3rd April 2019 - 8th April 2019

Trieste

We left Venice from the platform next to the Orient Express, now there is a train. I am saving my pennies for a trip on it, even if it is only a couple of days. Anyone wanting to come I will let you know when.

We arrived in Trieste in the rain, we could see our hotel and the road works, we arrived rather damp. Trieste is not the biggest of towns and we were in walking distance to everything. The tourists in Trieste are made up of Slovenian’s, Italian’s and Austrian’s, things are quite cheap, which is a nice change.

They have a grand canal which is quite short, very pretty but we had just come from Venice. Not as impressed as we would have been.

The old town is lovely some amazing buildings. The Serbian Orthodox Church of the Holy Trinity and St Spyridon (1869), was gorgeous. The building adopts the Greek-cross plan with five cupolas in the Byzantine tradition.

We visited Castel San Giusto, which was designed on the remains of previous castles on the site, and took almost two centuries to build. The stages of the development of the Castle's defensive structures are marked by the central part built (1470–1), the round Venetian bastion (1508-9), the Hoyos-Lalio bastion and the Pomis, or "Bastione fiorito" dated 1630. The castle was very impressive. Lots of weapons and a great view over the city. A lovely walk back through parks that had lots of new spring flowers. The blossoms in the trees were beautiful. We also enjoyed a few beers in the bar. We only had a couple of days in Trieste so did not get out of town to see the Castello Miramare

Ljubljana

Arrived in Ljubljana to a wet afternoon. The hotel was a little out of town, so we decided on a meal in the hotel and an early night.

A courtesy bus took us into the old part of town, it was a real wow. Lovely colourful buildings and a river through the center. The old town is spread on either side of the river and is amazing. The main bridge is a strange triple structure which I liked a lot. The most famous bridge is at the end of the old town and is the Dragon Bridge, which is fabulous large dragons rearing over the path and river. The Dragon is Ljubljana’s motif. It is either the dragon that St George Killed or chased back into the marshes and its breath can still be seen! I found a great shop which was selling things made by autistic and deaf children. I replaced a shopping bag I had lost and got a present. The lady in the shop was so nice and told me all about the autistic boy who had made my shopping bag.

A beer festival made Ross’s day, we kept away from the Aussies drinking Combat Wombat! A funicular railway trip to the fort was fun. The fort was very disappointing it turns out it was allowed to almost fall down and was renovated in the 1940’s so is now more a convention center than a fort. The puppet museum was the best part.

We had hoped the weather would be good today and had organised a cruise on the river. It was so cold we had the cruise to ourselves, instead of with about 80 other people, it was a bit wet and cold. To make up for it the 30-minute cruise went for 50 minutes good value. It would have been lovely in sunshine. We did go under the Dragon Bridge. Another typical Slovenian meal a stew with caraway seeds, very tasty.