Piran

Funny how one day I stitch a maritime card, and the other day I actually - after many years - put my feet into the salt water at the Slovene coast. Yay!
As my sister visited me, she expressed the wish to go swiming to the sea, so we decided to make a one-day trip to Piran by bus. We escaped the cold and fog of Ljubljana in the early morning, and arrived in the lovely seaside-town at about 9 am. Our guide and diver for the day was Uroš, sister's colleague from Izola, another lovely seaside-town.
After strolling around around the main square (one can't possible visit Piran without meeting it's famous violinist Guiseppe Tartini), we walked along the promenade, surrounded by restaurants on one side, and bathing people on the other.
Later we walked up to the cathedral of St. George atop the city, and even went to the remains of the city wall to catch this famous postcard-panorama of Piran's cape, only to discover that you now must pay for the entrance. Nah.
We found some other spots that would (almost) match the view and had a good time anyway. There are also a couple of museums to see, most of them related with sea or Guiseppe Tartini, even the renovated Aquarium, but we decided to have an outdoors-day. 
You just have to love Piran - narrow streets, coloured facades and the smell of salt... What more can one wish for? A good pizza of course! And as my sister knows the best pizzeria in town this wish was fulfilled, too. Not only they have really delicious food, but also very friendly staff and good prices. Very recomended :)
My sister eventually had a swim, while for a softie like me it was enough to put my feet in sea water in the early afternoon. Later in the day, it started to rain a little bit, but we seemed to be quite lucky with the weather.
Before we went back home, our chauffeur took us to Izola (nice) and Koper (port-city, not that nice) for another short walk and a wonderful smoothie in the Kapitanija. Yummi :)

Summary: even though you might think a one-day trip to the coast is a waste of time as you can't see much of it anyway, let me reassure you it's good enough to get a glimpse of a charming seaside, relax and have something good to eat.

Actually, we had plenty of time doing everything we wanted to do, and that's all that counts anyway. I found myself really tired by the time we took the bus back home, and slept most of the ride, waking up to a cold and rainy Ljubljana. What a lucky escape the day turned out to be! Add a late-evening dinner with sisters's friends at the CantinaMexicana, and the day probably can't get much better.

Now, you probably want to see some photos:
Morning sight of Piran with the church of Saint Clement on Cape Madona - Punta Piran

port of Piran

Mr. Tartini overlooking the main square

Piran's seaside promenade

Punta Piran

Cathedral of St. George

 Love Piran

Motif of St. George on one of the houses

Wonderful fig tree

More sights of the harbour

And the flowers of course :)

I never knew capers grow like this