Wednesday 18th September Spelling in Celje; Spa-ing in Lasko.

September 18, 2019

Wednesday 18th September 18 Wednesday.

Spelling in Celje; Spa-ing in Lasko.

Latish breakfast at MCC kitchen where we chat with Dominique, a French traveller, who is on holiday hiking in this part of Slovenia. Originally from Strasbourg, he now lives and works just north of Marseilles.

The day is overcast and we take a leisurely walk around the pedestrian precinct enjoying watching the locals relaxing in their many cafes. There are a number of distinctive buildings of neo classical and older styles.

Celje, being located on the confluence of the Savinja, Hudinja , Loznica, and Volajn has always enjoyed strategic importance. Celts dwelt here before the Romans made it part of their empire. The city has experienced a varied and somewhat turbulent history: peasant revolts, reversals of religious belief from Protestantism back to Catholicism; it was part of the Hapsburg empire then the Austro Hungarian empire, Yugoslavia and finally Slovenia after the 1991 ten day war. The city suffered considerable losses in WW2 at the hands of both the Nazis and Allied bombing.

Our attempt to walk up was impeded by walkway reconstruction.

When one cycles into some of these small cities, they seem quite isolated but rivers clearly were important for communication as was the railway - reaching Celje in 1846.

Josip Pelikan, photographer and a friendly fellow.

We are keen to see the museum dedicated to the photographer Josip Pelikan but that will have to wait until tomorrow when it will be open. Instead we decide to take the short train trip to Lasko for a swim in the thermal pools. The pools are heated to a temperature of 31 degrees - not baking but pleasant. There are only a few patrons, so it’s possible to swim in circles at a leisurely pace. After an hour or so of bubbles and swirls, we’ve had enough and head back to Celje and MCC.

In the kitchen we meet a young English woman from London who has just arrived and has a performance art show to do. An older Croatian man is cooking what Ann suspects are the internal organs of a non specified animal. He pours tomato sauce onto them and offers her some which she declines with a laugh. He seems to get her drift and joins in before holding a noisy discussion on his cell phone. Dominique arrives - tonight he’s chopping up an egg plant, a change from last night’s fennel bulb.

We leave with our cups of tea- now that we’ve found the real thing among the shelf loads of fruit flavours, such luxury! Tomorrow, the train to Ljubljana.

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