Wednesday 12 September Ribjec Laz to Ljubljana

We're awake very early as usual and even have to wait to be the first to breakfast at 7:30. Then we leave the Hotel Gasperin and walk down to the bus stop near the lake. The 08:47 is on time and we travel through the mist shrouded valley towards Ljubljana about two hours away. Plenty of hay racks and rickety wooden barns with neatly stacked logs on the way.

It's very hot and sunny when we get to the capital. We walk down through the narrow streets from the bus stop to the triple bridge and find the Vander Urban Resort, right on the river. It's a mixture of the D'Aranberg building in the McLaren Vale and Tate Modern; very funky! We stroll through the vibrant city., bicycles whizzing past us in great numbers. We have lunch at a recommended fish place under the colonnaded section next to the fish market, where we have delicious cold cured sardines, anchovies with cheese and cod pate and toast. And of course some chilled white wine! Then we visit the cathedral of St Nicholas with its over the top gold gilding and pink marble, have an ice cream by the river ( pretty much everything is by the river!) and feeling a bit weary go up to the roof terrace of our hotel and doze/read by the plunge pool. Suitably refreshed we head off downtown to the Union brewery for some unfiltered  ales (in my case a very dark malty one), obviously the trendy place to be. Then a somewhat solitary meal in a fish restaurant recommended in the guide book but apparently shunned by eaters! We compensate by having a negroni at a buzzy place by the Ljubjanica overlooking an impressive fountain on the other side.