The Old Rog Bicycle Factory

Whenever we come to Ljubljana, we always stumble across something we haven’t seen before.  This year, one of those things was the Rog bicycle factory (technically, it wasn’t something we hadn’t seen before, as it’s an enormous building on the river near old town and we had walked by it at least a hundred times; we just had no idea what it used to be, or what it is today).

The factory is where Rog bicycles were manufactured from 1953 to 1991, when Slovenia declared independence from Yugoslavia.  It spent the next fifteen years abandoned and was then opened up to local artists.  The building hasn’t had any updates since 1991 and most of the windows are broken, but while it doesn’t look like much from the outside, today there is a thriving artist community on the inside.  And it’s about as unique a building as we’ve seen.

We also learned that Rog bikes have quite a following among certain groups here, and if you’re lucky enough to own one of the classics, you better not let it out of your sight!

 

Polhov Gradec - Part 2

After leaving the Božnar Honey House, Marjan and another friend of ours, Maja, drove us to the top of one of the hills of Polhov Gradec to visit a beekeeper named Matjaž.  Matjaž bought some land next to the church there three years ago and built a beehouse that doubles as his weekend cabin, and it might be the coolest building I’ve ever seen.  There’s a bedroom, kitchen, bathroom, bunk up above the hives, and even a basement with a shower and washing machine.

Matjaž thought through everything when setting up his land.  For his fifteen hives of bees, he planted lavender a few feet away “so the bees don’t have to fly too far”, along with a small fountain that stores rainwater (he turns on the fountain as a water supply for the bees when things get dry).  He also planted a HUGE garden, rows of sage behind the building, and a few “bee trees”, which are popular among beekeepers here because they bloom in late summer after everything else is done.

Matjaž could have kept us there for days showing us everything he does (and honestly, I would have stayed).  He loaded us up with his award-winning honey and was especially excited to let us try his honey beer, honey and blueberry liqueurs, and apple juice, along with a huge plate of cookies for the kids.  All of it was fabulous.

And then, it was back to Marjan’s house with a quick stop at his neighbor who keeps 200 hives all over Slovenia and has his own honey-processing "kitchen" (check out the drums of honey below – they’re all full!).  Marjan and his wife, Mojca, treated us to homemade sausage, cheese, and ice cream.  A spectacular end to a spectacular day!

 

 

 

The Real Sri Lankan Jeweler and the Real Devil's Mask

If you’ve read Painted Hives, you remember the Sri Lankan jeweler who gave Wilber the “really ugly mask” from his shop.  Well, that mask is called a “Devil’s Mask”, and the real Sri Lankan jeweler in Ljubljana just gave me the real Devil’s Mask from his shop as a gift as we get ready to leave Slovenia.  How super unbelievably cool is that??????

 

Polhov Gradec - Part 1

Yesterday, our friend Marjan organized a trip for us to his home town of Polhov Gradec, a beautiful hilly village just west of Ljubljana.  The name means “Door-Mouse Castle” – as the story goes, a knight arrived by horse in the village to build a castle, and door mice ate his saddle.  Like most other villages in Slovenia, Polhov Gradec has an inordinate number of churches: ten (one on top of each hill).

Our first visit was to Božnar Hisa Medu (House of Honey), a seven-person company owned by a husband and wife couple.  The owners gave us a tour of their facility, where they make pretty much everything you can think of that comes from bees and export it all over the world.  They let us sample at least twenty different types of honey (our favorites were chestnut, forest, and lime) along with some hand lotions, cookies, liqueurs, and chocolates, all made in their tiny factory.

They then took us to the castle in town, where they hold their own honey-tasting event each year.  They told us this past spring, an apiary from Hungary brought honey that came from tobacco flowers and it was the best there.  Hmmm.  This year, they also organized a contest in which they invited kids from all over the world to submit bees made out of recycled materials.  There were hundreds of these bees hanging from the ceiling, to which the Božnars remarked, “We know we need to take these down, but we’re just not sure what to do with them afterward.”