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| Day 8: July 17,
2007 - Piran |
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Bovec - Goriska Brda - Karst
Before setting out southward we'll take a
short walk to the hidden waterfall of Kozjek
(45 minutes). Then a picturesque route across
Goriska Brda to Karst brings us through the
hilly area bordering Italy, a region justly
famous for producing the country's best fruit
and wine. We'll visit local vintners and sample
fine Slovenian wines, including Cabernet Sauvignon,
Merlot, and perhaps the local "mega-star",
Prsut.
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We
broke camp at the hotel and went into Kobarid
to see the WWI museum that detailed the battles
between the Italians and the Austro-Hungarians
(and later the Germans as well) in the Upper
Soca River valley. These battles lasted for
years with each side gaining and then losing
the advantage. Included in the thousands of
casualties was 120 feet off the top of a mountain
where both sides had secret tunnels. Once
each learned of the other's tunnels the race
was on to destroy them. The Italians seem
to have succeeded when they used 400kg of
nitroglycerine and collapsed all the tunnels
and the summit of the mountain.
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Next we headed to
the river and took a short walk to "Slap"
(waterfall) Kozjek. It was an easy path and
the waterfall cascades into a huge bowl -
it was very pretty and impressive. Then we
were back in the car and headed to wine country.
Luka stopped at a vineyard that belonged to
a friend whose grapes were literally split
across the border with Italy. We sampled some
wine and then went to lunch.
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| Another 2 hours in
the car and we arrived in Piran. It is a coastal
city on the Adriatic Sea and our hotel, Hotel
Tartini, was right on the main square. After
settling in, we met for dinner and had a lovely
Italian dinner. |
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| Fishing boats in Piran |
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