A crescent shaped city - Part 1

It was the second to last day of our trip and none of us was up to a long and involved excursion.  However, the undemanding sum of three euros and forty five minutes on an air conditioned bus held the promise of crossing a border and exploring the Slovenian medieval walled port city, Koper.  I will take you on a very short tour of what we found there.  

But first let me say thanks to anyone who's been following our trip and especially for the comments (Pastriarch and Co.!).  It's been a fantastic voyage, mostly.  I wish we could all have been here together, but I'm hoping this was the next best thing.  

I have to admit it's often difficult for me to enjoy the views from a train or bus because:

a.) they go by too quickly

b.) I feel an urgency to record them

I can hardly ever do the countryside here justice with my phone camera...stuff constantly whizzes by and just when a vista opens up and I'm trying to get my phone turned on to capture it not only have I missed the shot but I haven't even gotten to see it myself.  It's times like these when you wish:

a.) you were driving and could stop at your leisure to snap away to your heart's content

b.) you had a better camera that didn't shut off automatically when you weren't pressing the shutter button

c.) if you lived here you wouldn't have to worry about either a or b above

Anyway, here's one view of the ride from Trieste to Koper at around 60mph at approximately 12:45 pm.

At around 1:00 pm we got to the bus station in Koper.  As soon as we hopped off the bus two teenage boys on those ubiquitous motor scooters revved their engines and then did a couple of wheelies as if to herald our arrival.  The approach to town was not exactly something to celebrate, though.

We were given directions to take a main road straight into town.  Fortunately for you I did not include the huge McDonald's anchor store that was strategically positioned so that one must pass it to reach the town center whether in car on foot or by bike.

As we were orienting ourselves we stopped at a cozy little cafe to freshen up.  You can't see it but it's behind that tree in the middle of the picture below.

Finally (actually it didn't take more than a few minutes from the time we hopped off the bus) we got to the front wall of Koper.  That arch on the left in front of A is an entrance.

Here's what the approach to the interior looks like and then some distance in...

It couldn't have been more than a handful of "blocks" before we came to this view:

Yes, that's a huge ship.

The old section, the walled part of Koper is very small.  If you look on the map above it takes no time to get to the straight edge of the crescent but you can get lost in a thick maze of narrow lanes and piazzale between one edge and the next.

Here are more views of the port.  N wanted to hunt for cars and noticed there were more of them along the waterfront.

At one point we came to this very modern elevator that was a weird contrast to the walled city.  Below the walkway at sea level are some newer restaurants and a park where many people were sunbathing.

We went back inside the medieval part to look around some more.  This is a view toward the central square or "trg", with a historic church and belltower.

If I can get more pictures to load I'll add part 2.

Perspective

Today's itinerary was supposed to include a junket to Croatia, but due to a couple of items that are out of our control, we decided to stay in town.  Namely we are having an issue, the first ever of its kind for us, with our host.  It's been frustrating, but we are keeping our chins up.  I think we've been maintaining a positive perspective despite this little inconvenience.  Anyway, here is a birdseye view of the street from the mansard or manzardo apartment we are staying in.  It truly is a garret apartment, the equivalent to a five story walk up.  This morning a man playing an accordion strolled under those trees at the bottom right where the corner cafe keeps its seating area.  The other night we sat there munching on cookies and sipping  mineral water before retiring for the evening.  Tonight however, being Sunday, the cafe closed early so no cookies under the trees.

Since we decided not to leave town, we headed to Miramar Castle, which is only a few miles down the road.  The bus dropped us off at a popular beach-like spot about a mile away from the castle where it seemed all of Trieste was bathing and parading on a concrete promenade in various states of undress.  There's really no beach here but people manage to sun bathe on this sidewalk between the craggy shoreline and the road on towels and beach chairs.  It looks awfully uncomfortable but it's so popular we had to walk up the hill to the castle on the street because there was no room to navigate on the pavement.  

These pics were taken closer to the castle past the sun worshippers who were of every age and social class.

I didn't take too many pics of the inside of this castle.  Talk about perspective, I felt like being in there gave me more than enough to last a lifetime.  Meaning that as opulent as it was, there truly is no accounting for taste.  A wanted me to take a picture of the music Maximilian liked.  They had this list posted in his personal rooms that he had specially built to look as though one were on a ship.

This was literally my favorite room in the castle.  The bathroom.  It was built for some guests in the 1920s along with a more modern apartment.

A view from the castle.

And another.

One of the grounds.

Afterwards we took a walk on the grounds and then stopped for a snack.

Then more exploring.

We used the pillar above to gain some more new perspectives.

And then we started back down the hill, past the bathers to catch a bus back into town.

Oh yes, Maximilian left his M just about everywhere on the grounds including at the bases of all the street lamps.

After a light dinner in the apartment A and I took a quick walk hoping to see again the Engelmann park that is so close to the apartment.  But it had closed a half hour before we got there.  

I took a picture of this building right next to ours.  The horse head is so random.  I'm sure it has some wacky story associated with it.  Maybe I'll make one up.

And here's almost the same view that we started this post with from the garret's window just before sunset.  

on foot and food

Sometimes all you can muster is meandering.  This is especially true when any destination you may have in mind may not have you in mind when its proprietors establish its hours of operation.  Such has been the case of several destinations we have tried to patronize here but have met with all manner of frustration.  It almost makes one wonder if Candid Camera is still on the air.  

Anyway, we attempted for the second time to see the local botanical gardens, which are set high on one of the hills overlooking Trieste.  (Did I mention we came back here to Trieste for the last few days of our trip?)  We were distracted by a couple of unexpected tangents on the way up the steep climb to the gardens.

Nathanael's distractions involved shiny objects with 2 - 4 wheels:

I found a gap in a wall that wasn't marked private so I just had to investigate.

It was a park called Villa Engelmann that started out small then opened up to reveal a very large public space that included a meadow-like walkway,

A large bandshell,

And several secret entrances/exits, flowers and bathroom facilities.  If you want to learn more, A says this is a website on the public parks of Trieste: retecivica.trieste.it

We continued on to the botanical gardens.  I thought this was an interesting building ahead but we walked by it too quickly to investigate further.

Finally we got up to the garden...but this was not the entrance.

We had to climb higher for that.  Here is a view of it from behind the entry gate.  We were 9 minutes late.  It was already closed.

We decided to walk back down the hill to get something cold to drink.  So many buildings have incredible detail...enough for a blog of their own.  In the meantime a here's an example of an ornate building we passed on our way down to the center of town:

After some gelato and drinks, we walked around the old city and passed this newer construction.  I love the optical illusion these columns create.  Maybe it's just me but doesn't it look weird to see buildings close up in the two outside squares and the distant hilly landscape between them?

Eventually we got closer to our dinner destination but had a little while to kill before it opened.  N and I sat and waited for A to buy some pastries.  The idea was to fill up on dessert appetizers so we wouldn't spend too much on dinner.  Not the greatest plan plus, fortunately, it didn't really work out the way we planned.

We ate at Trattoria Dalmata Trieste, an amazing place.  This is a seafood antipasto.  Indescribable.

An unbelievable spaghetti seafood marinara.

Risotto with shrimp.  N ate most of this sans the shrimp.

I'm now going to attemp to relax with a glass of sparkling H20.