04-May-2022: about turism: my perplexities towards a future with more and more bans and more and more over-taxes.

Lake Bohinj and the much more famous Lake Bled are close (less than 20 km) but the second has a mass tourism now rooted, while the first is expanding its tourist reception in recent years, coming out (unfortunately) from the shadow of Bled, that was a lightning rod for peaceful and symbiotic nature lovers.

I am totally against mass tourism because it transforms a relaxing resort into an area where it is difficult even to access it.

Around Lake Bled, even at a certain distance, there are only paid parking lots, which come to cost 6 euros per hour (about the most decentralized and in May...) that, certainly, leave perplexed about the "tourist selection" that "they" would like to implement (high-end tourism) and, in general, certainly drive away the tourist in search of nature and not restaurants, bars, concrete lake-front and crowd baths.

The naturalist tourist should not feel like a tourist in Nature, which is a single great asset of humanity and that only administratively is divided between various Countries, while in Bled, as in Rimini or Cortina d'Ampezzo, they make you feel not only tourist, but also guest, sometimes unwanted if you spend little.

As tourism increases, so do the bans, because unfortunately mass tourism includes many people who don't know anything about Nature and generally only go to very touristy places to make themselves of...people, sowing dirt and ignorance wherever they move.

The imposition of prohibitions/bans to limit the "damage from mass tourism" affects everyone indiscriminately, including locals and naturalists who have always had a symbiotic relationship with these places, thus making them become inhospitable, at least to those seeking pure contact with nature itself.

Of course this happens all over the world, but it should be condemned.

We already pay State taxes for the maintenance of the slice of Nature that falls within our administration, tourist surcharges, exploiting market laws that should be verified and contained, are for the most part unconstitutional, as well as several prohibitions that deprive access and use of public property.

With the money that the tourist municipalities pocket they could very well implement a targeted prevention (controls by foresters, cameras, ad hoc fences for areas subject to micro-pollution...) rather than closing everything and then de-empowering themself on the maintenance of roads and areas (more and more numerous), thus going to save further, starting from the basic taxes that we pay to also have access to given areas.

I can understand that you tax parking at high altitude to maintain the roads, but the amount of the payment should be directly proportional to the expenses that must be incurred to ensure accessibility, not by putting prices at random and with increases of 200% from one year to the next.

I have always appreciated the fact that Slovenia, thanks also that it is not densely inhabited and has a modest tourism (except precisely Bled, Postojna Caves and the Coast), guarantees a wide accessibility and use of its territories and I hope it can continue, limiting the prohibitions and parking lots everywhere.

Castellbò, Alt Urgell, Lleida, España.

Castellbò es un núcleo de población del municipio de Montferrer y Castellbò (Alt Urgell) situado en el valle del mismo nombre. Es el jefe de la entidad municipal descentralizada de la Villa y Vall de Castellbò. En 1970 fue anexado al municipio de Aravell, creando el término municipal de Montferrer y Castellbò.

La villa de Castellbò, que en el 2019 tenía 82 habitantes, se encuentra en un lugar desgarrado, a 802 m de altitud, entre la sierra de la Borda (1.150 m) y los estribos de Roca Redonda. Lugar de paso obligado por los antiguos caminos que ligaban la Seu d'Urgell con el Pallars Sobirà, la villa está encaramada en un rellano del monte donde se encuentran las ruinas del antiguo castillo de Castellbò, que fue aterrizado por orden de Ferran el Catòlic en 1513 (la capilla de San Pedro y San Francisco del castillo se derribó siglos más tarde).

Para llegar a esta población hay que tomar la carretera que enlaza la N-260 con la estación de esquí de Sant Joan de l'Erm. Castellbò se encuentra a nueve kilómetros de la N-260.

Castellbò is a population center in the municipality of Montferrer and Castellbò (Alt Urgell) located in the valley of the same name. He is the head of the decentralized municipal entity of the Villa and Vall de Castellbò. In 1970 it was annexed to the municipality of Aravell, creating the municipal term of Montferrer and Castellbò.

The town of Castellbò, which had 82 inhabitants in 2019, is located in a torn place, at an altitude of 802 m, between the Sierra de la Borda (1,150 m) and the Roca Redonda abutments. An obligatory place of passage along the old paths that linked La Seu d'Urgell with Pallars Sobirà, the town is perched on a landing of the mountain where the ruins of the old castle of Castellbò are located, which was landed by order of Ferran el Catòlic in 1513 (the castle's chapel of San Pedro and San Francisco was demolished centuries later).

To get to this town, take the road that connects the N-260 with the Sant Joan de l'Erm ski resort. Castellbò is located nine kilometers from the N-260.

Josa de Cadí, Alt Urgell, Lleida, España.

Josa de Cadí es un pueblo situado en la cara sur de la Sierra del Cadí. Está constituido como entidad municipal descentralizada del municipio de Josa y Tuixén, dentro de la comarca del Alt Urgell desde (1973).

El pueblo de Josa de Cadí (1.431 m) está situado sobre una pequeña colina redondeada a la derecha del río de Josa, entre éste y el torrente de Jovell, que desagua. Controla la pista de Gósol y Tuixén, en un lugar especialmente estratégico, entre las laderas de la sierra de Cadí y las de Cadinell. En la cima de la colina se eleva un peñasco rocoso, llamado el castillo, con restos de antiguas construcciones. Está la iglesia parroquial de Santa Maria y Sant Bernabé, que fue construida o reedificada, según Madoz, en 1846. Es un edificio rectangular, con ábside carrado, de una nave y otras dos naves menores que conforman como una serie de pequeñas capillas laterales. Al suroeste, junto al ábside, en su punto más elevado del peñón, se eleva el campanario, de torre. Alrededor está la casería. Sobre el pueblo, en las laderas inferiores de Cadinell se encuentra la antigua iglesia parroquial, hoy capilla, del foso de Santa María, románica, de una nave con un ábside liso, sin arcuaciones. Celebra su fiesta mayor el primer domingo de septiembre.

Josa de Cadí is a town located on the south face of the Sierra del Cadí. It is constituted as a decentralized municipal entity of the municipality of Josa and Tuixén, within the region of Alt Urgell since (1973).

The town of Josa de Cadí (1,431 m) is located on a small rounded hill to the right of the Josa river, between it and the Jovell torrent, which drains it. It controls the Gósol and Tuixén track, in a particularly strategic location, between the slopes of the Sierra de Cadí and those of Cadinell. At the top of the hill rises a rocky crag, called the castle, with remains of ancient buildings. There is the parish church of Santa Maria and Sant Bernabé, which was built or rebuilt, according to Madoz, in 1846. It is a rectangular building, with a carved apse, a nave and two other smaller naves that make up a series of small lateral chapels. To the southwest, next to the apse, at its highest point on the rock, rises the bell tower, with a tower. Around is the farmhouse. Above the town, on the lower slopes of Cadinell, is the old parish church, today a chapel, of the Santa María moat, Romanesque, with a nave with a smooth apse, without arches. It celebrates its main festival on the first Sunday of September.