The Slovenian Coast

First glimpse of Slovenia & more vineyards!

From our campsite south of Trieste we were only 500m from the border with Slovenia. Despite initial plans to head straight for the alps, we couldn't resist detouring further south along the coast first. In Slovenia we suddenly entered a much less familiar environment. Until now, we had muddled through with our basic knowledge of Italian language, customs and food. But nothing in Slovenia was familiar. This made for some interesting supermarket purchases.

Koper, the largest Slovenian city on the coast

We based ourselves in the seaside city of Koper, a lively student city with many architectural highlights: A medieval "old town", cute windows and many narrow and steep cobblestone streets that were challenging on bikes and in wet weather!

A captivating face

Typical Venetian style window

Medieval Man overlooks an archway

Despite a rainy morning we made a day trip further down the coast to Izola and Piran, both ancient fishing villages and areas of salt mining. Like Koper, both have charming old towns. Piran also has the benefit of a castle and town wall.

Piran - note the town wall at the top of the hill

Riding along the coast

On this trip we also experienced our first hills, albeit small ones, after the soft start along the Venetian plains:

A small hill