Europe Trip 2025 - Koper

Koper is a beautiful small town on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. Historically, a Roman settlement, then part of the Republic of Venice, Austria-Hungary, and Italy after WW1. After WW2, it was part of a Free Territory of Trieste, then from 1954 Yugoslavia, and from 1991 Slovenia. Yugoslav history can be even more complicated than Polish.

Bike infrastructure is very good, although I would put a solid barrier here between bikes and cars, or at least bollards:

This is the most beautiful urban bike path I saw ever:

Cars try to squeeze where they can:

The oldest part of town has streets too narrow for cars:

Both in Ljubljana and Koper I saw organised groups of Chinese tourists:

Venetian-era Palace:

Catholic Cathedral:

Olive trees, on the way from the central square to the commercial port:

The port:

Cleverly hidden A/C units in the building on the left:

The beach, with crystal clear water, stones of perfect size to hurt my feet, and balmy temperatures recorded 7 September 2025:

The marina:

Monuments to Yugoslav heroes Karlo Maslo and Janko Premrl:

Walking back to the bus terminal:

These recycling scheme seems to be complicated - I had a hard time in Poland trying to sort rubbish into 5 or 6 categories:

Hairdresser "orangeade" - this is an example of how close written Polish and Slovenian are: "frizerski salon" -> "salon fryzjerski", "oranžada" -> "oranżada". Parrucchiera is hairdresser in Italian, I guess not all Italians left after 1954, or perhaps they visit often from Trieste: