Our hotel for the past two nights, and tonight, is in a very picturesque area of downtown Celje. Since we had a later start this morning, I was able to finish my post for yesterday this morning before our first excursion.

Note: This is the eighth post in this series. Go HERE to start from the beginning.

We visited Matea (don’t quote me on her name or spelling…not good at that!) who is in black in the middle picture below. She and a partner, along with another woman, have started a B&B after doing other types of work. It’s a woman-owned business, and when they renovated the building after buying it, the engineers, contractors, etc., were mostly women, too. Excellent! She treated us to wine and bread, then gave us a tour of one floor of the B&B (there are two floors).

When doing the renovation, they had to abide by strict regulations about how much the building could change in appearance on the outside, but the inside is what’s truly impressive. Modern, comfortable, beautiful. Looked to me like probably the classiest place in town. I loved the “Honesty Bar.” They trust folks to pay for what they take from the refrigerator or the shelves stocked with food and snacks.

They’ve been open a little over a year and are “satisfied” with how the business is going, which I was happy to hear. Such hard work and vision should be rewarded. Here’s to their success!

When we got back from that visit, we had a little bit of time, so I was able to walk around a bit to take some pictures.

We’re staying at Hotel Europa, another hotel with an unimposing front door. Steps away is a fountain in the sidewalk. It was fun to watch the pigeons as they waited for the jets to reach a certain height, then walked under some of them to take a bath. They’ve clearly adapted to man’s presence!

Looking up from the fountain is a great tower, and in that same area is a statue of a woman with suitcases. We didn’t hear the story until later, but she was evidently a local woman who spent eight years traveling and writing about her experiences. She’d move to a country then get a job there for a while, and write, and then move on to another. Apparently (I think), eight countries in eight years. She was a short woman (I think the statue may be life sized) and evidently very feisty. Don’t you love her expression?

I also walked to a market where I got some bread, Bruschette chips, and cheese, and a banana, for later snacking. Might come in handy tomorrow. It was an interesting experience, shopping where most of the labels are in Slovenian, without English anywhere i sight. I figured out (with a little help) how to enter the product number and quantity to get a scan-able label. I thought the prices were quite reasonable!

Next up, a walk along the river headed to the Treehouse. Along the river we saw this statue of an oarsman rowing. On the other side of the river there was a hike up to the Treehouse. Most folks did the hike. A couple of us got a ride, which I appreciated!

Here’s a panorama of the inside. The picture is a little distorted, but you get the idea.

The Treehouse (Mesini Sozd) is a fabulous structure built 11 years ago in a high portion of this forest. It’s for education, research, and visitors (only open certain days for that last one, though). Slovenia is very big on managing their forests, and when land owners no longer want to manage their forest properties, the government will buy the land, finances permitting. In Slovenia, the forest is open to all, no matter who owns any specific property, and the government advises, and assists, owners with managing their land (thinning the forest, for example). They’re serious about protecting the forest, and Alenka (she’s in the red shirt) and Bostjan (he’s speaking), the couple hosting our activities here in Celje, work for this part of the government. (That’s how we were able to visit the Treehouse.)

After returning from there, we had about 20 minutes or so (some of the hikers had less time) to get ready for a visit to Celje Castle, where we spent a little over an hour. There hasn’t been much done in the way of restoration, but it appears they’re working on that. There’s a setup for events (plays, music) in the main courtyard. There’s a parking lot, a few exhibits, a gift shop and snack bar, but overall it appears to be mostly a work in progress. Still, fun to imagine what went on here. Mostly it seems to be a place for great views of the surrounding area. Just like from the castle in Ljubljana, we could pick out our hotel from the castle.

After our return from the castle, we again had a quick turnaround before going to dinner. This was at a Michelin listed restaurant (Lalu) and again tonight, the food was fabulous. Quite a variety and all well prepared. Service was great, too, of course. I tried most things. It’s so hard to tell how much we’re eating when we have a little bit of so many things, but hey, when am I going to experience something like this again?

After dinner, gelato from a place close to our hotel, but I first caught this good-night video. I’d love to have this, or a smaller version of it, in my yard. Very soothing to watch. Tomorrow we head out kind of early, so for tonight, good night from Celje, Slovenia1