We wake up in an awful hurry. The bombs going off outside the window are shaking the building, and the flashes from the explosions are blinding. Mad Vlads clearly decided to move onto his next target, and hes picked poor old Slovenia. Well thats what it sounded like, but it seems it was just a thunderstorm. Issy says that wasnt just a thunderstorm, it was the loudest brightest thunderstorm shes ever experienced, and its a bit hard to argue.
I leave Issy catching up on some thunderstorm deprived sleep while I head off exploring. First stop is the belltower of the church on the point, and then the lighthouse next door. The views from the tops of both are excellent.
Its a belltower day. Next stop is the St Georges Church belltower on a clifftop overlooking the town. Its a bit hard to miss; it dominates the skyline. The views from the clifftop down over the supposed dog beach below are excellent, although I‘m not sure I can see too many dogs. I am however a long way away, so there might be some there. Im also too far away to tell whether the two lonely looking nudists on
the beach are of the male or female persuasion. Issys often warned me of the dangers of using my telephoto lens for clarification in situations such as these, and I heed her advice, even though shes not here. Im sure shell be very proud when I tell her.
I scale the many steps to the top of the belltower. Id thought this was one of Pirans major attractions, so I wonder why Im the only person up here. Well it seems that everyone else read the warning signs about the bells going off on the hour with a particularly ominous warning about what happens at midday. My brain is vibrating and Im deaf; but I can still see, well I think I can, and if so the views down over the town are stunning.
I climb on ever upwards to the next stop, the remains of Pirans ancient walls. Apparently there are three sets of these each of which protected the town as it progressively expanded. The first set is down in the old town and dates from the seventh century. The set Im now standing in front of is the third and set
which was built between 1470 and 1538. Slovenians we‘ve seen to date dont seem to be obviously any shorter or thinner than anyone else in the world, but maybe things were different back in the Middle Ages. Its a real squeeze to get up through a door through the stonework into one of the towers, and I hope none of the archers needed to get past each other in a hurry on any of the walls during battles, particularly if one of them happened to be wearing a large backpack and refused to get out of the way. Anyway, the views from up here are stunning.
Back on ground level its time for a quick dip in the Adriatic Sea. It seems saltier than were used to, and sure enough apparently it is, particularly during summer, due to high evaporation rates.
We settle in on our balcony where weve got front row seats to a game of what we now believe must be Solvenias national sport, Slovenian Pavement Frisbee. This appears to involve two or more players trying to land plastic disks close to a smaller plastic disk thats been thrown out into the court (?) by one
of them. Its the second match weve had ringside seats to today. The first one looked friendly enough, but this ones clearly a whole different ball game. Its early days yet, but yellow/red disk player, hes the pot bellied guy dressed in a straw pork pie hat and board shorts, seems to have the upper hand. His opponent, blue disk man dressed in a tee shirt and denim is battling valiantly, but we fear its a losing cause. Yellow/red disk man has his support crew on the sidelines - his wife; she occasionally looks up from her sunlounge to smile encouragement. The game appears to require a lot of enthusiasm, usually expressed as oohs and aahs, fist pumps, triumphant arm raising, and appeals to support crews.
