Slow-venia

All recovered from our 5 day stretch of rest in the bay of Naples we hit city after city from Ravenna all the way to Rijeka. Freshly tired, and with Rob's birthday around the corner, we decided to stay put for another few days. Finally all recovered we are now back on the road again making our way to Vienna.

Wednesday consisted of a nice walk around Rijeka which, while the weather was beautiful, was not the most exciting city to make our way around. A few shops, a tunnel, and 20,000 steps later we decided to call it and move from Croatia back into Slovenia for a few days. A decision that would lead us to perhaps one of our favourite countries yet.

The need to stay put for a few days around Rob's birthday meant that we needed a paid park up and where better than a sanctuary for rescued animals. Pictured is Rob's new best friend who repeatedly kept trying to sit on him.

After 3 nights still in the sanctuary in the hills and forests of central Slovenia we headed into Ljubljana which was so good its vying for a place in our top 5 cities so far! The city was full of references to dragons, best encapsulated by the dragon bridge. The story goes that Jason, of and the Argonauts fame, travelled through the region on his sail from the black sea to the Adriatic but had to dismantle his boats on the final trek, after sailing the Danube and the Sava. Once dismantled he had to cross the valley where Ljubljana now sits and in the process had to fight a dragon. How the legend went from fighting a dragon to cherishing him I did not fully grasp.

The plain that Ljubljana now sits on was once a marsh and inhabited for thousands of years by nomadic peoples who eventually started to use this nifty invention. Pictured above is the oldest surviving wheel in the world! This was from our extended visit to the Ljubljana city museum, which I have to say is one of my favourite museums we have visited so far!

Following on from the Celtic inhabitation the region became a target for Roman expansion. Known as the Ljubljana gate, the region around the modern city lies in the flat plain between the Alps and the Dinarides. This means that the easiest way for a power to spread from Italy to the north Balkans or visa versa is through here. Capitalising on this, the Romans built the colony of Emona on the flat plain by the river. Evidence of the Roman desire to fight on flat land and build in orderly patters rather than utilise the local hill. Once the Roman Empire collapsed in the 5th century, one of the main causes of that collapse made living on this flat plain untenable: vast migrations. This territory being a passage point through mountains meant that any inhabitants needed to use the safety of the hill to avoid violence. Therefore, inhabitation of the area post Romans moved from the flat to the hill. 

Not only is Rob and the big man Franz Josef himself a prime photo opportunity but it gives an insight into the massive impacts that the Austrians had on the region of Slovenia for over 600 years. The Habsburg Empire controlled the territory as a colony allowing the Austrians easy access to their ports on the Adriatic. The earthquake that devastated the region in 1895 allowed for the Austrians to rebuild much of the city in their image. This coupled with the minimal physical destruction from the two world wars leaves Ljubljana with a unique architectural heritage. The city is a perfect example of Habsburg building that has rarely survived elsewhere due to the devastation of the 20th century. There is a distinct German / Swiss vibe about the city that gave whiplash after coming from the multicultural but predominantly Slavic Croatia to the south.

On our walk out of this beautiful city we treated ourselves to some very decadent vegan deserts under the gaze of the impressive castle. We made our way back to Moira and got back on the road to head back into Croatia to its capital Zagreb on our way to Budapest!

Rob's favourite fact: to keep the partisans from liberating the city the Italian occupiers in WW2 built a barbed wire fence around the whole city for 4 years (it was not successful!)

Danni's favourite fact: After Napoleon was defeated one of the places the allies tried to recreate a world order was in Ljubljana, so for 6 months it was the centre of world diplomacy