Day 18 – Moving on to Trieste – encountering the police

May 15, 2026

It was another glorious day in Piran. We had worked out, with the help of the owner of the hotel, the buses to take us to Trieste. When I had researched transport from Piran before coming to Slovenia the information on the internet suggested a direct bus service from Piran to Trieste. The reality was that the service did not exist, instead it involved a bus to Koper and then another bus to Trieste.

Further to the hotel story. The hotel had only been open for a couple of years. As I said in the last post it was owned by two brothers and was passion project. The brothers’ grandfather had owned one of the houses and used it as a photography studio. They had bought four or five other “houses” in the building and then converted them into the very small but elegant boutique hotel. Old photographic equipment was displayed throughout and the architecture was wonderful. Considerable good design and thought had gone into it. It had a lift so wonderful for us and other clients. It was very cute with stairs and rooms at different levels reflecting the various “houses” that had been integrated. Not only that they had bought the lane next to the building so that the hotel could be wider. We were entranced with his description of what had been done.

Inside the hotel

Bev trying to get in the door

We had breakfast at a bakery the family owned. We stored our bags and then went for a walk around the lovely medieval town. We saw a couple of men swimming and shock horror one of them stripped off completely to go for a swim in the Adriatic. The water is very clear.

Skinny dipping in the clear Adriatic

Coffee anyone

Finally, it was time to catch our buses. It took us a while to find the right bus but eventually it arrived and we along with our bags got on it. The bus was very crowded and we were taking up a room for six people with our bags. So were several others.

The bus took us to Koper bus station. When we got there a bus there waiting to leave for Trieste. I needed a “nature break” (as the cycling commentators would say) and given I had no idea of the time it would take to go the short distance to Trieste I looked around for a toilet. There seemed to be none. I asked the driver who said none and pointed to a grassy area. I walked quickly and found and almost private place to do my business. Then, I am told, that I sprinted a hundred metres to get to the bus before the driver closed the doors. I was expecting loud clapping for the sprint but there was no appreciation of my effort.

The bus was full but we were able to put the bags in a compartment under the bus.

There is a motorway all the way to Trieste from Koper but we did not take it. The reason became apparent when after taking some of the back roads we had briefly cycled. The bus came to an onramp for the motorway and stopped. Police came on the bus and demanded our passports. Bev was not happy being relieved of her passport but there was nothing we could do. About 15 minutes later the police were back on the bus with our passports and began calling our names. Bev was called Ellen. The pronunciation of my first name had a passing resemblance to my name and Graham was called by his surname. Initially I was the only one who was able to decipher the code. Just for good measure the police also had several member of the army there bristling with guns nearby. I suspect this has been a route for smuggling refugees into Italy, otherwise why would we be stopped. Fifteen or so minutes later we were pulling into the bus station.

To ensure we had enough exercise we dragged our bags to our accommodation which was a bit over a kilometre away. It was slightly uphill and as usual the GPS took us what it thought was a fast route but as I later found out not the easiest.

We were in a rather pleasant older neighbourhood of Trieste with lots of character and old buildings, perhaps remnants of the Habsburg empire and probably built in the late 1900s and early 2000s.

A few metres down the hill from us was largely pedestrianised long street that is full of eating places. In addition there were many mature trees which must keep it cool during the hot summer months. For the first time in nearly three weeks we were going to be stopping for more than one night in a place. The apartment was huge with high ceilings but it was quite cold and damp. Apparently by law in Italy you cannot have radiators turned higher than 18 degrees. In our case there was a heat pump that we could use to raise the temperature. Overall we were pleased with the place that was to accommodate four of us.

Below are some more pictures of Trieste, some in the evening and others before we left for Trieste.