Slovenia

Hoisting the Slovenian courtesy flag

After we left Venice, our next planned stop was Piran in Slovenia. However it is a fairly long way which we expected to take about 14 hours. Piran is a small harbour and reputed to fill up quickly. Unless we went overnight (not our favourite plan) we would probably be too late to get a space. We had had enough of huge prices at Italian Marinas and Italian regulations which prevent you anchoring. So we headed for an unofficial nudist beach just North of Trieste called Costa Barbaria. It turned out to be rather nice. Not much shelter but it was a calm night, the holding was good and we had the first clear water to swim in since leaving Greece.

Next morning we did the 3 hours to Piran easily. The police confirmed that there was no need to checking when coming from Italy as both countries are Schengen, but we should checkout when we leave for Croatia which is not.

Piran on the horizon

We loved Piran. It's a pretty little town with good shopping, friendly people, very reasonable port fees. We were treated to modern dance in the town square one night and professional ballet on the second night - all free. We believe as part of the National Day celebrations.

How's this for a clever street act?

Mike and Gilly on Eos of Mersey came in while we were there and we renewed acquaintance over several jars and then hired a car together to drive to the capital, Lublijana. The countryside is rolling and green a lot of it forested. Lublijana is an interesting city - very lively with lots of interesting buildings, street theatre and cafe culture. The castle above the town is an excellent few hours spent.

Running side of meat

The town has lots of fascinating statues and sculpture mostly in bronze. Perhaps most weird was the "butcher bridge" which had very strange statues of hunks of meat in semi-human form. The rails of the bridge were covered with thousands of padlocks - each signed by a pair of lovers.



One day we will return to Slovenia to have a better look.