The latest

Despite the very wet weather we had lately, the summer is here and it is time to spend some time on the boat. I'm driving to Skradin in a few days and I'm looking forward to a week of sailing and snorkelling and some good company. But before I post a ton of snorkelling photos I have some pretty ones that I made on two trips to the coast and wine country.

We drove to Triest mostly to visit a big chandlery and to buy a new engine control lever (ročko za gas), the old one was getting moody and unreliable. After we accomplished that, we visited the Vincent van Gogh exhibition in Triest. Although the most famous paintings were not there except for The Sawer, it was a very intimate and emotional one with lots of personal information.  Beside the paintings there was an immersive experience, where his paintings were projected to the walls and floor to give the feeling that you are right inside the painting. It was quite impressive.

This is the famous Sawer.

I am so amazed that the person with such a troubled and dark soul could produce so much light in his paintings.

We also made a short walk around the town and saw many old and pretty buildings.

The second trip was to Brda, the wine country, and to visit some friends. On the way we discovered some beautiful meadows, unspoilt and with lots of flowers. And we found several pretty orchids...

... and grasses...

... and other flowers.

It is not often that one finds such a meadow, mostly they are cut regularly so that flowers and grasses don't even come to bloom and mostly they are fertilised which greatly reduces the number of species.

Our next stop was Štanjel, the pretty and very old small town on the top of the hill.

The views were pretty too.

This was a firing hole in the walls.

Our next stop was another pretty town, Šmartno, also built on top of the hill, with old houses, narrow streets and pretty views.

Then we drove through the vineyards to Korita Krčnika, the gorge of the creek Kožbanjšček (I love the name). The gorge is not long, but quite pretty. And it was nicely cool by the water even on a very hot day.

We even saw some dragonflies, but I wasn't able to make any decent photos with my phone.

In the afternoon we made another stop at the Hubelj springs (izvir Hublja) above Ajdovščina. Another pretty place, even with a small power plant on the creek.

Both trips were great and we will definitely need to do some more explorations of the Western part of Slovenija, but maybe not in such a hot weather.