Croatia, so near yet so far. Across the Piran peninsula is a tourist town under Croatia. We reckon that a strong swimmer can swim across to Croatia from Piran. It is certainly easy enough to take a boat across for the locals.

Peik Lean Y.

Finally we left Piran for Portorož, a neighbouring tourist town, which is an internationally known holiday centre and climatic health seaside resort. Portorož has a casino, a sport airport and marina. After Piran, Portorož paled in comparison. It just smacked too much of a holiday resort for the rich and famous.

We continued our journey and finally reached Koper at lunch time to explore the Old Town. Koper is a much larger town than Piran and was once the capital of Istria under the Venetian Republic in the 15th and 16th centuries. The Old Town's medieval flavour still lingers but is spoiled by the surrounding industry and container ports. Once again, comparisons with Piran were made and were found wanting.