A fun day in Ljubljana

Ljubljana, capital of Slovenia, and you can not pronounce it either, and we have had lessons. First forget the "j"s, - we were told the second one makes the sound of an epsilon (whatever that sounds like).  

The photo below is the lobby of the Ljubljana Town Hall. Patt is thinking of recommending something like it for Burgaw.  

We hiked up the hill to the Ljubljana Castle overlooking the city. The view from the top of the castle tower and looking toward the mountains to the north of Slovenia, and most of the country by the way.  There are only about 2.5 million people in the country and about 250,000 in Ljubljana. So this is not the largest country or city in the world. In fact, in China it would get lost, heck in California or Texas it would get lost.

As bad a prisons were in Budapest for victims of the Hungarian secret police or the Nazis or the Soviets, the prisoners of the middle ages who were imprisoned in castle dungeons had a hard time too.

We were at the Ljubljana Castle for "Castle Day" with lots of period actors,  guess which one is an actor.

The outside of a well maintained castle that is the main tourist destination of a city.

Outside the castle was a cooking demonstration and I could not get a sample of the meat stew despite my best efforts of trying to convince the cook that I needed a sample.

 There was also an armorer who would equip you with a knight's headgear and a sword

well you have heard, 

Don't tug on Superman's cape….

Don't spit into the wind

Don't draw on the ole Lone Ranger…. 

There was a lot going on all over town today, including a tight rope walker who needed his safety rope to keep him dry. He did not make it across. We saw him fall several times.  (It was a low stress day--for us— not him.)

We did go to the National Museum, (you knew we would) and found the world champion picture frame. We are now officially considering reframing several of our pictures at home with this as a model. This is a painting of St George slaying the dragon - and it is properly framed. Capital P on properly.

Patt and I both like the elegance, yet balance, this frame presents. It gives a photograph or piece of art a proper perspective.

After being in bunches of museums and seeing lots of paintings of naked and near nekid women, (as this is a family blog, there is not one below) I have decided that painters just like painting women with no clothes on. Bathsheba, Ruth, with breast showing, Delilah, some other biblical woman who I can not remember who was seen near nude, and of course the Greek and Roman goddesses are all frequent subjects of artists.

I doubt I am the first person to make the observation that artists like good looking models, but I just felt like it was one that needed to be made. Next time you are in a museum, notice. Below is another not nekid woman. By the way I liked both of the paintings. The one below is actually an impressionist painting and I have lost my note on who the artist was.

Tomorrow on our way to Salzburg.

Drive to Ljubljana, Slovenia

As is our custom as we left Zagreb headed toward Ljubljana we took a rather lengthy detour off the main highway. As the trip was mainly east to west this time we went north toward Sevnica and to Bostanj, Slovenia. Sevnica is where Melanija Knavas went to grade school. She is possibly the most famous Slovene you know.

As we haven't learned Slovenian yet, we are not sure how any of these are pronounced so your guess is as good as ours. This small church was in Bostanj, just across the Sava River from Sevnica. That's our rental Fiat in front.

Small but pretty inside.  

The road got very very small, often single lane and ran along side a railroad track and/or the Sava River for most of the time.

Crossing both several times, either rail crossings.

Or single lane bridges.

We came to a train station in Lasko with an old train engine made in 1913 in Settin. And a World War II monument.

The top of the monument had been broken off, I think it had once been a star. There is a red star at the top of the names (most of the red gone). A little google translate and we figure it commemorates the hostages (talec) and partisans (partizan). Possibly members of the local communist party for their participation against the Germans during the war?

At times the road got very narrow.

I like this interesting bridge combination at Hrastnik.  

We passed farms,

we drove through farms 

and passed by a few small towns.  

This was Krsko (some of these Slovenian names need a vowel).

and then the rains started.

We got to Ljubljana in a driving rain which continued until early in the evening. Not a car driving rain but a real hard rain - like cats and dogs. Not like real cats and dogs but — a lot of rain. Some of our English idioms probably are hard to understand. The rain eventually slowed enough to go out to eat and see a bit of the town.

Patt in front of the Three bridges - they are famous.

 Me in a street - I am sorta famous (in my own mind).

The Ljubljana River, it is not so famous among rivers.

So you don't know who Melanija Knavas is,

the famous Slovene?

 She is Donald Trump's third wife and present First Lady.

Zagreb and a little history from lots of museums

Before our day even got started we came upon a gaggle of TV reporters and TV cameras aimed at a small set of demonstrators.  

They were behind the historic St Marks Church which is on a square surrounded by legislative buildings.

And in front of the legislative building demonstrators were demonstrating in SUPPORT of the Agriculture Minister's presentation that morning about new regulations on animal protections. A TV reporter said it was unusual to have demonstrations in support of things (and that this law was far reaching). Who knew an administration could cause public outcry in a positive manner?

We went to several museums, in one there were parts of a Cathedral that had been preserved when it had been remodeled. Here with one of the door front pieces.

There were lots of military paintings and uniforms. The Croatians have made a history of fighting the Ottomans and various other neighbors.

And of course landscapes. This one pretty good I thought.

 Note the detail from lower left above.

There were tons of portraits, mostly of staid old men and women, this one was a bit out of character.

And lots of religious art too.  This one by Antonis Van Dyck of Mary Magdalene, I especially liked.

And among the rooms of art in one of the museums we heard faintly at first then louder the sounds of Beach Boys music, sung by a choir, a surprise find, but quite pleasant and well done.  

And from the depression era of Modern Art two pieces that actually I rather liked — and simply named too. 

Feeding

\

Horse

In both the above pieces of art, the difficulties of the depression era of the 30's is apparent.

A most interesting find in the iron age section, photo below, was this somewhat the worse for wear war helmet. Made 8,000-3,000 years ago it would have fit one of us brothers!!! Yes a size 7 3/4 or even an 8 head. Right here!  or else he used a lot of fur liner.

Also of interest to me were the sections of World War I and II.  World War I in which Croatia (as a part of Yugoslavia in II) was a willing and early aggressor as a part of the Austria-Hungarian Empire in starting the war was notably short and actually included mostly a few romanticized postcards.

World War II was even skimpier, as Croatia participated on about every side you can think of. Nazi supporter, Croatian Nationalist, Communist, German nationalist, Anarchist, and so on, so the World War II section settled on anti-Soviet propaganda posters.

Learning other nations' history from their point of view is awesome fun. Gives you a new view of your own, and theirs, and sort of why nations and peoples may have attitudes like they at times illustrate.  

The days and evenings here have been beautiful.  

Getting to Zagreb, and leaving Hungary

Leaving Budapest, we were on a limited access toll road going through flat farm land. Mostly green fields, a few vineyards, remarkably few herds of livestock and

a few small towns.  It was a pretty drive and easy.

We got off the highway to see Lake Balaton, the largest lake in central Europe. And it looked big, clear and like a resort.  

Trying the selfie thing again.

This is the Ban Jelalic Square or the main square in Zagreb.  Photo taken from our hotel room window on the 4th floor.

It is the City Center and crossroads of the tram system and at rush hour was really full of people.  

Ban Jelalic a famous General who fought with the Hapsburgs to help surpress the 1848 revolutions has his statue here.  After World War II the Russians/Soviets removed this statue and Marshall Tito of Yugoslavia (the country that Croatia used to be part of )kept it in storage.  After the fall of the Soviet Union in 1989, the statute was returned to this square.

That is Ban Jelalic Square in the background, and our hotel on the corner.  We are looking for a restaurant.

Just a sunset along the tram line.

That  is Hrvatska Postanska Banka.  "Hrvatska" is the Croat word for Croatia.  Kinda like the Thai word for Thailand is Pratetthai.  The Croat pronunciation for their Hrvatska is Hur(roll the "r") vat (say it like a German/Russian would like "what" — like "vut".)  This middle syllable gets the accent.  then ska with a short a sound.  So it is Hurvutska  ——  MAGIC almost just like it is spelled!!

I love Croat.  I will be getting Croatian magazine subscriptions for youall for Christmas.