Sunday 4th November 2007

Now, I don't believe in generalisations or racism, but are all Italians noisy? In the earlier hours, a large group returned to the campsite. We heard them as they entered and for the next 10 minutes as they continued walking very slowly across the site to the permanent vans or possibly the motel complex at the other side. Each speaker had obviously decided that the rest of the party was deaf judging by the VOLUME THAT THEY SPOKE AT. All was then quiet until dawn when a number of Italian motorhomers decided to leave. This involved very loud discussions between the parties – “DID YOU SLEEP WELL?”, “NO, THOSE REALLY LOUD PEOPLE WOKE ME UP IN THE EARLY HOURS”, “SHALL WE GO NOW?”, “YES, BUT ONLY WHEN WE HAVE WOKEN UP EVERYONE ELSE”.
It was cold, damp and dismal when I put the kettle on. For the first time on the Odyssey, I put the blown-air heating on briefly to take the chill off the van. This was the normal procedure on our Scottish holiday in Late May / early June!
It was foggy and if the Italians were on their way home, it wasn't going to be a pleasant journey. We had already decided to spend the day in Ljubljana, travelling by bus and therefore the fog was not a problem.
Ljubljana is a pleasant city with interesting architecture but in a much more understated way than other capitals such as Prague or Budapest. The National Museum archaeological section was small but extremely well presented with excellent English narration explaining not only the finds but also very good background detail about Roman life. The museum is shared with Natural History, Minerals and some historical exhibitions. The intention is to move the other parts to a new museum, allowing much more archaeology to be displayed. Judging by the quality of the presentation of the existing material, the expanded museum will be well worth seeing. One of the most impressive aspects of the displays were the translations of Roman inscriptions. I have often wondered what such inscriptions said but museums very rarely translate them. One inscribed grave stele was translated as “Urbana, the slave of Iulius Salvius lies here. Atimetus, her companion in servitude had this monument erected. You have stolen from me from my husband, from my children, you cruel gods, why have you taken me so soon? I had only lived for three decades and already a mound of earth covers my bones and ashes. Now carry quickly on, traveller, forward, where the road leads you! All will subsequently meet their fate after me.”. This really brings to life the inscribed stone slab and gives the visitor some insight into Roman life and the anguish that this death caused. Other museums take note and follow this excellent example.
We did our own walking tour of the rest of the city centre admiring the architecture and finishing at the castle with a good 3D audio-visual presentation about the history of the city. On the way into the castle Jane spotted a man walking towards us wearing a Bath Rugby shirt. I stopped him to find out why he was wearing it. He did look a little surprised when I accosted him, but my Bath shirt was hidden under my coat and I was gabbling away in a foreign language. The couple were Austrian and had visited England on a number of occasions and actually spoke good English. On their last visit, they had visited Cornwall and Bath and he had bought a Bath shirt while he was there. Not really a Bath Rugby supporter, more of a Bath city (small c) supporter but it was the first Bath Rugby shirt that we had seen on the Odyssey and photographs were taken by both parties.
Despite the mist (much reduced since the morning), the views were very good with glimpses of the snow-covered mountains to the North.
Photos: Two rugby shirts of the worlds best rugby club (in my humble opinion); Triple Bridge in Ljubljana; Grave stone of Urbana.