Today’s original plan was to go to the city of Bled, but with the weather forecast being for rain, we decided to change that plan. Cassidy went on her own journey to Piran, a coastal city and Lizzie and I stayed in Ljubljana for the day. While having breakfast and deciding where to go, Lizzie and I hear the receptionist explaining to another hostel dweller about the Architecture Museum. This was a place both of us had wanted to go, so we listened in… we set off on our journey taking the city bus to its last stop. It was quite a ways from the hostel. We started walking along the river towards where we were directed to go… as we walked we became more perplexed about our surroundings matching the description we had. We walked about 10 min and decided that it must be the other way, this didn’t seem like the right direction. We walked back past the bus stop and then for another 10 min in the other direction. Before giving up, we took out our city maps. We had walked the whole length of the river by where the girl from the hostel had pointed. It was then that Lizzie saw a museum on the map that if we had kept walking in the original direction we would have come to. So we set back off in the original direction, walked further this time and then crossed the river and walked a bit further and there ahead of us we saw the castle that housed the Architecture museum! It was a beautiful castle right along the river. We immediately were glad we had continued our journey, and really we couldn’t complain we got to walk all along the river (both ways) we had seen a large group of swans, many ducks, and some other mammal river creature we couldn’t place for sure. Inside the museum was an exibit for the works of Niko Kralj an industrial architect. His works were inspiring! We were allowed to take some pictures- so I of course did! We could tell by his works that he was not only revolutionary but he inspired many of the items we use today!
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| The castle with the Architecture Museum inside |
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| The castle gate |
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| Exhibits of Niki Kralj |
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| Bookshelves by Kralj |
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| Some of the exhibits of Niki Kralj |
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| Tinker toys created by Kralj |
With the morning having started the way it did- taking a bit longer to find the museum then originally planned, it was already time for lunch. We decided to journey to a well reviewed Asian restaurant. The atmosphere was great and the food was just as wonderful! Unfortunately today was just not turning out to be our day for time though, there was only one waiter and the restaurant was full.. so this too took longer than it should. I would say though that both were worth it. A beautiful walk along the river, and a delicious lunch with great company!
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| VERY yummy lunch!!! - Red Thai Curry |
Seeing what time it was we knew we only had time for one more of our planed excursions for the day, but we also knew we had some time we could shop before heading to the Natural History and National Museum. We spent our time in a bookstore- it was a great place very similar to bookstores that we are accustomed to in the states. One floor was full of all books and the other floor of stationary and gifts. I was able to buy my Slovenian books for my classroom library when I return home.
The National Museum and Natural History Museum were in the same building and had a combination ticket we could purchase. We started on the National Museum portion of the museum. The museum started with 5000-3800 BC the Stone Age, followed by the Copper Age from 3800-2300 BC. I have always enjoyed history, so this was a really interesting experience. There were artifacts and great written descriptions of the time periods. They also had an exhibit about a find from 1995, the first musical instrument was uncovered. It was a flute created between 200,000 – 10,000 years ago by the Neanderthals, it was carved from the bone of an animal. I journeyed on and learned a lot about Slovenian history. The oldest record of the Slavic language was in the 10th Century. In 1600 the Catholic Church realized the significance of the Slovenes in Religious life so printing of religious materials in Slovenian began to be printed. I also must share, because of my masonic background; I was able to see a lambskin apron from the early 19th century from the Ljubljana Freemason Lodge!! I wasn’t able to take a picture of it, however I have a mental picture and would be happy to share with anyone interested when I return!! The Natural History museum was like many of the other Natural History museums I have seen, I am not trying to belittle its significance or information though. These two museums share one building. However there is a plan for the Natural History museum being moved to another bigger facility, which will be wonderful for both museums so they can be given the space they deserve.
Lesson: Sometimes the best laid plans don’t turn out the way you envision, but the alternative, the way they do turn out can and should be appreciated for the beauty and knowledge they too can bring!
Today’s original plan was to go to the city of Bled, but with the weather forecast being for rain, we decided to change that plan. Cassidy went on her own journey to Piran, a coastal city and Lizzie and I stayed in Ljubljana for the day. While having breakfast and deciding where to go, Lizzie and I hear the receptionist explaining to another hostel dweller about the Architecture Museum. This was a place both of us had wanted to go, so we listened in… we set off on our journey taking the city bus to its last stop. It was quite a ways from the hostel. We started walking along the river towards where we were directed to go… as we walked we became more perplexed about our surroundings matching the description we had. We walked about 10 min and decided that it must be the other way, this didn’t seem like the right direction. We walked back past the bus stop and then for another 10 min in the other direction. Before giving up, we took out our city maps. We had walked the whole length of the river by where the girl from the hostel had pointed. It was then that Lizzie saw a museum on the map that if we had kept walking in the original direction we would have come to. So we set back off in the original direction, walked further this time and then crossed the river and walked a bit further and there ahead of us we saw the castle that housed the Architecture museum! It was a beautiful castle right along the river. We immediately were glad we had continued our journey, and really we couldn’t complain we got to walk all along the river (both ways) we had seen a large group of swans, many ducks, and some other mammal river creature we couldn’t place for sure. Inside the museum was an exibit for the works of Niko Kralj an industrial architect. His works were inspiring! We were allowed to take some pictures- so I of course did! We could tell by his works that he was not only revolutionary but he inspired many of the items we use today!
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