Foto's

Ljubljansko Barje - Ljubljana Marshes - is a 160 square kilometer wetland area stretching along the southern and south-eastern part of the Ljubljana Basin. It is a place worth visiting in any season, simply because of its tranquility and beauty. However, be careful where you walk or you might end up knee deep in water! Ljubljana Marshes is the site of the earliest traces of a settlement in the Ljubljana area, believed to date back to the Middle Stone Age (around 5000 BC) and earlier. The people that lived there around that time were called (in Slovenian) Mostiscarji or Koliscarji, which literary means "The pile dwellers". They were building their dwellings in more or less the same way the houses are built in that area today - well maybe they were a bit less sophisticated :) - on piles. I guess they didn't want to get their feet wet either :) Apart from beautiful nature, one of my favorite attractions there, and definitely the most beautiful architectural monument of the Marshes is the Church of St. Michael (Cerkev sv. Mihaela) near the village of Crna vas (Black Village)... But that's another story, for another post...

Today was a freezing cold sunny winter day, the last day of holidays, so I couldn't resist taking some photos, even though my fingers almost froze! :) The sun was punching a hole into this tree, washing away the colors, so eventually I got rid of the last distracting trace of pale blue, rendering the scene the way I saw it… tranquil, mysterious and freeeeezing! ;)