Karst Country

Friday dawned sunny and clear in Ljubljana and we boarded the bus for another hot day on the road. Fortunately we headed for the coast and there wasn't too much grumbling.

The road took us though the famous Karst country with its sink-holes and caverns we did not have time to explore. Then it was on to Trieste on the Adriatic - yet another Schengen experience as we whizzed through un-manned check-points in and out of Italy.



Almost next to Trieste, which is a large port having a significant ship-buildng industry, is the Slovenian port of Koper, where we spent a lot more time. Koper was developed by the Slovenians as a rival to Trieste, but is really rather small by comparison. What it does have is some beautiful buildings and squares in the Venetian style, as shown in the photos, and the University of Primorska, which we visited.





Next came Piran and Portoroz, twin coastal resorts in Slovenian Istria. They have the obligatory marinas and even casinos, which apparently in short supply in nearby Italy or Croatia. Piran is the lovelier of the two, with beautiful buildings, piazzas, churches and towers in the Venetian idiom. And the main square had a large statue of Tartini, the composer, on a plinth in the middle. Portoroz is rather more modern.

The next post has a couple of images of Piran.

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