Slovenia part 2: to the coast
March 15, Ljubljana-Štanjel-Piran
In a move completely foreign to me - but a suggestion of Heiko's that turned out to be a good idea - we rented a car for the middle week of the trip. It gave us a lot more flexibility than train or bus, and later let us travel further down the Croatian coast than we could have otherwise.
Picking up the car in Ljubljana was a more involved process than we expected, mainly because the car rental guy was so talkative and friendly. On seeing Heiko's driver's license: "Oh, you changed!" (Germans get a license ONCE in their lives and are required to hold onto this thin piece of paper with its outdated picture their entire lives.) On seeing my license: "Yesterday was your birthday! All the best!" Reassuring us, while giving some driving directions: "But Slovenia is too small to go wrong." And about what we could and couldn't do with the car: "But don't smuggle any Chinese people over the border." ...Which is a very weird thought. Slovenia marks the border of the EU with the rest of the world, so yes, I guess people smuggling and all the attendant issues that come with borders between wealthy and non-wealthy places must come into play here.
Slovenia is a tiny country. Even going all the way to the other side of it doesn't take long, so en route to the coast we stopped in Štanjel, a hilltop village enclosed by medieval fortification wall and surrounded by vineyards. The drive to Štanjel took about 1.5 hours, and that only because the last stretch was so narrow and winding.
Štanjel was truly tiny, a collection of very old stone houses and very, very narrow lanes all squeezed steeply on one small hill. We got there by evening and managed to catch the sunset twice - once between the houses, and once by hurrying up to the crest of the hill, a vantage point that let us see the last red sliver of the sun disappear a second time. The whole hour or so we wandered around Štanjel the only sign of life I saw was a hand at an upstairs window closing the shutters as evening fell.
March 15-16, Piran
But if we thought Štanjel was tiny and narrow and winding, it had nothing on Piran. One of the few towns on Slovenia's very small stretch of Adriatic coast, Piran sits at the very tip of a peninsula, almost completely surrounded by water. It was built by the Venetians, and you can tell - all impossibly narrow alleyways and old stone buildings and, of course, the sea. The place is so tiny and narrow, in fact, that you're not allowed to park your car in it - you park outside and take a shuttle bus in to the town's only large open space, the main square. Piran at night was a dream of storybook alleys to get lost down, and nobody around but the many stray cats, holding their cat conferences in darkened doorways, and streaking off in a huff when disturbed.
Daytime in Piran was the sunny, rocky coast, and the windswept church perched on a bluff, and hanging out laundry in the breeze on the hotel's rooftop.
And evening was a little unscheduled jaunt over into a certain neighboring country for dinner and a spot of sightseeing. It was so close at hand, how could we resist? I'm going to leave you in suspense about this mystery guest country, but if you look at a map, you just might be able to guess...
Here are the pictures from Slovenia! Clicking on this picture will take you to the whole album:
Slovenia!
In a move completely foreign to me - but a suggestion of Heiko's that turned out to be a good idea - we rented a car for the middle week of the trip. It gave us a lot more flexibility than train or bus, and later let us travel further down the Croatian coast than we could have otherwise.
Picking up the car in Ljubljana was a more involved process than we expected, mainly because the car rental guy was so talkative and friendly. On seeing Heiko's driver's license: "Oh, you changed!" (Germans get a license ONCE in their lives and are required to hold onto this thin piece of paper with its outdated picture their entire lives.) On seeing my license: "Yesterday was your birthday! All the best!" Reassuring us, while giving some driving directions: "But Slovenia is too small to go wrong." And about what we could and couldn't do with the car: "But don't smuggle any Chinese people over the border." ...Which is a very weird thought. Slovenia marks the border of the EU with the rest of the world, so yes, I guess people smuggling and all the attendant issues that come with borders between wealthy and non-wealthy places must come into play here.
Slovenia is a tiny country. Even going all the way to the other side of it doesn't take long, so en route to the coast we stopped in Štanjel, a hilltop village enclosed by medieval fortification wall and surrounded by vineyards. The drive to Štanjel took about 1.5 hours, and that only because the last stretch was so narrow and winding.
Štanjel was truly tiny, a collection of very old stone houses and very, very narrow lanes all squeezed steeply on one small hill. We got there by evening and managed to catch the sunset twice - once between the houses, and once by hurrying up to the crest of the hill, a vantage point that let us see the last red sliver of the sun disappear a second time. The whole hour or so we wandered around Štanjel the only sign of life I saw was a hand at an upstairs window closing the shutters as evening fell.
March 15-16, Piran
But if we thought Štanjel was tiny and narrow and winding, it had nothing on Piran. One of the few towns on Slovenia's very small stretch of Adriatic coast, Piran sits at the very tip of a peninsula, almost completely surrounded by water. It was built by the Venetians, and you can tell - all impossibly narrow alleyways and old stone buildings and, of course, the sea. The place is so tiny and narrow, in fact, that you're not allowed to park your car in it - you park outside and take a shuttle bus in to the town's only large open space, the main square. Piran at night was a dream of storybook alleys to get lost down, and nobody around but the many stray cats, holding their cat conferences in darkened doorways, and streaking off in a huff when disturbed.
Daytime in Piran was the sunny, rocky coast, and the windswept church perched on a bluff, and hanging out laundry in the breeze on the hotel's rooftop.
And evening was a little unscheduled jaunt over into a certain neighboring country for dinner and a spot of sightseeing. It was so close at hand, how could we resist? I'm going to leave you in suspense about this mystery guest country, but if you look at a map, you just might be able to guess...
Here are the pictures from Slovenia! Clicking on this picture will take you to the whole album:
Slovenia!