The hiking part of the vacation is over, and we’ll be spending the next two and a half days sightseeing. Today we saw Ljubljana from various angles: street level, from above, and from below.

A large chunk of central Ljubljana is a car-free area, very pleasant for walking and window shopping. There were nice riverside walkways and numerous pedestrian bridges, including the famous dragon bridge. Lots and lots and lots of cafes and restaurants with outdoor seating, and some truly excellent ice cream. (Chocolate ice cream with single-estate chocolate!)

We liked the circle of rain in Prešeren square.

Next we made our way up to the castle, and then even further up to its highest tower, from where we looked down on the city as well as the castle itself.

The castle itself was a mixed bag. The City Museum was not much better than the one in Bled, displaying disparate objects, each one perhaps interesting in and of itself, but often badly presented. Physically unreadable signs, often way too little context. (Seriously, nobody can read your labelling with tiny black letters on transparent glass in front of the object itself.) Same goes for the museum of puppetry in another part of the castle – I guess it can be interesting if you’re already familiar with whatever TV shows and movies the puppets are from, but without the local knowledge it’s just a random bunch of puppets.

On the other hand, the lower levels of the castle were impressive in and of themselves, as a cool piece of engineering. And the before and after photos of the extensive renovations that the castle has gone through were captivating.

In the afternoon we went for a boat ride up and down the river, so we could see the city from a new angle – and rest our legs.