Ray went on a business trip to Slovenia. Slovenia is a relatively small country, about the size of New Jersey. It split from Yugoslavia in 1991 and became and independent nation. It is bordered on the west by Itally and on the north by Austria. It has a small finger that extends to the Adriatic Sea
Since he arrived late afternoon, he had some time to explore the capital city of Ljubljana before heading to the hotel. The town has a river running through it and has been built below a large hill with a castle on top. The castle has been refurbished recently and is very nice. A large clock tower also serves as an observation tower, allowing 360° views. 
The mascot of the city is the dragon, and various dragons appear throughout the city, including at both ends of dragon bridge. Much of the downtown area is closed to vehicle traffic, making very wide walkways through the city for strolling. most buildings are at 2 to 3 stories tall with shops on the bottom level and living quarters above. 
Just off the river near an area that housed many cobblers in the past, multiple shoes have been thrown across the electrical wires as a tribute to the original shoemakers.
One of the catholic churches in town has some beautiful bronze doors that have various scenes on them in high relief. The doors are just beautiful. They are also very functional and easy to open despite their weight. The door knobs are built right into the artwork and stay nice and shiny from constant contact and use. The inside of the church has high ceilings and is brightly painted and colorful
One of the buildsings near the church had a vertical sundial on the side of the building. I had never seen a veritcal dundial before, only horizontal ones.
After walking around the lower portion of the town, we went up to the castle. There are two ways to get there, one on a funicular or incline railway, the other is to walk. We took the funicular up, and then walked down. During the refurbishment of the castle, they added a museum of Slovenian history. There is also a restaurant up there and a large open courtyard used for various activities during the year. The view from the top is spectacular in all directions, with mountains (including the Alps) in the background and a large valley in which the capital city is spread out in.
After visiting Ljubljana we headed to Trbovlje where Ray was staying. He stayed at the Gostilna Martin, which is basically a guest house. They have a nice restaurant and catering service, and 2 apartment rooms above,which is were Ray stayed. Trbovlje is an old coal mining town nestled between two mountain ranges. The streets are steep, but the views are spectacular. 
You can see some evidence of the strip mining activity in the mountains surrounding the town, and there are some large landslide areas due to the steepness of the mountains. 
When we headed to the airport, we went over the mountain on the scenic route and got to look back down into the valley to get one more view of the valley. At the airport, there was an old DC-6 out in front of the terminal, but fortunately it was not they type of plane I was flying back on.
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