Celebrity Constellation towers above other ships in Koper’s harbour
Koper in Slovenia was our first port of call on the Dalmatian cruise. The local guide, who also worked as a teacher, complained about everything to do with capitalism and democracy, claiming that life was better for everyone under the communist regime. She appeared to have little pride in her country, except for the importance of the port as the entrance to much of central Europe.
We had difficulty understanding how her life was better under communism as she worked with her family, digging salt from the marshes, from the age of seven. She obviously had had a tough life and when we walked into
The old town square was almost empty at 11am on a Tuesday morning
Buildings were run down
the town we could see that buildings were rundown and, despite our arrival at around 11am the town’s centre was almost empty. This was the old part of town, preserved for tourists like us and she assured us that beyond it, the commercial and industrial areas were busy.
We were taken into a small shop that displayed and sold the local salt in an amazing variety of containers. Some were for the table but many were meant for use in bathing as a sort of healing agent. The prospect of carrying a container of salt back home, regardless of where home was, didn’t hold much appeal. I didn’t see anyone buy anything and felt rather sorry for the locals if this was all they had to offer tourists.
Children were roped together and led by adults holding ropes at each end.
The most interesting part of the visit for Susanne and me was watching a group of little ones from a child-minding centre being taken for a walk. It seemed a sensible idea from the safety angle, but I doubt if roping them together like a team of horses, would be allowed in more advanced parts of Europe.
To finish our tour we were led to a licensed cafe where we were given a glass of local wine, and a sample of salted fish or salami on small pieces of bread. Our guide brightened up at this point, probably because she was hoping for good tips. We felt sorry for her and gave her a euro, but hoped for a lot more enthusiasm on future trips ashore.
Night sky leaving Koper
On the way to dinner I looked out through the window when waiting for the lift to take us to the restaurant and caught this amazing view.
That night we had complimentary tickets to the main theatre. thanks to our butler and the concierge. He had booked us into the 7pm performance, which we changed to 9pm as we wanted to eat at seven. The show was about the standard I expected, with an annoyingly enthusiastic compere, a lot of mediocre singing and dancing, but one group of Chinese acrobats who made up for the rest of the ‘stars.’