It was a very dull rainy morning so we didn’t hurry to get going. First job was to pick up beer from the small Maister craft brewery that we visited. We went over the river and it was truly in spate after all the rain we have had.

When we got on our way and stopped for a supermarket shop. There were still storms around.

It didn’t take long to get to our Ljubljana campsite. The weather was looking much better there so we jumped on our bikes and cycled the 6km into the centre of town.

When we arrived there were lots of young people crazily running around town. We found out that a YouTube Influencer called IShowSpeed or Darren Jason Watkins Jnr was filming on top of a boat on the river.

Glenn got a couple of photos of him doing a back flip.

I found out later he became well known in gaming by showing a lot of aggression including barking when he played, He also has made misogynistic remarks to female players. He is very popular with young males which is worrying that they regard him as a role model.

However we left the chaos and moved on and went up to Ljubljana Castle on the funicular.

There has been habitation on the castle hill since the iron ages. There has been a castle here in different forms since the 1200s. The Hapsburgs owned it since the 1300s.

We got the audio guide to take us around the various parts of the castle. It was really just a shell from the 1800s and it has been renovated since then.

The views from the ramparts were amazing.

The inside of the castle has an outdoor wine bar – very civilized!

We went into the towers and down into the bowels of the castle where they had some art pieces set up.

The water cystern created in the 1700s was impressive with a brick roof with bricks sticking out to purify rainwater coming in and a hike on the bottom covered with a net to make sure any sediment wasn’t scooped up.

There was a Slovenian History Museum which was great for us taking us through Iron Age, Roman occupation, celts, Austria Hungary rule then communist Yugoslavian rule to independence for the first time in 1991.

There was then a big viewing tower that had a spiral staircase that went up for ever.

The views at the top were worth it though.

We then saw the old castle chapel – the most original building in the castle. The paintings about families- not bishops or religious people – is unusual.

After seeing all that we needed a rest. We had a stop in the wine bar and tried the local Ljubljanan beer Union lager. It was excellent for a standard cheaper beer.

The last thing on our list was the Puppet Museum. Puppet shows have been a major part of Slovenia since the 1500s and have been shown everywhere. They are for adults as well as children.

The variety of puppets is amazing. Many of the puppets are works of art.

Puppet shows were put on during German occupation to pass on information between the resistance.

We got the funicular down from the castle and the first thing I saw was the plaque on the building where a famous puppet theatre had been.

There was a strange kangaroo statue next to it – not sure why.

We got on our bikes and cycled the 6km back to Gus.

It was 8.30 by the time we got back. We quickly got dinner ready and watched Wimbledon highlights until 11pm. We were pretty tired by then.