Day 6 - Wednesday, June 19 - Koper, Slovenia

June 19, 2019

The captain had suggested watching as we departed so at 11pm, we went up to the top deck as the ship pulled out. There were two tug boats in the front and another tug boat in the rear to help the ship make a sharp left turn. The ship traveled down the same outer canal that we had traveled several times with the vaporetto. A number of the churches had lights shining on them so it was a beautiful site as we passed, especially with the full moon overhead to the east. We were surprised that San Marco Plaza was not lit up but it made for a beautiful end to the evening overall.

When we got up in the morning, the ship was just pulling into the dock in Koper,

Koper was one of the important Adriatic cities of the Venetian empire and was rich and famous for the salt that was produced in the flats by the city. The city was actually on an island close to the shore and connected by a bridge. It was surprisingly high for a small island right next to the mainland and was later connected by filling in the surrounding water.

We left the ship for a tour of the old city. During the period when Yugoslavia was a communist country, many ugly commercial and residential buildings were constructed but fortunately these are all outside the historic area. There are numerous churches in the city but only the main cathedral is used for regular Sunday services - some of the others are used irregularly.

Our guide provided a history of Koper from Roman times up to the present. Her description of the communist era was interesting as she described its merits where everyone had a job and was provided for by the government but never mentioned the word "communist". She was asked whether Melania Trump was famous but said she wasn't particularly outside to her hometown. She did make a joke that if she was divorced. Slovenia would get half of the US!😀

After lunch back on the church, we took a bus into the countryside where we stopped at a farm to see indigenous animals like sheep, goats and cattle, and herbs that grew wild, rosemary, thyme, sage. From there we visited a very small (~100 people) church that is famous for a couple reasons. Instead of building a wall around the small village, a wall was built around the church and the villagers could be protected there when attacked.

The church is very famous for its frescoes. In the 1400s, the walls were covered with scenes from the bible, from the full story of the creation in Genesis to the crucifixion of Christ in the gospels. At the time of one of the plagues, the frescoes were painted over, perhaps thinking that would help - nobody knows why. In 1949 during some work, the underlying frescoes were discovered and 10 years was spent painstakingly removing the paint and restoring the frescoes which are quite spectacular after being covered for 400 years.

One of the frescoes that is particularly famous is of the "Danse Macabre" which depicts the journey from birth to death showing that in the end, whether one is poor or rich, in the end it is all the same.

From there we went to a small family-owned winery for a tasting of the organically produced wine, olive oil and meats (prosciutto, salami and others). It was all tasty and interesting. Of course there was an opportunity to buy their produce but we didn't - no prices were listed and we assumed they were quite high.

Back at the ship, we enjoyed a delicious seafood buffet of shrimp, crab, mussels, clams and mahi-mahi. The supply of wine is endless. We finished with dessert and coffee on the desk as we watched the beautiful sunset over the Adriatic.

After that was the "Captain's Welcome" in the theater where all of the chief ship staff were introduced. The entire ship staff come from 41 countries! After listening to some live entertainment by the onboard musicians, we went to bed.