin to how many words per minute one can type.
It is soooo hot in Europe. Every day hovers around 95ºF. Even my screensaver has warped and bubbled.
Let’s go cool off in the historic Lake Bled.
Unfortunately, there were no places to change so we had to find cover in the woods. It would have been a lot easier to wear a two-piece swimsuit. In fact, I was the only one of any age wearing a one-piece. In this case, I looked and felt a little like an Amish woman!
Ljubljana Castle
Thankfully, we took a funicular to the highest point in Ljubljana. Walking or climbing in the heat is not ideal for anyone.
I thought that an open air prison sounded more humane. I envisioned the ability to walk around with some degree of freedom but confined to a hilltop. Boy, was I wrong! Prisoners were lowered by rope into a deep pit that was open to the elements: snow, rain, sun, and HEAT.
I was amazed that they could assess the crowd for language preference. The majority spoke English so the presentation would be in English. The second largest group was Italian so the subtitles would be in Italian. There were two couples left that spoke French and Polish so they were given translation hearing devices.
We finished our evening ordering the fresh catch of the day. She brought out a platter, and we chose what she called Devil Fish. It was delicious and expensive!!!
We looked up Devil Fish, but got lots of hits online so we asked our waitress to show it to us. It is ugly and scary. I wondered who was the first one to catch a Devil Fish and asked,” Should we eat it?”
This hot day in Ljubljana, Slovenia, started with an emu and ended with a kangaroo! What a day!
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