I woke up at 5:30 am. After the bathroom and breakfast (eggs and spinach) with Mom, we headed towards Planica in gloomy weather and light rain. One short stop at a gas station. Exit from the highway meant a traffic jam. From there on we drove much slower. On arrival after 2.5 hours, it was time to park, we were directed to a spot in collective, sequential parking.

Ticket was 85 € per person. In my opinion, it was overpriced. But I promised Mother to take her there last year but the price was double (170€!) also Planica was celebrating 90th birthday and this year Prevc was ending his career and showing respect for his achievements. Over frozen snow, we walked toward stand A. There, the seats were covered with snow, the organizer could clean this.

We managed to clean seats just before trial jumps started at 8:30. Few nice jumps, and it looked like the Slovene team was jumping ok. In half an hour before the start, I walked around and bought a flag and pin (10 €). After the first round Domen was third, Peter was fifth, and Lovro sixth. Additional half-hour break until the last round. Everyone stood up for Peter’s last jump and many Slovenian flags were high up in the air.

After the jumps ended it was time for the ceremonial part. For this game they awarded medals. Third was Polish Zniszczol. Peter’s brother Domen Prevc got a silver medal. The winner was Daniel Huber with two jumps over 240m. Next was Planica 7 with 7 jumps at this venue. Again was best Huber before Peter Prevc in second place and Forfang, Norway third. That brought to Huber also Sky Flying globe in front of compatriot Stefan Kraft and Peter Prevc. The overall winner of season 2023/24 was Stefan Kraft in front of Ryoyu Kobayashi-Japan and Andreas-Germany. Austria confidently wins the Nations Cup in front of Slovenia. So we listened to the Austrian national anthem 5 times in a row!

Now it was time to say goodbye to Peter Prevc. 20.000 spectators were under Ponce. The main message is saying “Thank you” to this champion who brought happiness to many Slovenian homes over many winter weekends in his 15-year-long career. The program was nice, with a few songs, 3 helicopters flying over, and a performance on the snow. When Pero addressed the auditorium his voice trembled and it brought tears into eyes of many spectators.

It was time to head towards home. When we arrived at the car we couldn’t move anywhere. We waited almost 1 hour before parking cleared enough so we could get out. It took yet another half an hour to get out of Planica, half an hour to the highway, and a bit more on the highway to home. We arrived home tired but full of impressions.