Above, we are heading towards Maribor Castle museum.
Inside the museum, like a typical tourist, I just took the camera out, took aim and repeatedly fired. But now that I'm actually looking at the shots, I'm astounded at the beauty of some of the sculptures that were inside the castle museum:
Was only five years old when this was released on the same titled album in 1971, so like many people I guess, I was introduced to (the exciting guitar part of) this tune through 'Weekend World' (a former long-running British current affairs programme) and then discovered the full song a few years later on.
Since I discovered the full song (in the late 1970s), some of the lyrics have just stayed omnipresent in my mental jukebox ever since, especially the opening lines:
'Goodbye, little Robin-Marie
Don't try following me
Don't cry little Robin-Marie
'Cause you know I'm coming home soon . . .'
Besides picking up on this tune being a great love song, of course, I also quickly became aware that a Nantucket sleighride is the act of a harpooned whale literally taking a ship for a ride. However, it was only a couple of weeks ago that I finally looked up who Owen Coffin was, and what a tale there is behind this. In brief summary, a whaleship 'The Essex' was rammed and sunk by a sperm whale in the Pacific in1820, and to cut a long story short, in one of the smaller whale boats that the crew took refuge in, poor Coffin lost the draw on who had to be sacrificed and killed for the other few survivors' food.
Thus, for me, naturally there's now much added meaning to this timeless classic (canonised) love song:
'Fly your willow branches
Wrap your body round my soul
Lay down your reeds and drums on my soft sheets
There are years behind us reaching
To the place where hearts are beating
And I know you're the last true love I'll ever meet
And I know you're the last true love I'll ever meet'.
My mental jukebox doesn't hold all these lyrics perfectly, but still more or less, as enchantment, the tune sometimes plays in my mind to cheer up a drab depressing day.
Finally, got to see Mountain at, of all places, (my hometown) Bury Derby Hall (Bury Met) in about 2003 when the band did a real raw (but still interesting) version of 'Nantucket Sleighride'.
In the small town of Novo Mesto, it wasn't so much the cathedral (above) but St. Leonard's church (below) that caught my eye:
More than anything, it was the stained glass windows that attracted my attention inside St. Leonard's:
However, the stained glass window below does look a bit odd, as it looks like the face of St. Joseph has been inserted a few centuries after the rest of the window:
Also liked these sculptures outside the small Novo Mesto town hall:
Got this mobile shot of the Ukrainian Uniate (Eastern Rite Catholic) church near Warsaw Old Town a few weeks ago. Over my 10 years or so in Warsaw, I've been to this church on Sunday morning a handful of times, basically when I've felt a need to listen to Slavonic rather than Gregorian chant (love both these forms of ancient church music).
Forgot to put this shot of the lion's head, which can be seen on a wall shortly after you enter the old gate into Kroper, on my piece about walking through Kroper yesterday. What an oversight as the traditional lion symbol of Venice is truly wonderful here.
In the picture above, I can just about make out my good friend, Dave Dealy, walking through the Jewish cemetery in Warsaw during his July visit. Due to the beauty of some of the gravestones in the cemetery, I thought that it was well worth Dave visiting and he agreed.
On the way to Piran, we stopped off at Koper, also on the Adriatic Coast, entering the seaside town by the gate above:
Soon we were in Tito Square with its beautiful City Hall (below):
And high bell tower (below):
Managed to catch the bishop fresco above the church door (below):
The road down to the sea was a narrow winding one:
Passing quite a few interesting things such as what looks like the Venetian seal below (I'm sure that I saw something very similar or exactly the same on the walls of both Kotor and Budva in Montenegro last summer):
But what caught my eye the most was the 16th century (fishermen and sailors') church of St. Nicholas:
Also loved the statue below which we saw as we neared the sea:
But, for me, the sea wasn't the most interesting thing in Koper:
Really wouldn't go anywhere near the kind of food below (I don't eat fish but I'm not vegetarian), although, of course, some people might love it:
Still, I liked the three iron giraffes towering above the small dockyard:
And really liked my last shot from Koper, the Adam and Eve engraving below:
