Wednesday, June 25th brought bad weather to most of Slovenia, such that all paragliding activities were cancelled. In lieu of airborn activities, we turned to tourism to amuse ourselves. We packed into the van and headed to the Adriatic Coast to visit Piran, Slovenia's access to the sea. Piran has a mideaval town center that is very interesting and devoid of the masses of tourists found in nearby Italy. It classic Meditranian coastline, and the town has the usual attractions...mideaval fortifications going back to the 1400's, cathedrals, narrow, hilly, winding cobblestone streets, and lots of interesting history. After a thorough walking tour of the historic center...in the rain...I settled for a great seafood lunch on the shore, and a hasty purchase of a refrigerator magnet before returning to the van.
The second half of the day was even more interesting. Jarek had arranged for a wine tasting and tour at a Slovenian winery on the way back home...the friend of our Dresnika innkeeper runs a winery and was kind enough to humor a group of foreigners curious about Slovenian wines. For a fee of 20 Euros, it was all you can sample plus hors d'oeuvres. I was surprised to learn that he produced 7 or 8 wines from grapes that are completely exclusive to Slovenia, in addition to some of the more common European varieties. His winery doesn't bottle wines, but sells in bulk to institutions and businesses that bring their own containers to fill. Four hours later, our drunken host climbed a ladder and pulled out the good stuff that he probably never intended to share...to the delight of all. We stumbled back into the van by 10pm, most of us with a souvenir sample, bottled just for us. all in all, a great day for not flying.
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