In Honor of National Accordion Month: the Accordion Man of Preseren Square

June is National Accordion Month. It is the time to celebrate that melodious but most maligned of musical instruments. The accordion sounds like a portable organ, with the amplification being supplied by the muscle of the accordionist, whose continual squeezing of the squeezebox forces out those dulcet tones.

And who better to bring out in honor of National Accordion Month but the Accordion Man of Preseren Square in Ljubljana, Slovenia. On a trip to the Slovene capital back in September 2014, the Accordion Man was out there in the most central square in downtown Ljubljana, entertaining the crowds for coins thrown in his accordion case, in the late morning when we met up with our walking tour guide. Then, several hours later, after a leisurely dinner along the waters of the Ljubljanica River that meanders through town, well after dark, the Accordion Man was still squeezing out the dulcet tones in Preseren Square. The Accordion Man truly is the hardest working man in show business. (Well, Slovenian show business at least.)

Happy National Accordion Month from the Accordion Man of Preseren Square.

Ljubljana II

Boat cruising the Ljubljanica River through the heart of Ljubljana, Slovenia

And no trip to Slovenia would be complete without a visit to its beautiful, nicely-sized capital city of Ljubljana. This is my second visit to Ljubljana. I can't get enough of the place.

The city straddles the rather tiny Ljubljanica River. You may remember this river from the hit movie "Jason and the Argonauts." This is the point where the river disappears on Jason and Hercules has to carry the boat Argos over dry land. The river really does disappear here. It's because of the karst landscape. It goes underground and re-emerges a few times.

I signed up for a free walking tour, which they have in all the major European cities. (Even Trst!) The tour was scheduled to meet at Preseren Square, right beside Ljubljana's famous Triple Bridge.

The bridge is named the "triple bridge" because it is three distinct bridges alongside each other. Noted Slovenian architect Jože Plečnik (the "c" with the smiley above it is pronounced as a "ch"), who designed much of modern Ljubljana after the disastrous 1895 earthquake levelled the city. His work gives the city as a harmony of design.

This is Preseren Square, Prešernov trg in Slovenian, where the tour began at the base of the statue of who? Who would have a statue in Preseren Square? France Prešeren, the Slovenian national poet.

Another picture of the statue just because.

This is the Hauptmann House:

This is one of the few buildings in the neighborhood that survived the 1895 earthquake. After the earthquake, the owner, Mr. Hauptmann, gussied it up to look like it was in the Viennese Secessionist style.

Let's begin the walking tour, shall we.

This is the Franciscan church, the other building in Prešernov trg that survived the 1895 earthquake.

I don't know what this is.

Modern art. Ljubljana to its credit has very little modern (or, worse yet, post-modern) art. Much to its credit. It's part of what makes this is a wonderful, beautiful city.

This is the Cathedral. It is named for St. Nicholas.

These are the ornate main doors, which tell a story of Slovenian history.

Including the crusades! This was the only available land crossing between the Alps and the Adriatic.

And it is all looked over by Pope John Paul II, who now has been upgraded to Saint John Paul.

Completely changing themes. This is a satyr. He's permanently installed on the boring, plain Mesarski most.

He was supposed to be here temporarily, but he was popular -- who doesn't like a satyr who's been skinned alive by Apollo -- so he's now a permanent resident. Mesarski most, "most" being the Slovenian (and Croatian) word for "bridge," is the bridge in Slovenia where they do that love-lock thing that they now do everywhere. This is otherwise a boring bridge, so why not liven it up with those ugly love-locks?

Here is a small statue of two -- frogs? I'm guessing -- engaged in appropriate behavior -- I think? -- for a love-lock bridge.

And here is another picture of a tour boat floating down the Ljubljanica, away from the spot where the river disappeared on Jason and Hercules had to carry the boat over dry land (handy to have had Hercules on board for the task).

We now come to the Dragon Bridge.

It's got four dragon, two on each end, one on each side of each end. It also has griffins. Or gryphon, if you prefer.

But the dragons are cooler.

Here is a butcher shop in the Plečnik-designed central marketplace. Gee. I wonder what meat they butcher in there.

And now we walk past the Cathedral again.

Nice designs on this side.

Then to City Hall. In front is the Robba Fountain, which was all boxed up when I was here five years ago.

In front of City Hall was guy playing a guitar wearing a plastic deer head. Apparently he has a youtube channel where he plays guitar wearing a deer head. You are on your own finding that one.

At this point in the tour, our tour guide brought out samples of blueberry liqueur and fig liqueur for the group. Both were awesome. The fig liqueur really tasted like fig. The blueberry liqueur of Slovenia is probably the tastiest alcoholic beverage known to man.

The tour ended at Kongresni Trg, Congress Square. Ljubljana Castle is visible high in the background. I went there last time I was in Ljubljana. I was accosted by a dragon. I'm not going back.

After the tour, we walked around some more. This is the Ivan Hribar statue. Yes, THAT Ivan Hribar.

I don't have a clue who Ivan Hribar is.

Soon it was time for the obligatory Union Radler, a shandy-type beer flavored with grapefruit. Yes, they sell grapefruit shandy in the U.S. No, it tastes nothing like a Union Radler. They are not the same.

For dessert, there was gibernica.

And pavlova.

Gibernica is layers of apple, poppy seed, cottage cheese and walnuts. The combination does work. And it tastes very Croatian. Pavlova is a Russian dessert made with meringue cookies, whipped cream and berries.

And that is the end of the trip.

I might stay behind with all of my Slovenian friends. Laku noć.

Ljubljana at Night

Dragon on the Dragon Bridge

The sun was getting low, so it was time to look for a place to eat some supper. Wandering around, we saw some interesting looking buildings that were not part of the Old City core.

Cafe side entrance to the Grand Hotel Union Ljubljana 

Miklosiceva cesta 6 

Miklosiceva cesta 8

Miklosiceva cesta street view

Fountain outside the Grand Hotel Union Ljubljana

The horses in this fountain look like something done by the Colombian artist Botero
(the one who does all the fat people and animals)

We also went inside the Franciscan Church in Preseren Square:

Inside the Franciscan Church

The church was beautiful and ornate. While unlocked, the lights were off, so photographing inside was difficult. So let's eat. We went to the Zlata Ribica on Cankarjevo nabrezje, a pedestrian only street on the castle side of the Ljubljanica River.

I had the Ljubljana Schnitzel

Sister had the seafood pasta, with giant sea creatures in it still wearing their shells

From there, we wandered the core of the Old Town by dark.

Triple Bridge at night

When we got back to Preseren Square, the man who was playing the accordion in the square when we started our tour at 11:00 a.m. was still in the square, nine hours later, squeezing the squeezebox.

Man with accordion in Preseren Sqaure

Playing the accordion is hard work. You have to squeeze the bellows while playing a keyboard and pushing buttons without looking. Squeezing the bellows had got to be exhausting all by itself. Anfd the guy never seemed to even take a bathroom break. Forget James Brown. Accordion Man truly is the Hardest Working Man in Show Business.

Walking Tour of Ljubljana

Ljublinica River

Munich was the appetizer course of this trip. Croatia was the main course. And Ljubljana, Slovenia, is the dessert. We took a two-hour free walking tour of the historic core of the Slovenian capital.

Franciscan Church of the Annunciation in Preseren Square

The tour started at 11:00 a.m. in front of the Franciscan Church of the Annunciation in Preseren Square. Preseren Square is where the famous Triple Bridge crosses the Ljubljanica River.

Triple Bridge

Pedestrian traffic on the Triple Bridge

The Triple Bridge was an ingenious design by architect Jože Plečnik (the architect for most of  Ljubljana) to relieve traffic off a single span. At the time, the bridge was open to car traffic, so the two side spans were for pedestrians only. Now the entire bridge is pedestrian-only.

Statue of France Preseren

Preseren Square is named after France Preseren, the national poet of Slovenia and the author of its national anthem. As he is a poet, he is commemorated in bronze with a mythological muse over shoulder. The muse was topless, which did not go over well in turn-out-of-the-last-century Slovenia, especially since the statue was located outside a major church (the Franciscan Church of the Annunciation). Finally, a compromise was reached so that trees were planted (such as the one to Mr. Preseren's left) to block the view of the muse's naked bosom from those exiting the church. A fair compromise for one and all.

Naja, our tour guide

Meet Naja, our tour guide from the free walking tour company. She's wearing yellow, the color the brochures and flyers advised us tourists to look for. We walked across the Triple Bridge into the historic Old Town

Saint Nicholas's Cathedral

Over to the semi-unfinished Butchers' Bridge, which is where the town meat sellers used to ply their trade.

Butchers' Bridge

For some reason, this is now the place in Ljubljana where lovers lock locks to symbolize their love. On the Butchers' Bridge. (Oh the symbolism there.) This locking locks somewhere is all the rage in Europe. This happens to be the place where that happens in Slovenia.

Tour group at the Dragon Bridge

From there it was on to the more evocative Dragon Bridge, which is guarded by four dragons. Why dragons in Ljubljana? Jason and the Argonauts.

One of the Dragon Bridge's dragons

In the story of Jason and the Argonauts, on his quest to steal the Golden Fleece (from somewhere on the Turkish Black Sea coast), he sails up the Danube, which empties into the Black Sea, in order to avoid an ambush at the Bosporus and Dardanelles. He sails WAY up the Danube, to the Sava, and finally up the Ljubljanica River into a swampy basin. And where is this swampy basin into which Jason and his Argonauts sailed? Downtown Ljubljana. So the dragons that Jason fought in that swampy basin became the city symbol.

Then it was back towards the Butchers' Bridge to look at its statuary.

Prometheus, disemboweled for his crime of giving fire to us mortals 

Adam and Eve

We circled back to Saint Nicholas's Cathedral for a look-see.

At the front door of Saint Nicholas's Cathedral

This is the main cathedral of Ljubljana. The doors are incredible.

The other free walking tour tour guide explaining how all of Slovenian history is displayed on the door

All of Slovenian history is depicted on the front door, from the earliest days at the bottom, through the modern era as you get higher.

The door

And at the top of the door?

Looking over the scene

Pope John Paul II, as these doors were newly-installed in commemoration of a papal visit. But event the side door is ornate.

Side door of Saint Nicholas's Cathedral 

In use

The tour continued down through the Old Town:

The main drag of Old Town Ljubljana, paralleling the Ljubljanica River

Past City Hall:

City Hall

Not sure what they were thinking when they put this combination together in this statue thing next to City Hall:

Corrected to read; Statue under repair

It's a neoclassic statue-fountain at the base, with a wooden obelisk at the top, looking more rocket ship than wooden obelisk. Actually, the top part reminds me of the World's Largest Thermometer in Baker, California, only it doesn't light up. ADDENDUM and CORRECTION: The statue is under repair. The Baker thermometer look is only temporary. When the cracks in the obelisk at repaired, it will again be all-stone and tasteful.

Street view

The street is very Austrian looking at this point. Except for food and language, this would not be a Slavic town at all.

Kongresni Trg, with Steber Sv. Trojice

It was then across the Shoemakers' Bridge, to Kongresni Square (where we were parked underneath). This was named for the Congress held in Ljubljana to redraw the map of Europe after the downfall of Napoleon.

We then ended the tour in a building on the University of Ljubljana campus designed by Jože Plečnik.

At the tour terminus

Naja gave us the modern history of Slovenia, through the world wars and the Homeland War upon the break-up of Yugoslavia, and Slovenia's eventual entry into the European Union. The building was ornate and beautiful, which was unusual for a building constructed in the Communist Era.

Look at the details 

Everyone taking pictures

The ornate beauty proved to be the downfall of the great architect of Ljubljana Jože Plečnik. The Communists decided this building was too "bourgeois" for the Revolution, so they forbade Plečnik from ever designing another building.

At the exit

Forced into retirement, the great Jože Plečnik died soon thereafter. another victim of Communism.