May 7: Slovenia

 Exploring Predjama Castle & Postojna Cave

Welcome to Slovenia

What an epic end to the cruise portion of the adventure!  We were on the pier by 8:30am and had a 45 minute bus ride to the first stop, the enormous Predjama Castle.  As you can see it's built right into the caverns!  There's even a secret escape passage from the castle into the caves (we did not get to explore here).  Once there we took a self-guided tour (much prefer when the guide himself/herself provides the narration and story!) that lasted about 45 minutes.  We walked through several rooms - reminded me of touring Marksburg Castle on the Rhine River.  But the "highlight" was the B-I-G climb to the overlook.  The steps were much bigger than a normal stair case today and it was a L-O-N-G way up to the top let me tell you :)  But we did it....and then maneuvered our way back down again.

First look at the castle

Approaching the entrance

Interior shots:  the count / the bedroom / the torture chamber

the dining room / the bathroom :O / the "knights' room

Who's ready for the BIG climb?

Back on the bus - after having to wait fifteen minutes for a single guest who was late.  As he got on the buse he simply said, "Sorry, too many steps."  Uh huh - so the other 25 plus of us have to wait because you are a slow step climber?  Hmmmm.  About a fifteen minute drive to Postojna Cave and by the time we got there it had begun to rain pretty good - the first time that's happened the entire trip.  But we stood under cover until it was our turn to board the provided trains that go DEEP into the cave (about a ten minute ride, moving at a fast clip I might add.  And you DID need a jacket as it was chilly, especially on the train.  The cave was amazing while on the train, but when we began walking, even more stunning.  SOOOOOO huge (one cavern they said you could build an entire European cathedral within that single cavern).  You can get an idea of how much up and down we did in some of the photos below if you take note of the size of the people in the photograph.  We explored for nearly 90 minutes deep underground until we re-boarded the train for the trip back to the surface and daylight.  Had lunch and then boarded the buses for the trip back.  A long day but a GREAT day.  We sail to Venice tonight, arriving in the morning for the end of the cruise.  BUT our adventure continues with three nights on the Italian Lakes!

Welcome to Postojna Caves!

Interior - note how FAR down the other guests are :O

Riding the train into the caverns

Another shot on the train ride - NOTE how BIG it is compared to our train

Let the hour-long walking journey begin

NOT a good photo - but it proves we were there :)

LOOK how far down we have to go :O

Impressive - you just can't imaging how gigantic this is

Hi HO....Hi Ho.....It's thru the caves we GO

That is a GIGANTIC cavern

The "Russian Bridge" built by Russian Prisoners of War....YES, we walked across the bridge and looked DOWN.....then were way below - that's PRETTY high my friends

Truly you cannot fathom how big this is from the photo....each of those are at least 20 ft. long

The signature formations of the cave - EACH over 1,000 years old :O

We'll see you from Italy tomorrow!