Tuesday, 5 July 2011

Day 109 - The Slovenian coast

Up early, packed, breakfast (good meal, not fly infested!) then off for a 1.30 min bus trip to the Slovenian coast and a town called Piran.  We had to lug our backpacks through the streets of Piran to find our accommodation, but were really pleased when we got there.   We are staying at a place called Max's, and it really has a lot of character.  It is located up the top of town next to the Church of St George that is on one of the highest points of the town.  Piran only has a population of 4,800, and sits on a narrow peninsula in Slovenia's Istria region.  We are really close to Italy - you can see it across the water.  The old town consists of Venetian Goethic architecture and cobbled laneways.  It looks as if they are restoring parts of the town, but many buildings are still in need of attention - so it has a rustic charm.  Piran Harbour is a small marina.

We arrived too early to check in so dropped off our bags and headed to the square to look around, for me to buy a beach towel, for a drink and to get information from the tourist office on buses to our next destination on Saturday.  It is the start of summer holidays in Slovenia so there were a lot of kids around, and also some building works, but we still managed to find a good spot in the town square for a lunchtime drink and people-watching session.

Finally checked in properly, unpacked bags, grabbed  bathers then headed for the beach.  Unfortunately there isn't any soft sand to lie on but we did the best we could and Al still managed to fall asleep on the concrete!  The water is crystal clear, and refreshingly cool.

I found it very interesting the range of clothing, or lack thereof, on the beach.  Some people wear bathers, some women go topless, and some people go nude.  I knew this was popular in Europe but didn’t think that people would drop their gear on any beach, instead would go to the designated nudist beaches.  It is difficult at times to know where to look when you have an elderly man getting all his gear of a couple of meters up the beach!  Unfortunately the weather was overcast but the water was lovely.
After a couple of hours at the beach we headed back to the hotel to watch a little of Wimbledon and for showers before going for a wander around town.   By this stage it was brilliant sunshine and a lot of people were out sunbaking or swimming.  The Harbour area is so pretty.  We had a pre-dinner drink, took some photos, then chose a restaurant on the foreshore for dinner.  Both of us are intent on seafood so shared a dish of calamari, then had fish fillets with rice and beans for main course.  The meal was great, so was the Slovenian white wine.  There are a lot of tourists in Piran, but it is not overrun.  It appears to be a lot of Italian, and German tourists, wityh a fair number of Slovenian people as well.
After dinner we watched the sunset, poked our head into a concert – looked like local school children playing stringed instruments, then made our way back to the hotel.  We were pre-warned by Lonely Planet that our accommodation was right next to St George’s Church.  This is fantastic when you get a great view of it from our room, but we also heard the bells going off every quarter hour til 11.45pm, then starting up again at 7am.  Also, the location of the accommodation meant that we tended to hear a lot of noise – people talking and electric scooters, very clearly.  I fortunately slept like a log – Al not so much.

The water really is this incredible blue colour

View from bedroom window










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