With approximately 280,000 inhabitants, Ljubljana is classified as the only Slovenian large town. Throughout its history, it has been influenced by its geographic position at the crossroads of the Slavic world with the Germanic and Latin cultures. As you can see from the map, Slovenia is wedged between Italy, Austria, Hungary, and Croatia; I'm told that it is beautiful and stunning, and that compact Ljubljana is a delight, so am looking forward to exploring.
Although the city is small, I have decided to base myself here for 4 days; this gives me plenty of time to see not only the city, but whatever I can of the country-side too, as there are a couple of places I've been told by more than one source I cannot miss, including the town of Bled and its lake, and some of the cave systems to the south of here.
After settling in, Gorazd took me into the city centre - it's only about a 20 minute walk from here. It's also a very bicycle-friendly city, and there is a bike-hire scheme, where the first hour is free; so, Gorazd took his bike, and we went to one of the bike-hire locations where Gorazd let me use his card and we took another bike so that he could show me around the city. After a while, we dropped the bike off at another of the stops, and then walked for a while longer before getting another bike to ride back to near the apartment - what a great system!
That's me standing in front of the Triple Bridge (I know, you can't really see why it's called that - I'll try tomorrow) and the pink church in Preseren Square.
Around 50 BC, the Romans built a military encampment that later became a permanent settlement called Iulia Aemona (Emona). In 452, it was destroyed by the Huns under Attila's orders, and later by the Ostrogoths and the Lombards. Emona housed 5,000–6,000 inhabitants.
This lovely statue, which stands in Congress Square (so-named because the congress was held here to decide what to do about a Frenchman named Napoleon Bonaparte) is called Emona Man, and is a reproduction of a Roman statue found in the vicinity.
It is also a reminder that in Ljubljana, which sits pretty much in the centre of Slovenia, if you head in any direction for about an hour, you are in another country - Italy to the West, Croatia to the South, Austria to the North, and Hungary to the East (all of which are on my itinerary somewhere along the line - but that's for another day/s).