6 May 2024
Last day in Ljubljana, or half day really. I slept pretty well and woke around 8. I know there’s a tour group in the hotel so I waited until they’d mostly cleared the breakfast room before I went down. Same breakfast as yesterday. There was no way I wasn’t having that struklji again. Holy cow.
There was a nice older couple next to me who I got chatting with and turns out they are from the south shore of Boston, and oddly enough are named Bob and Sue (my parents). This is the second time in as many trips I’ve met a couple who share my parents’ names. Dad if this is your way to give me a shout out, message received!
When I checked out and handed over my luggage for storage, the desk clerk asked if I would mind leaving 15 minutes earlier for the airport, because the taxi driver was worried we would need more time. I didn’t really have any plans other than walking around so that was fine with me.
I just did a few loops around the city center and Old Town. I found a cold brew coffee cart in the market and had another coffee there, and popped into some souvenir shops but didn’t see anything that called out to me. It was a nice, comfortably warm morning, so I didn’t need my coat again. I grabbed a yogurt drink again to hold me over until the meal on my flight, and meandered back to the hotel.
I made one more stop at another Plecnik-designed building, this one the national library. Every book written by a Slovene is kept here, and when the building was bombed during the war, citizens did a bucket brigade of sorts to take all the books out to safety. It’s an interesting design with stones jutting out against flat brick and windows shaped like books that have been laid open, face down on a table. Apparently inside he perpetuated his seating style of keeping everyone uncomfortable because it’s better for working and all the seats are ram-rod straight and slightly slanted forward to keep sitters on their toes.
I got back to the hotel and Boris showed up. The man had to be about 80 and pretty slow. Now it made sense because he drove as he moved on foot and we needed the extra time to get to the airport. Boris took the time to berate me for only staying here for 5 days (while the guides I had thought it was brilliant that I was here for so long!) and sniffed when I said I was heading back through London rather than Frankfurt. You can’t please everyone.
It was pretty straightforward finding my way through to one of Ljubljana airport’s dozen or so gates. I did use the Business Class lounge which had an open air deck overlooking the runway. Business Class on BA offers no extra legroom but it does block out the middle seat and as a bonus the aisle seat is also empty so I’m alone here in this row.
All took a turn however when we decided we had to wait for two final passengers to board. They ended up boarding a full 25 minutes late (which is odd because I saw them both when I walked into the airport) and we lost our landing slot at Heathrow. We were an hour behind schedule when we were told our reassigned slot means we’re not leaving for another 20 minutes. I was livid, but what can you do. We ended up leaving 2 hours late, which obviously stinks for me since I still had to make the connection to get to Brighton by train tonight.
I did appreciate the nice flight attendant who hooked me up with enough gin and tonic to ease the anxiety. I had some vegetarian finger sandwiches, clotted cream (for what?) and carrot cake for lunch/dinner. The flight was otherwise uneventful.
By some freak of nature, landing at 6:10, getting on the Tube at 6:51, arriving at Farringdon at 7:28 and getting on the last nonstop Thameslink to Brighton at 7:34, I felt like I’d won the lottery. Until we reached Gatwick, 40 minutes from Brighton, and the train stopped. And all trains stopped. Flooding ahead, they don’t know what’s going to happen. There was a scramble for another train that was going to go forward a few more stops, but I scratched that plan when the train looked overfull and got an Uber. So 56 pounds later, and a near death experience with a speeding Uber driver, I arrived at the Queen’s Hotel and settled into my seaside view room. Of course I can see no sea since it’s pitch dark, but I plan to set my alarm for 5:00 and at least open the curtains, if not go outside.
But I’m here, and Elbow is tomorrow, and all is good in the end.
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