I went to bed yesterday thinking why do we always have to have coffee in the downtown of Ljubljana. Not that I am complaining too much, but couldn’t we just as well go someplace else? So, when we woke up I presented my plan to hubbs. And after a bit of compromise we decided to spend our morning in the town called Skofja Loka. According to the Wikipedia the exact translation would be the town Bishop’s (wet) Meadow. Of course my family already knows me too well to try to persuade me to stay, once I am determined we should go. So off we went. We have passed through this town, which is only around 20 kilometers away from our home, on many, many occasions, but we never stopped to look around. And it looks so imposing with a river and a castle overlooking the town, we promised to one day come for a visit, but up until today, we hadn’t.

Though we love our Saturday morning routine of going to the market and eating ice cream, we (or honestly probably just me) were up for a change. This past week we’ve been in Ljubljana’s city center more than in the last couple of months. A bit of change in the scenery was very much needed. Besides, we keep thinking Ljubljana is the best place to live, but how can we know that for sure if we don’t try to capture the heartbeat of other places. So, we drove off to Skofja Loka. And what you need to know about it is:

The name Škofja Loka derives from the medieval times and it was originally named Loka, which means wet, grassy area near water. But because at that time there were many Lokas in Slovenia, Skofja (bishop’s) was added to the name Loka. As this region was owned by the bishops of Freising. It lies at point where two rivers meet and on top of the castle, beautiful buildings it really makes a beautiful sight. They say that the town is the best preserved town from the Middle Ages in Slovenia.

We walked around and I wanted to literally take a picture of every building we passed. Yes, you’ve been warned all the photos in this post were taken by me and my phone and not my amazing husband using his 25 kilos of photo gear, because he only works when the conditions to take the most amazing photos are right. This time according to him they weren’t and he deemed it unnecessary to drag his backpack along. And as you will be able to see I took countless photos of the windows, so this post might as well have been called the town of a thousand windows.

We discovered the Cappuchin Bridge, which I only later on learned is one of the oldest preserved bridges in Slovenia and admired the river while I tried to convince my daughter that no nobody is trying to throw her inside. She stuck to me as glue, hence the photos might not be perfect, in fact for every photo that is not perfect, I blame her and not my lack of talent. Finally, it was time to have the coffee for me and ice cream for the rest of the gang. I was feeling good about myself, sun was shining, the town was brimming with people, I had a full cup of coffee in front of me and enough time to enjoy it. My kids are finally growing up – yeah!!! But the minute she finished her ice cream we were ready to get going and besides it was our nap time. So, we left Skofja Loka with a promise to come back someday. But there are so many cute towns in Slovenia, if we keep this up, we’ll be busy for months to come. And I’d certainly like that.