I continue just where I left you, at the last door in my last post. These photos cannot wait any longer, it was just so beautiful, and I need an eye rest. Around me everything is yellow.
It reminds me of this puzzle: why do we call Greenland green when it’s icy and Iceland an ice land if it’s green? But it’s how it is: summer scorches all green away, only to return almost precisely on November 1st. When Slovenia is about to get white.
But enough of that, let me take you to Kamniška Bistrica, a splendid breather of a place about 40 km north of Ljubljana which we visited about two weeks ago, on our last day in Slovenia. I have not been there for years, ever since it was the finish of one of the grandest adventures of my short life.
Father, sister and me namely decided, when I was young and foolish, to walk from Maribor, father’s birthplace and Slovenia’s second biggest city, to our home in Ljubljana, the capital. The car needs about 130 km, but we didn’t walk on the roads. We took mountain paths and in part followed the European walking route. (We took the funicular for the first ascent. We are not crazy.)
With the exception of one day that we spent resting in a hotel, watching Brigita Bukovec receiving silver medal for Slovenia in 100 m hurdles at Atlanta Olympic games (now you know the time frame), we needed a week and after that fully exhausted rolled down the mountains that you see in the photos below to land in this heaven of a place. We took the bus home faster than somebody could say “What about the last 40 km?”
Father – nebodigalen (don’t-call-him-lazy) – did the same route in its entirety, just in reverse, about ten years later again, with our first dog. Our bestia seem to grin in the first photo below saying “In your dreams! I’m Italian!” And in the second photo, where father is comforting noise-shattered but festive bestia on New Year’s Eve, look on the wall behind them and you will see father and our wonder dog Žak (here is the story how we got him) in a similar position on the bridge in Maribor at the end of their long walk. From the distance the dogs look alike too.
This time we only strolled around a little, took some photos and admired the scenery. After all, now we are borderline Italian.
And if somebody wonders about the title: Kamnik is the closest town. In the evening of the same day, as if I’d asked for it, I returned there for the concert of possibly my favourite current Slovenian production, and these things Matter.
Photo: a © signature mmm production
Well this is a green land, for sure. Also, Bestia is quite the poser!
LikeLiked by 1 person
SMSW, he is for sure! Yeahh to the green!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Mountains and bridges … always picturesque! This looks like some seriously challenging hiking.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks, Joanne. Yes, it was, but all trails are extremely well maintained and marked in Slovenia.
LikeLike
Marked trails are really important to me. I am not happy when I get lost 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
Wow, what beautiful scenes! I notice the door, seemingly in the side of a hill. The photo begs the question, what could possibly be behind that door!?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, D! I was very close to having a look. It was funny: father who went first (and who knows about Thursday Doors) said “Look at that…”. When I saw for myself, I couldn’t believe my eyes. 😀
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, VERY interesting! My best guess would be some sort of shelter. Looks like it’s been there awhile.
LikeLiked by 1 person
A lovely place – I would not suggest rolling down that mountain!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hehe, wise Jan, thanks!
LikeLike
Thanks for sharing these beautiful photos – I love hiking. I don’t do it much anymore, but I love the things you can find on a hike, like that bridge, that you can’t find anywhere else.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks, Dan. I used to hike and walk the dog more decidedly and all sorts of stuff, but this Italy is making me sedentary. No wonder that their national sport is automobilism. 😀
LikeLiked by 1 person
You run with a good pack! And my what a beautiful place you were running in. Every picture is delightful.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you very much, Lisa! 🙂 It is certainly a little miracle of a place.
LikeLiked by 1 person