Pot ob Vici: Celebration of Liberation

Each year on May 9th, is the Pot ob Vici, the annual walk around the city, enclosed by barbed wire and guard houses from 1941 - 1944.  Here's an abbreviated history, from a translated pamphlet:
The Germans invaded the former Yugoslavia on Palm Sunday, 1941, and the Italians took Ljubljana on Good Friday, later that week.
Various groups in Ljubljana, including the Communist Party, the Christian Socialists, and the Liberation Front,  organized to work together for the first time, against the occupying army.   This threatened the Italian Fascists enough to enclose the city with a barbed wire barrier, to prevent anyone from the countryside from entering, and vice-verso.

By the end of 1942, the fence was almost 30 kms long, with watch-towers and bunkers along the way - 206 fortifications of various sizes.  The citizens were unable to leave the city to walk in the countryside, as is their tradition and part of typical weekend activity.

The Liberation Army came on May 9, 1945, and opened the city.  The citizens celebrated their freedom by going to the countryside for walks and picnics en masse.  Now this tradition of "walking the wire" is done every year, on May 9.

My Fulbright buddy, Rachel Aumiller, Bella, and I picked up the path here, joining hundred of walkers at this point.  We walked through Golovec forest, towards Rudnic, and back to Ljbuljana,  just over 18 km.  That was enough for us!  We were three tired walkers!

But what a wonderful tradition for families and friends to celebrate the day...Feeling the love in Slovenia~