In the last few weeks, I have been unexpectedly overwhelmed by memories of this time last year, so this trip will be a very welcome change of scenery.
Main reason: Art tour with Knoll Galerie.
Thursday 29 June
Arrival in the morning on a EuroNight train. Due to a major screw-up on the part of Deutsche Bahn (I thought I had booked, as was written on the ticket, a bed in a single sleeping cabin but it turned out that the ticket they gave me was for a (non-reclining) seat in a six-person compartment) and that there were no sleeping compartments on that train at all, I had not had any sleep. It was Deutsche Bahn who sold me that non-ticket, but as far as I know, Österreichische Bundesbahnen is the “lead” railway company in that crappy project which I now know is to be avoided. The bizarre thing is that I got the impression from the ticket controller that it happens all the time, as in on a daily basis. And there were several others on the train with the same issue.
I was happy that the hotel had a room ready for me so early in the day so that I was able to unpack and freshen up before hitting the street of Ljubljana. By the way, the reception staff at Hotel Exe Lev is super friendly and welcoming.
The photos of the day are from walking around, from a short river cruise (is that a giant rat or a tiny nutria?), of a lot of statues (difficult to photograph in the harsh sunlight), and from Republic Square and the area around it, and a bird I am not sure I have ever seen, much less photographed and definitely not identified before.
As usual, there is no need to comment on for example the repetitiveness. Sometimes I experiment with cropping vs no cropping. Some say I crop too much, some too little. Guess whether or not I particularly care what other people think?
The route, including the river cruise on MapyMyWalk here.
Total distance actually walked: 12,2 km. Not too shabby after a virtually sleepless night and on a day where temperatures must have been close to 30C :-).
And in the evening, spotted these shadows quite a distance from my hotel room window:
Friday, 30 June
First up: 1 km in the rowing machine in the hotel fitness room :-). More and more convinced that I need to somehow fit in a rowing machine at home, but first I will wait and see if the rumours of a fitness centre in the monster building next door to me in Berlin are true. If I had one right next door, I would go. Further away – I’m afraid not. And I am definitely not going back to Holmes Place after the number they pulled during the Covid lock downs where they not only charged the usual monthly fee but then charged extra for the online activities they started to offer! They had nothing else to do – and they wanted to make an extra profit from the pandemic. I found that in extemely bad taste.
Then a walk that took me back past the opera house, Republic Square, the Museum of Modern Art, and to the Jakopics Gallery with its Susan Meiselas retrospective.
Also to an impressive, large collection of Roman stones, belonging to the national museum, in a separate, all-glass building, free of charge, and to my amazement completely unsupervised!
The programme for the art tour which started on this day:
16:30: Meeting and welcome drinks at Ravnikar Gallery Space, Vošnjakova 4. Gallery presentation and guided tours of, a. o., the exhibition Mental Health Walk by Ivana Bajec (below right together with one of our superguides) and the AIR4. The other photo is of the painting which immediately caught my eye :-):
17:45-19:00: Plečnik House, Karunova ulica 4. Guided tour of the house and visit of the two temporary exhibitions Vlasto Kopač and Dorit Margreiter.
Just some photos from the garden of Plečnik House, which I somehow find look better in black and white:
I skipped the rest of the programme (A short tour around Plečnik’s Ljubljana (Trg Francoske revolucije, Križanke, National Library, Vegova Street, Tromostovje, Market place, etc.), 19:30-20:15: Dobra Vaga Gallery: Presentation of the gallery and guided tour of the exhibition MARKETPLACE, Adamič-Lundrovo nabrežje 5, and 20:30: Dinner & drinks: Open Kitchen on Central Market) and walked back to the hotel.
Total number of km walked on this day: 14.20.
Saturday, 1 July
9:30: Meeting outside NAMA Department Store, Tomšičeva 1.
Walk to MGLC Švicarija permanent exhibition and artist studios. A former hotel, in a lovely location in Tivoli Park now artist studios allotted for a five-year period with the possibility of renewal. A wonderful opportunity. And I have never seen such clean and orderly artist studios in my life.
I got the names confused and will have to clarify with the tour organisers, but according to the programme, we visited the studios of, a.o. Janja Kosi, Damjan Kracina, Silvan Omerzu, Ana Sluga, Miran Mohar (IRWIN), Tanja Lažetić, Miha Štrukelj, Silvester Plotajs Sicoe, Tanja Pak, and Anja Jerčič Jakob.
Walk to Moderna Galerija where we were given a guided tour.
Then a visit to the studio of Dušan Mandić, another member of the Irwin group (that is unfortunately not a very good photo of him), Rimska cesta 8, followed by a nice lunch at Café Bazilika, Trg francoske revolucije 5, 1000 Ljubljana.
Then Škuc Gallery – presentation of the gallery with the director Tia Čiček and a guided tour of the group exhibition Sick (in collaboration with the Center for Contemporary Art SCCA).
Then an unfortunate coincidence: Due to a glitch and misunderstanding on the part of Galerija Fotografija, it turned out that the visit there was not possible, and just at that moment where we found ourselves “homeless”, there was a heavy rainstorm, and by the time our superguides had found us an alternative shelter to visit, the rain stopped. Typical.
After a nice coffee break, a visit and drinks at Gallery Kos, Nebotičnikov prehod 7.
And lastly, a very nice dinner at Restaurant Altroke, Stari trg 19, great food and service, higly recommended.
Most of the day’s route on MapMyWalk here. Total distance walked: 11 km. Not quite good enough :-).
Sunday, 2 July
9:00 Meeting at the City Hotel, Dalmatinova ulica 15, then a short walk to Metelkova and studio visits of Miha Perne and Meta Kastelic,
Metelkova ulica 10. On the way, we passed what I think used to be a military facility, now a compound for cultural uses.
Stolpersteine on the doorstep of what is now City Hotel.
Then a taxi ride to the studio of Tadej Vaukman, Ob Ljubljanici 16 which again was very different from the ones we had visited earlier.
And a walk by the river to Cukrarna, a former sugar factory now a delightful, large and bright exhibition space for contemporary art. What an asset. Guided tour of the current exhibitions.
As a last programme item, we took the funicular to Ljubljana Castle for lunch and a visit to the exhibition of photos by Jadran Lazić before saying our goodbyes. Most of the others had trains to catch (mostly to Vienna) on that same afternoon. I was glad I still had two full days in Ljubljana.
This was a wonderful and enlightening tour. I am very impressed by the vibrant contemporary art scene in Ljubljana, and the – very diverse – opportunities for studio spaces that are offered to artists there.
And last but certainly not least a big thank you to our two guides. They are a great team, and had obviously put in a lot of effort to put the programme together and also to find great places to eat. They were organised, efficient, extremely knowledgeable about the art scene and generally about Ljubljana and Slovenia, and very, very nice. Anyone who wants to organise a high-quality art tour there could not be in better hands.
Monday, 3 July
Dithering – the weather forecast changed all the time from one extreme (sun, hardly any clouds) to the other (heavy rain and thunder storms) and it seems difficult to predict the weather for even the next hour.
I would have liked to hike to Kozece Pond but did not want to venture so deep into Tivoli Park wearing only summer clothes and sandals, so I started out going clothes shopping. I used to hate that. Bizarrely, I now love it. Go figure.
In the afternoon, I went to the zoo. Here are some statues spotted on the way there:
And some of the animals in the zoo:
And on the way back:
Tuesday, 4 July
Metelkova Museum of Contemporary Art, Nebotičnik Cafe, located on the top of the Nebotičnik building, Stefanovy ulica. (Don’t bother – ……), Ferant’s Garden, Slovenska cesta 9, Vegova Street, Galerija Fotografica, and Ljubljana Mosque.
Brunch in a lucky find: TINK Superfood – delicious AND healthy :-), where to my surprise, someone stopped by my outdoor table and said my name and it turned out to be an ex-colleague from EEA. So nice to have a chat, after the initial chock :-).
Dinner in Good Morning Vietnam – in the same passage as Gallery Kos – recommended by one of the art tour guides – and it was indeed very good.
Wednesday, 5 July
Return to Berlin by (day) train via Augsburg – or so I thought. Even after the journey here, I was thinking – what can go wrong with a day train and just one change. Well, it seems that Deutsche Bahn’s Spitzenkompetenz is selling services that don’t exist, and I was soon to find out why so many people had grinned and wished me good luck when they heard that I was returning to Berlin by train on a ticket bought from Deutsche Bahn.
First up, the train from Ljubljana was about 75 minutes late, and the “plenty of time” I thought I had to change trains in Augsburg went down the toilet before the actual journey had even started. Apparently that is a common occurrence and not even a big delay, comparatively.
Secondly, when the train finally arrived, the waggon according to my ticket did not exist, and the other, similar waggon was completely packed with people and all seats reserved twice or even three times over. However, I did manage to find a seat next to two guys, who did not know each other till then, and who had similar tickets so that was immediately a subject of conversation and common grievance :-).
Thirdly, the train only went to some godforsaken place in Austria the name of which I have forgotten, and it turned out that that train was never meant to go any further and certainly not all the way to Augsburg. So Deutsche Bahn had again sold me something that basically did not exist.
One of my newfound travel companions, of my age but turned interrailer late in life 🙂 was really good at finding alternative solutions. We ended up changing four times instead of one, and at the time of writing this it seems that we will make it back to Berlin in the middle of the night after actually having had a lot of fun.
Some photos I took from the train somewhere in Austria:
Last words about train travel in Europe:
“The Single European Railway Directive 2012 2012/34/EU is an EU Directive that regulates railway networks in European Union law”.
Not that I intend to read it, but it is not working. If the EU – quite rightly – wants us to increasingly choose train travel over air travel within the European Union, there is a lot of harmonising to be done, starting with making the ticketing systems inter-compatible, if that is a word.
If we are going to spend the best part of 24 hours being transported by train from one EU Member State through another one to a third one, rather than half a day in order to make the same journey by air, it has to be fairly “stressless”, comfortable and a good deal cheaper than flying, and that is definitely not the case now.
And investments need to be made: How can it be that some EU Member States (I am sure Slovenia is not the only one) still have rail tracks that are in such a poor condition that trains have to drive quite slowly on them, and that those trains seem to be about 50 years old?
Once I decided to stop caring how long it would take, I quite enjoyed my trip – no thanks to Deutsche Bahn’s tickets to non-existent seats and compartments or to the four changes rather than one I had to make on the way back (except I guess the two strangers who quickly became travel companions and I would probably not have started talking to each other if the journey had gone the way we each thought it would instead of going from bad to worse from the start :-)), but transport ministries and railway companies really need to step up their game if this form of travel is going to catch on big time.
Oh, and there needs to be adequate internet access. Even on the otherwise brand new and very comfortable ICE train we were on on the last stretch to Berlin and which seemed like the wildest luxury compared to the other trains we had been on today, and which unlike the other trains did have internet, at least officially, it was not really working.