Castles, Caves and Jack Ryan!
Today is our last day in Slovenia so it is time to check out the most visited attraction in the whole country.
Postojna Cave is 24km long and the second longest cave system in Slovenia; only 5km is open to the public and 3.5km of that is travelled by electric train. We had joined a tour to take us here as public transport seems quite difficult. There were only a few pickup stops in the city, so we made our way to City Hotel, only a 5 minute walk away. Dado, our tour guide, picked us up and we were driven along with another 16 people to Postojna about 45 minutes to the west of Ljubljana.
The tour was supposed to begin at 10am, but there were coach-loads of people so we were delayed slightly. We had time for a latte, then an ice-cream, although my latte seemed to attract a wasp that finally drowned in it, yuk!
We eventually queued to enter the cave and follow the English tour which had about 100 people on it; the first part was a 2km train ride, which was amazing and slightly terrifying at the same time. There are no health and safety reminders so its worth noting, keep arms and legs inside the train, and make sure if you are tall, that you duck your head as some of the stalactites are closer than you think. The train journey took under 5 minutes, and by this point, I was pretty cold. We had been warned, and I was already wearing a light hoodie, but it’s amazing what 10 degrees feels like when you have been used to over 30 degrees. And just to note, we were told today was going to be the hottest day this year at 37 degrees!
The second part of the cave route was by foot; we followed a guide for 1.5km through the system of caves, crossing the Russian bridge, a bridge linking the old and new cave systems and built by Russian POWs during World War I. Another thing that’s quite interesting is the fact that these caves became a tourist attraction back in 1819, when Archduke Ferdinand visited them; of course, there was no electric lighting so it must have been incredibly dark with just candlelight.
The guide pointed out some stalactites and stalagmites, and formations called curtains as they look like folded curtains; she also showed us a few formations which apparently looked like roosters and also the Leaning Tower of Pisa but I wasn’t convinced. We did pass through some areas including the Spaghetti cave, the red cave and also the white cave, at least these did look like they were described. The walking tour took just over an hour, and at the end, we got to see some “human fish” in the aquarium. They have only been found in caves in this area, and are really quite weird. We couldn’t take photos as they are so sensitive to light; they are also blind, meat eaters and live to 100 years sometimes only eating once in a 10 year period. Imagine only eating 10 times in your whole life!
The tour finishes at the gift shop which you are made to walk through, before you jump back on the train for another 1.5km back to the surface. We were ready for the blast of heat when we exited the cave; Iains glasses and my phone all steamed up.
Our next stop was just 9km away, so we jumped back on the bus ready to visit the largest castle in a cave in the world (its even in the Guinness Book of Records!) Predjama castle is a castle built into a cliff about 120 metres up, it was built around 800 years ago. The most famous resident of the castle was a knight called Erasmus; he became known as a bit of a Robin Hood, so the King tried to have him killed. The castle is really well protected so no-one could get to him, so they decided to starve him out. What the troops didn’t know was there was a tunnel out the back of the cave, which allowed him to get food whenever it was required. Erasmus would throw fresh fruit and vegetables, as well as meat to the men below and they couldn’t work out what was happening. It was only after 6 months that the knight was finally killed; he was betrayed by a servant who lit a candle showing exactly where Erasmus was, and he was hit with a cannonball. What I haven’t mentioned is that he was on the toilet at the time; it was an out building and had the thinnest walls compared to the rest of the castle. Clearly, not the best way to go.
The castle was a self-guided with an audio guide; it was simple to follow and we could go at our own pace. There were quite a lot of stairs to traverse, and it was roasting, even though the guide insisted that we would need our jumpers again. By the end of it, we were boiling so wandered back to the bus and waited for everyone. I’m not the biggest fan of guided tours, because there is always one person who is late back to the bus. Honestly, I would have left them, 30 minutes we had to wait.
The journey back to Ljubljana was good as I slept most of the way; Iain woke me as we arrived back at City Hotel. It really was unbearably hot, so we wandered back to the hotel to rehydrate and plan where we were going for food as we hadn’t eaten since breakfast.
Postojna Cave is 24km long and the second longest cave system in Slovenia; only 5km is open to the public and 3.5km of that is travelled by electric train. We had joined a tour to take us here as public transport seems quite difficult. There were only a few pickup stops in the city, so we made our way to City Hotel, only a 5 minute walk away. Dado, our tour guide, picked us up and we were driven along with another 16 people to Postojna about 45 minutes to the west of Ljubljana.
The tour was supposed to begin at 10am, but there were coach-loads of people so we were delayed slightly. We had time for a latte, then an ice-cream, although my latte seemed to attract a wasp that finally drowned in it, yuk!
We eventually queued to enter the cave and follow the English tour which had about 100 people on it; the first part was a 2km train ride, which was amazing and slightly terrifying at the same time. There are no health and safety reminders so its worth noting, keep arms and legs inside the train, and make sure if you are tall, that you duck your head as some of the stalactites are closer than you think. The train journey took under 5 minutes, and by this point, I was pretty cold. We had been warned, and I was already wearing a light hoodie, but it’s amazing what 10 degrees feels like when you have been used to over 30 degrees. And just to note, we were told today was going to be the hottest day this year at 37 degrees!
The second part of the cave route was by foot; we followed a guide for 1.5km through the system of caves, crossing the Russian bridge, a bridge linking the old and new cave systems and built by Russian POWs during World War I. Another thing that’s quite interesting is the fact that these caves became a tourist attraction back in 1819, when Archduke Ferdinand visited them; of course, there was no electric lighting so it must have been incredibly dark with just candlelight.
The guide pointed out some stalactites and stalagmites, and formations called curtains as they look like folded curtains; she also showed us a few formations which apparently looked like roosters and also the Leaning Tower of Pisa but I wasn’t convinced. We did pass through some areas including the Spaghetti cave, the red cave and also the white cave, at least these did look like they were described. The walking tour took just over an hour, and at the end, we got to see some “human fish” in the aquarium. They have only been found in caves in this area, and are really quite weird. We couldn’t take photos as they are so sensitive to light; they are also blind, meat eaters and live to 100 years sometimes only eating once in a 10 year period. Imagine only eating 10 times in your whole life!
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Our next stop was just 9km away, so we jumped back on the bus ready to visit the largest castle in a cave in the world (its even in the Guinness Book of Records!) Predjama castle is a castle built into a cliff about 120 metres up, it was built around 800 years ago. The most famous resident of the castle was a knight called Erasmus; he became known as a bit of a Robin Hood, so the King tried to have him killed. The castle is really well protected so no-one could get to him, so they decided to starve him out. What the troops didn’t know was there was a tunnel out the back of the cave, which allowed him to get food whenever it was required. Erasmus would throw fresh fruit and vegetables, as well as meat to the men below and they couldn’t work out what was happening. It was only after 6 months that the knight was finally killed; he was betrayed by a servant who lit a candle showing exactly where Erasmus was, and he was hit with a cannonball. What I haven’t mentioned is that he was on the toilet at the time; it was an out building and had the thinnest walls compared to the rest of the castle. Clearly, not the best way to go.
The castle was a self-guided with an audio guide; it was simple to follow and we could go at our own pace. There were quite a lot of stairs to traverse, and it was roasting, even though the guide insisted that we would need our jumpers again. By the end of it, we were boiling so wandered back to the bus and waited for everyone. I’m not the biggest fan of guided tours, because there is always one person who is late back to the bus. Honestly, I would have left them, 30 minutes we had to wait.
Pop’s bar was great, so we walked back to the old town and ordered some burgers and beer, or Aperol Spritz in my case (its only 5.90 Euros here!) Iain was determined to have the Jack Ryan Burger and had been talking about it for the past few days, I just went with a Californian burger which was delicious. We enjoyed a few more drinks as we were under shade and it wasn’t crazy busy like the last time, well until 6pm when a huge table of people arrived.
That was our cue to leave and find a place to have another drink and dessert. I had been wanting to try ether cream cake or layer cake since we arrived, so we ordered both. Unfortunately, the cream cake was done, so we shared the Layer cake which was warm and super-filling; thank goodness the cream cake was finished!
Given that we had an early morning flight, we thought we better be sensible and go back to the hotel and pack. Plus it meant that I could watch the football on the iPad, since Rangers were playing a Champions League Qualifier.
Next stop……
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