Ljubljanski Grad (Castle)

In the city centre atop a hill there is a castle. It took me all week before I found time to take the 10 minute walk up the hill and explore. My guidebook said basically all roads pointed toward the castle will eventually lead there so I found one and followed it uphill. Of course I picked a rainy day and didn’t pack an umbrella. Halfway up it started to really come down. Luckily I found a little alcove in the wall to take cover for a good 20 minutes before it died back down. It just so happened it was the only shelter on the whole hike so somehow I lucked out finding it at the right time.

The castle was much more impressive than I had imagined. It was pretty enormous and I spent close to 3 hours exploring I think. There are events and exhibitions all the time at the castle and many of them are free of charge. I entered a few free ones and then paid 10 euro to see the Steve McCurry exhibition. It was 10 euro well spent! I’ve seen some of McCurry’s work before, and we’re all familiar with his most famous piece from the cover of National Geographic, but I had never really seen much more than that. I was completely awestruck and insprired…especially after playing with my new camera all week. This guy captures incredible moments that are so striking you almost can’t believe that it wasn’t staged. The colors, composition, emotion, and technical skill are all perfection. Needless to say it just fueled my desire to master the D90 and improve my photography.

For another 6 euro I was able to go up into the tower. Quite a little climb up a spiral staircase and I found myself looking out over all of Ljubljana. I can’t imagine what this view would be like on a clear day because even with the grey skies it was pretty spectacular. I wanted to try and get a 360 degree panorama so I moved to the center of the tower. Unfortunately I was too short and the tower walls were obstructing my shot. So I climbed up onto this platform in the middle of the tower. To me it almost seemed like the purpose of it was so that you can get a good photo. And let me be clear that the tower walls were a good 5-6 ft away from what I climbed up onto so there was absolutely no chance of me falling off unless a hurricane came through. Even so, I think I managed to make a few people nervous as they were staring at me as I climbed up. I decided to spare them and not stand on top of the platform but just kneeled instead. After I situated myself I heard one of the onlookers rattle something off in Slovenian. The only word I caught in her thick accent was “A-mer-eee-can”. I don’t know how she pegged me but it was somewhat amusing.

After I took about 100 photos I headed back down and took a different route down the hill and through town. Even after spending all that time there I still didn’t even see the Slovenian history museum they had in the castle. Looks like I will need to make a return trip at some point.

All roads lead to the castle...

The view from my rain shelter on the path up to the castle

Seems like there should be fairies living in these woods

This snail and I may be the only ones enjoying the rain

Getting closer to the top, quite a view from here

Can you imagine all the people that have walked through that door throughout the centuries?

An art installation inside the castle

A gallery of old wall paintings

Art installation - Giant ants holding a broken Euro

Steve McCurry Photography Exhibition

The castle's chapel

Heading up the tower - lots of steps

View from the top. Empty streets on a rainy day

Heading back downhill into town.

More interesting graffiti

I've found a few spots like this. Anyone know what it means?

Love the peeling paint

More great architecture

Even this boarded up doorway is nice to look at.

This feels very European

More nice signage

More buildings in town

Art in the alleys

Greeted by the black cat and pigeons again when I return home

Kitty decided to get friendly and I have to admit he freaked me out a little bit at first. Can't decide if he's evil or nice.