Another hearty breakfast but no bike riding for John, Ingrid, Gary, Terry and Rick S. We met in the Lobby of the Allegra Hotel at 9:30am to walk up to the Castle that towers over us from nearly any place in the old town area of Ljubljana. Ingrid had gotten a text from Janelle suggesting that we get a dinner reservation for tonight for the Sabjza Restaurant near the Allegra. I tried to do that but the reservation website was down for maintenance and I couldn’t get a call through to make a reservation and they didn’t open until noon. So I waited. We made the climb to the Castle and explored the grounds a bit. We climbed the one high tower to be able to see and take pictures of the places we had walked the day before and see the hotel where we are staying. There are several restaurants on the castle grounds and we explored some of them. There were school age kids running around everywhere in some kind of competition. When they ran up the hill to the castle – it was very impressive. The path was fairly steep.
After exploring the castle – we walked to the open air market in Old town and surveyed the wares available in the numerous booths. I went back to the hotel and then the Sabjza to make a reservation at 7 for 13 people since Rick H and Janelle were arriving at 6:00pm. I made the reservation at 7 and then they called back and changed the reservation to 6:00pm. Rick S found a Sales person selling tickets to the River cruise and negotiated a much better price including drinks – so we said we would be back. we walked back to the hotel freshened up and went to lunch at Marley and Me. We all sampled various local cuisines and enjoyed it all!
After lunch we walked down to the river, paid our fees, and hopped on the boat. 45 minutes later after an enjoyable ride and lots of pictures taken we finished the boat ride and headed out on various errands since our bike ride starts tomorrow.
Patti and Robin arrived while we were on our boat ride.
We gathered in the Lobby at 5:50pm for the 4 minute walk to Sabjza and Rick H and Janelle arrives while we were waiting. they checked in and joined us at the restaurant. We were out on their back patio which was very nice – I think people were happy with Janelle’s proposal to go there. After sampling some Cherry Liqueur in the Lobby we headed for bed before the big day tomorrow. Tomorrow we meet our VBT tour guides for the first time in the lobby, We will drive to Italy (not that far way) to the town of Valbruno, have lunch and do a warm-up ride for 6 to 12 miles. We will stay the next 2 nights at the Hotel Edelhof in Tarviso, Italy.
I am having trouble posting pictures here. I like to default my phone to “Live” pictures but Word Press cannot handle that picture type (still picture with 3 seconds of Video). They can be converted to the right format but it is a royal pain to do it. So stay tuned – I may get some pictures posted soon. In the meantime if you have FaceBook you can see them on Janet Thomson Switzer or Ken Switzer.