Castle Adventure! -- Ljubljana, Slovenia

Slovenia has an abundance of many things, among which include castles.

Colorado has about as many castles as it has sea urchins, so I still get excited (even after eight months of vagabond volunteering in the UK) to walk around their ruins and imagine all the things that transpired in buildings old enough to have seen the birth of my country.

Sabina took me on a castle tour. We packed a simple lunch of fruit and vegetables, picked up Dusha and set off for Turjak Castle, a 13th century building 20 km away from Ljubljana.

Turjak castle was also the short-time home of Primoz Trubar, first fellow to write a book in Slovene.

I have to take pictures of all the signs. Else I forget where I've been. It's rather disturbing how easy it is for me to forget where I've been.

The castle has been destroyed on numerous occasions (as seems to be their habit), and this slab is from the 16th century version.

The linden tree, national tree of Slovenia. Its flowers are brewed in tea to cure colds, coughs, fevers, headaches, and a myriad of other illnesses.

The heart-shaped leaves of the linden tree.

I would learn Slovene and write a book if I could live here.

We drove to the spring of the Krke river for our healthy picnic (having picked up some cow cheese from a loquacious local cheese lady) and began to notice a rather odd phenomenon. Whenever we climbed into the car, it started to rain. Whenever we climbed out of the car, the weather cleared. Consistently.

We didn't complain.

We met a biking Belgian couple on our walk back to the car. They had hoped to tour the cave next to the Krka spring, but it was open on Sundays and by appointment only. We chatted for a bit and wished them luck with the weather.

"We've had a perfect day. Whenever we get in the car, it starts to rain. Whenever we get out, the rain stops," Sabina laughed.

"And I don't know how this affects you, but we're getting in our car now," Dusha saucily chimed in.

I laughed. The Belgians looked slightly perturbed.

Next stop, Zuzemberk. Yet another 13th century (it was a busy one for the Slovenes). It was also bombed to bits, but was restored during the 1960s and now hosts touristic events for much of the summer.

Battle wounds. Damn sea archers.

Dusha!

Sabi

Final castle was Otocec.

Guess when it was built?

Hey there, 13th century.

Guess what happened to it?

The Second World War. That happened.

One thing that makes Otocec Castle uniquely beautiful is that it rests on an island in the Krka River.

Sabi treated Dusha and me to a sinful chocolate mousse after our tour of the river island.

The waitress said it was "small."

The waitress was a liar.

We were running late (the mousse took a while to eat), so we called Simon and asked if he'd prepare dinner for three touring ladies.

"Did you tell him that we're not too hungry, though?" I asked, apprehensive about the portion sizes my gourmet host was prone to preparing.

"Well, I said that we'd just had a cappuccino and chocolate mousse," Sabina replied confidence I didn't trust. "He'll know that we'll be full."

"Sabi. Two things. Simon loves to cook. Simon just bought loads of food. Simon is going to cook us loads of food and will be sad when we can't finish."

Simon cooked us loads of food and was sad when we couldn't finish.