Koper, Slovenia

Welcome to Slovenia, a country that has had a long history of various rulers but finally became independent in 1991.

First Lady Melania Trump was born in Slovenia when it was still a part of Yugoslavia.

My family drove through this area in 1984 when we were travelling from my dad‘s hometown in Hungary to Italy. Dad used to recall the beautiful climate in Hungary where they could grow almost anything, so I imagine that this climate is very similar as we saw orange trees, lemon trees, massive grape vines, and palm trees growing in this city of just under 54,000 people. It is a university town, so we were surrounded by many young people today as we wandered the streets of the medieval old town. It is also an international cargo port, so we are in dock right beside a huge container ship.

We started the day by wandering through the local residential area. Here is a picture to show you how narrow the streets are.

If you were to take one step out of the house, you would be right on the street. I have noticed that many Europeans are very particular about their front entrances and have seen them sweeping and even mopping the area in front of their houses.

Many houses have fresh flowers in their window boxes

We were the only people inside St. Ann’s church, and it was built in the 15th century.

The Praetorian Palace was built in the 15th century by the Venetians, and now it is a museum in the large old town square.

The Church of the Assumption was built in the second half of the 12th century. This Catholic Church has a tall bell tower which we could walk up, but we decided to give my knees a break. 😂

Instead, we opted to listen to a half hour pipe organ concert that happened to be today at noon. It brought back memories of the organist that used to play at the chapel that Gary and I got married in.

Mirko Butkovic playing

Of course we did some shopping, and one store had various samples to try.

We bought a few souvenirs, tried some coffee, flavoured gelato, and then found some poppyseed strudel, which was not as good as my mom’s, but we had to try it.