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Ljubljana's Charm Evokes Paris on a Human Scale
By Tom Kagy | 15 Jul, 2025
Our 12-day Central Europe road trip made stay number 4 Slovenia's charming capital which exceeded our expectations in every respect.
We had planned to stop for gas about halfway into the gorgeously verdant drive from Budapest to Ljubljana. Our gas gauge was touching red but we were forced to continue along the E71/M7 expressway for a dozen miles past the audible low-fuel warning before spotting a truckstop.
One of Ljubljana's main attractions are the restaurants lining the Ljubljanica River which encircles the city's delightful entertainment district.
The sole gas station at that stop was fully automated and required me to set a pre-determined amount in liters and forint (we were still in Hungary) before pumping. As with restaurants and other facilities during our trip the pump accepted my credit card via a phone tap without issue. But the gas refused to flow. After several cancellations and recharges, I gave up and pulled up to the next island. Same problem.
Ljubljana Castle can be reached by a pleasant 15-minute walk from the riverside entertainment area.
Spotting some men eating at tables outside a market restaurant, I walked up some steps and asked if they knew what could be wrong with the gas pumps. I got a few shrugs before a husky Hungarian man in a red shirt got up and walked down with me to the pump. He fiddled around with buttons but couldn't get it to work.
We were faced with the option of giving up and risking running dry before the next gas, or persisting with the temperamental pumps. I hit on the idea of trying a different credit card on my phone payment app. After two tries with the other card, I went back to the first card and the pump decided to begin dispensing. My fears that the six prior preset amounts would also be charged to my cards proved unfounded when I checked upon returning home. Fortunately the accounting is better than the user interface.
Automation was surprisingly pervasive throughout our Central Europe road trip, including bathrooms. Each time we stopped for relief we had to either drop in a coin, scan a card or tap a phone payment app to get past the turnstiles. The amounts were generally the equivalent of $0.75 to $1.15. For us that was a bargain because our usual practice is to buy something from the facility, whether we really wanted another coffee. Automated pay turnstiles spared us the cost and calories.
When we finally entered downtown Ljubljana we faced the same issue that we had encountered seeking Pod Vezi in Prague. We were trying to locate the 4-star Eurostars uHotel near the heart of the city's riverside entertainment district. Ms Google kept directing us halfway down a small street, then telling us to turn right. The problem was the next cross street was one-way going the other way.
After we repeated this loop several times with the same results, we parked a half block away in front of a building with enough space to let me stop the car. The wife went into the nearest office and emerged some time later with a set of instructions that essentially took us to the same baffling street but with the added insight that the uHotel was at the end of a long U-shaped driveway. Halfway down that baffling block we saw the driveway and let our eyes follow it down. Sure enough, at the end of it was the 10-story uHotel, a building we couldn't possibly have missed had it been on the street.
The hotel clerk told us to follow the curving ramp down to the underground parking garage. We found a space on the 2nd level and carried up our on-board suitcases to the lobby. Our room was spacious and comfortably furnished but offered a view of office buildings. It was early evening and we were hungry, so we lost little time heading out to the street that led toward the river.
A block's walk brought us to Prešernov trg, Preseren Square, a circular cobblestone plaza with a fountain and bronze statuary of the poet Franz Preseren and his muse atop a high circular base. The most prominent structure overlooking this central civic space is the beautiful pink and white Franciscan Church of the Annunciation built in the baroque style in the mid 17th century. Despite our hunger, we stood for a moment admiring its lovely color and ornamentation.
The other prominent feature visible from the Square is the Triple Bridge — three small parallel bridges crossing from the plaza to the area looped by the Ljubljanica River's sharp bend to the south, then back east. The Ljublianica is really a big stream, no more than about fifty feet across at its widest point in the city. You can easily walk back and forth across all three bridges in well under ten minutes. Seven more bridges cross the Ljubljanica in the vicinity, all of which can be traversed in a 45-minute stroll.
Ljubljana felt like a human scale miniature of Paris. Paris is magnifique, grand and filled with more landmarks than most visitors can squeeze in. You can't very well lunch at a cafe at Luxembourg Gardens, saunter over to the Louvre, then stroll down to Moulin Rouge for dinner and a show. There's too much urban acreage between attractions and each crossing of the Seine takes about 7 times as long as crossing the Ljubljanica. Paris is metro-friendly but not foot-friendly.
The Ljublianica is really a big stream, no more than about fifty feet across at its widest point in the city. You can easily walk back and forth across all three bridges in well under ten minutes.
This evening view from Cobbler's Bridge looks northward toward Preseren Square.
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