Koper, Slovenia

Koper, Slovenia – 19 September

See the Photos page for our pictures

Our first day out of Venice found us in port in Koper. Slovenia is an interesting country along the Adriatic because it has such a short coast line (29 miles). We were going to go on a ship’s excursion, but we wouldn’t have it back in time for my presentation. Instead, we just walked into the main part of the old town – the area called Capodistria (Italian for Head District, what we might call the capital, even though Koper is not the capital of Slovenia).

We took our town map and went on a walking tour. The map’s walking tour took us right past dozens and dozens of small shops – hmmm. So we went off on our own, including, however, some of the suggested sites. The highlights of our time were

• Tito Square, the main plaza in front of the town’s old palace
•  Preseren Square, at the edge of the old town by the Muda Gate (from 1516); the Da Ponte Fountain (1666) is modeled after the Rialto Bridge in Venice
• Koper Regional Museum and the Ethnological Collection. We first found the small house that had part of the collection. We came upon the main museum only after we stopped for a little refreshment.
• The Carpaccio Square where Venetian painter Vittore Carpaccio supposedly lived with his son Benedetto.  

 We did find a charming little café where we sat outside and had a local beer. Darlene had the draught beer Lasko and I had a bottled Union beer. Both were quite nice! On the way back to the ship, we walked along the coast and found a gelato stand (not hard to do!). Then it was back on board, and review my afternoon presentation.

Prior to dinner, we enjoyed a glass of red wine while listening to the beautiful classical music trio. There is music all over the ship! Because we’re not on fixed-time dining, we stroll to dinner when we want, and they give us a able for 2 even though we tell them we’ll sit anywhere. I had a pan-seared steak, which was done quite beautifully. Darlene had a roasted half chicken (no, I don’t know where the other half went!) Even though dinner didn’t take really long, we sat and chatted with folks at the neighboring tables; it’s always fun to find out why people select certain cruises!

Off to bed, as breakfast was coming early so we could take a tour in Ravenna, Italy. Until later, ciao!

Stuart