Seniors Spend Time In Ljubljana

 Seniors, have you heard of Ljubljana (pronounced [ljuˈbljàːna])? Me either, until recently when I read that this is where Donald Trump’s wife Melania spent her youth.

This capital has transformed from gray and drab with very little nightlife, into a picturesque and lively city full of restaurants, cafés, and nightclubs filled with tourists from across the globe.

Do you have your coffee?  I’ve got mine. Let’s go to Slovenia.

One of the first impressions you will get is that it is an exceptionally young city. Ljubljana is home to over 50,000 students, who give it a special vibe. The symbol of the city is the Ljubljana Dragon.

 Seniors Enjoy This People-Friendly City

With approximately 280,000 inhabitants, Ljubljana is classified as the only Slovenian large town.  As its inhabitants and numerous visitors will tell you, Ljubljana is, indeed, a people-friendly city. Ljubljana offers everything a metropolis does yet preserves its small-town friendliness.

Situated at the middle of a trade route between the northern Adriatic Sea and the Danube region, Ljubljana was the historical capital of Carniola, a Slovene-inhabited part of the Habsburg Monarchy, and it has been the cultural, educational, economic, political, and administrative center of independent Slovenia since 1991.

Ljubljana, Slovenia is dominated with a huge majestic castle on a hill near the River Ljubljana that splits the town into two parts, like Buda and Pest. The city’s traditional color is green and the castle is illuminated at night all in green.

Seniors Enjoy City Of Wine And Vine

In Ljubljana the old meets the new and it seems that history has spent all of the settlement’s five millennia preparing it to become the nation’s capital. It has managed to retain traces from all periods of its rich history.

 Senior oenophiles, Ljubljana did not earn the label of “the city of wine and vine” for nothing. In the past it was the wine-trading center of the region and grapevines were planted on the slopes leading up to the present-day castle by the inhabitants of the Roman settlement of Emona.

Strolling along Ljubljanica River is the Tromostovje Triple Bridge with small dragonlike statues on its side that connects two parts of the center. Seniors can visit Prešelen Square, Ljubljana’s most popular meeting point with the Franciscan Church of Annunciation on popular Čop Street, one of the main shopping areas in the city.

Home to numerous theaters, museums and galleries,  Ljubljanica boasts one of the oldest philharmonic orchestras in the world. Seniors can fully relax in Tivoli Park or in the Town Square, then ride on a funicular to the top of Castle Hill, often labeled a “must see and do.”

TripAdvisor notes that Slovenia, wedged between Austria and Italy, is a perfect blend of German, Mediterranean, and Slovenian culture. Old Town tops TripAdvisor’s list and the Triple Bridge follows right behind. Enjoy scenic Slovenia and spend time getting acquainted with Ljubljana. -jeb