Day 11: Zagreb to Ljubljana

It was a nice sunny morning when we woke up in Zagreb today. We didn't have to check out of the hotel until midday, so after breakfast we went out for a final stroll around the city. Just down the road from the main train station are the botanical gardens, which belong to Zagreb university. They're an attractive place to walk around and include a pond which is full of little turtles...

...as well as some pretty flowers and fountains.

From the botanical gardens it isn't far to the impressive building of the Croatian national theatre.

We had a look in a couple more bookshops, which led us into Preradović square, named after the Croatian poet Petar Preradović. Zagreb's Serbian Orthodox cathedral is situated in the square.

As we were walking back towards the hotel to pack up our things, my eye was caught by a plaque on the side of one of the buildings we passed.

This building housed the editors of the first Esperanto magazine in Croatia - "Kroata Esperantisto" - which was first produced in 1909. The plaque commemorates its 80th anniversary of its publication. We were quite surprised to find this memorial, as yet again we had no idea that it was here!

Our train to Ljubljana departed Zagreb at 12.35. Buying the tickets was a slightly surreal experience as the lady behind the counter had to write them out for us by hand, using carbon paper to take copies! The journey took around 2.5 hours, although it could have taken a lot less time if the train hadn't sat at the border for around 40 minutes. Our passports were checked first by Croatian police and then by Slovenian police. The only difference that Croatia joining the EU seems to have made is that the Croatian police don't stamp passports any more.

We arrived in Ljubljana just after 15.00 and quickly located our apartment, which turns out to be really comfy

It's 64 EUR per night including the city tax, which makes it one of our more expensive apartments, but it's in a really good location right by the river in Ljubljana. And we were even provided with some basic groceries, including bread, cheese, coffee and wine!

We were starving by this point so went out for a meal and then had a preliminary stroll around Ljubljana.

We walked along the river Ljubljanica...

...and could see Ljubljana castle looming high above everything.

In the main square, Prešernov trg, there is a beautiful pink Franciscan church.

There was an even better view of the castle from here.

In the middle of the square there is a statue of Prešeren, a famous Slovene poet.

We found a 3D map of Ljubljana, similar to the one we saw yesterday in Zagreb, but this didn't feature any Esperanto. So far Slovenia is an Esperanto-free zone.