Cave Day

Jet lag is good for something, I guess. I was fully awake by 6 am and decided to go down for breakfast. Had the place all to myself and, after choosing a table and getting a cup of coffee, spent an agreeable hour reflecting on the day and writing my  blog. Ingrid and Erich joined me about an hour later and we ate, discussed our plans and soon found ourselves on our way.

Our first destination was the National Museum to get a sense of the history of Slovenia. On the way there we stopped at an Serbian Orthodox church build in the early 1900s to take a look. It looked like a stern place: all walls completely decorated with the most serious looking saints I have ever seen, several of them holding weapons. No place to sit, either. They did have one interesting feature, though: their lighted candles are placed in a basin with shallow water, so that if an earthquake were to happen and the candles fell, their light would be immediately extinguished.

The museum itself was mildly interesting. It was not rich on artifacts, the highlight being a flute made from bones that was over 20,000 years old, but it gave me a good sense of the struggle Slovenians had for a national identity. Not easy for a people that kept being invaded by everybody: Germans, Italians, French, Turks, everybody wanted a piece of this land some time or another.

After the museum we got in our car and drove to Postojna to visit the caverns, and I have to say it was one of the most impressive places I've ever visited. Think of a series of caverns, over 20 kilometers in length, with ceilings over 100 feet tall, covered in stalactites and stalagmites, and a river running through it. Words can't do it justice, pictures don't do it justice, so I won't try to describe in detail what I saw, only what I experienced.

We got there by car, bought our tickets and went into an underground, open train for  a fifteen minute ride deep into the caves. In and out of tunnels it went, some of them making me duck for fear of hitting my head against the ceiling; I have a feeling the place should have a "you must be this short" to ride the train sign. We could see some impressive stalactites and stalagmites at the point (or so I thought until I saw the ones further inside), but I have to confess that the fact that we were in a ride on rails made me feel like it was Disneyland and that the caves were an imagineer creation.

Eventually the strain stopped and everybody got out and we were directed to go stand under the appropriate language sign to wait for a guide for the walking part of the tour. There were over 100 people under the sign saying English, another 20 under the sign that said Slovenian, maybe 30 under the sign that said Italian, and about four under the German sign, so to the German sign we went. I hoped that my German was tour-guide quality, but knew that my hosts would be able to explain anything I missed.

We were joined by a lady who took us on a leisurely one hour walk through the caverns along well-defined paths, often paved and with handrails. There was some up and down, and around every corner there was something new to enjoy: a different kind of colored rock, a huge stalactite, a forest of stalagmites, real wonders of nature for which no word or picture can do justice. I will add some pictures here anyway, just to give an idea. All good things must come to an end, though, and we found ourselves back at the train, making our way back to the mouth of the cave, where we could see the river disappearing into its depths. Oh, and apparently my German was tour-guide quality.

Stalagmite formation at Postojna caves

"Spaghetti Room" at Postojna caves

Back to the car and off we went to Piran, our first Istrian coast destination. Piran is a small town on a hill, so small that you cannot park your car inside it; you drive in, drop your stuff at the hotel and drive out again to park at a garage, catching a shuttle back into town or, in our case, walking leisurely along the coast for fifteen minutes or so until we were back at the hotel. We didn't do much else that day, as it was getting late: we found a nice bar and had a couple of beers while watching a beautiful sunset at the Adriatic coast. Once darkness came we went to find a place to eat and get some rest before the next day's adventures.

View of Piran

Sunset at Piran

Oh, by the way, the hotel had drains in the bathroom floor, something I see all over in Brazil and had never seen in Europe or the U.S.

Our hotel at Piran