Suvi’s Saturday Statues: Ljubljana Castle funny-cular

Today’s post won’t be so much about the statues themselves but rather about the whole deal: the Ljubljana Castle and the funicular to get up there. Unless I make you walk.

When amore visited my city for the first time, it was January. There was no snow on the ground, but it was nicely cold, as it tends to get over there. I took him up the Castle hill, reminiscing about the times our teacher made us run up there during the PE classes in high school which was just beneath. No wonder I preferred hiding and playing ball with the guys. On the entire (linguistically-oriented) school there were so few of them that they had problems making up two teams.

As we were huffing a bit upon reaching the summit, the first thing he noticed was the funicular. His eyes zeroed into mine and he said: “So, there is a funicular!” This was followed by, louder and louder: “Sooo, there is the road!” and “Soooooo, there is a little tourist train!!!!” There are all those things, and yet I made him walk. I don’t know if he would ever let it go.

The funicular is one of those funny things you’d never believe will exist in the future, such as the 9-year-primary school, just funnier. Somebody should have told me this when I was little, I’d be so much happier with my 8 years.

Halooo!! This is just a molehill of a hill! Why does it need a funicular? It’s not like the Jesus in Rio! I guess the ride lasts about 1 minute. Let me check. Yep, exactly one minute.

Well, here it is and that is that. Here are some images from around its bottom station.

Here you can see everything at a glance. The next images will break the scene down.

The funicular is next to the old Puppet Theatre, where my parents often took me as a child, and I went to see some shows as an adult as well.

One of the earliest performances of my life features the Sleepy Twinkle Star who is so sleepy that is always late to the sky. And when a dragon appears for some reason, they said to the terrified children in the audience: “Blow, children, all together you can blow him away!” Somehow I doubted this would work. I demanded an early exit and mom had to oblige.

This is the bottom station.

This drummer probably begins to drum when a funicular is due to depart. (I haven’t found any proof of that anywhere.)

The ride in all its glory.

Some lovely buildings and bars at the bottom.

And a kangaroo.

Must be a kangaroo.

Patiently waiting for the photographer, with first Slovenian poet Valentin Vodnik supervising.

And what can you see when you reach the top, however one should manage it?

The funicular.

The sad people who had to walk up. And mom’s old place of work – the tall building with digital clock on top.

A lovely courtyard and amore (these are from that January.)

Ljubljana on the palm of your hand, at least its northern part. I used to live almost exactly in the centre of this picture, where the tall white uneven buildings are.

A lovely restaurant. Somebody should discover the way to bottle NRE. Look at this smile!

Sis overlooking the South Park (Part! I meant part!)

Okay, have two more Ljubljana statues, life is short:

Little dragons, the symbol of Ljubljana.

A weird round thing that wasn’t there when I used to live in the city, in front of the NUK, National and University Library designed by Jože Plečnik, that peculiar building in the back. I heard that when visitors are asked what it is supposed to be, the majority answer “prison”.

Photo: a © signature mmm production

For Suvi’s Saturday Statues challenge