Škofja Loka and Idrija

The weather has been hot and pretty humid for the past three or four days. Today felt like the mid 80s and about 80% humidity. I've been wearing my hat all the time to try to avoid a repeat of the serious sunburn I got in Turkey last year. So far, so good.

Today Uroš and I visited Škofja Loka and Idrija, two old towns with lots of Slovenian history. Škofja Loka was a medieval walled town on a river and still has houses from the 16th century. It has a main square with a fountain, a couple of churches, and a castle on the high point of the city.

I've been having a hard time doing any serious photography, since most of my travel has been done with friends rather than on my own, but today I did take some time to look for street art and found some graffiti on the side of one of the churches. It seemed so inconsistent - the church arches, the old car and the harsh graffiti.

The main event of the day, though, was Idrija. I wanted to go for two reasons - the mercury mine and the local art of lace-making. The drive to Idrija was nice in itself. We wound our way through a hilly rural landscape until we reached the summit of a small mountain and crested the top. Once over, the road twisted and turned sharply down the other side and in places it seemed as if we could easily fall right off the side and down a couple thousand feet. We made it safely into town twenty minutes later and stopped for a nice lunch. I had the local specialty - Žikrofli - kind of like ravioli but stuffed with a mashed potato/bacon mixture. The sauce on top was not really sauce but melted gorgonzola cheese. Anyway the dish was really yummy.

After lunch we were just in time to catch the 3pm tour of the Antonijev Mercury Mine. It was a 90-minute walk through several levels of the 500 year old mine, and included a short video and a guided tour and description of features and practices in the mine over the years. If you ever get a chance to tour a mine, do it. It is truly amazing the conditions under which miners must work, even in "safe" contemporary environments. This photo is the first view of the mine shaft as we entered. It soon got MUCH creepier!

At the end of the entry shaft, before the main descent, there is a chapel hewn out of the solid rock. It was dripping with surface water - as wet as a shower stall, but it was the main stop for all before each descent. This is the last of the photos since the mine was really too dark for photos. But I really learned a lot and can't believe how hard these guys worked, day in, day out, until they died of mercury poisoning, lung disease, heavy equipment injury, or tunnel collapse.