The sun is out, a stiff breeze off the ocean, it feels good to walk in the rising sun before breakfast. Breakfast today at the hotel was fantastic. "Jogurt" and granola, eggs with cheese and bacon, prosciutto, ham, fruit, juice, croissants, unlimited coffee and cappuccino. We are off to a good start.
We head out of town for a day in the hills and karst country. First stop: Skocjan Cave. It is famous because it has the largest underground canyon in Europe. It is pretty amazing, not for any particular stalactite or formation, but just for the sheer size of the cave. A big chamber leads into a huge chamber leads into gigantic chamber leads into the largest chamber you can imagine!
The next chamber holds the canyon and river and I call it the "OMG" chamber. I mean we cross a bridge waaaaayyyy down in this chamber that is still about 150 feet (50 metre) above a waterfall that in the river. Standing at one end of this chamber the lighted path goes on and on, down and up, around curves, clinging to sheer cliffs halfway up the chamber until it just kind of fades away and disappears in the distance, what? a kilometer away? Also amazing is to see the ruins of the first bridge, steps and platforms, all hand built with rock by torchlight in the early 1800s. Flowstone and stalagmite wise it is not great, but the size is breathtaking enough to be another UNESCO site.
Next we went to Predjama Castle, a castle built into a cave mouth. We have seen a lot of castles the past three years, and are a little jaded, but this was pretty interesting and spectacular just for the "gee whiz" factor. Enough so that we decided to take a break from hustling around and sit on the café patio with a glass (or two, once we find out the price is €1 per glass) to enjoy the view for an hour. We were fascinated by these tree seeds that twirl like maple seeds, but more like helicopters because they can even fly up in the breeze. The seed itself hangs from a flat leaf above and they just fly by.
After we stirred ourselves from our reverie, we drove 10km to Postojna Cave, famous as the largest and most visited show cave in Europe. They put a train in it in 1872, and we got to ride it 2km into the deep interior of the cave. This cave was the best I have ever seen as far as the formations. Now that is saying something. Think of the devastation caused by building the railroad, running in diesel trains, building 5km of concrete trail with drainage, putting in all the lighting, staircases, thousands of people a day for over 150 years now, tourist facilities (even bathrooms and a café), all that destruction and still the formations are amazing. There are too many to believe. Oh, and they have this silly rule about not taking photos (which everyone, I mean everyone, ignored) as if, after all I mentioned above, grabbing megapixels is going to cause irreparable damage? Really. It's about the money. Anyway it was an excellent cave.
So around 18:00 we headed to our lodging, a working farm (agritourismo). What a great room looking over a green meadow with creek, bordered by pine forests and backed by mountains. I could live here. For €66 we get the room, breakfast and dinner tonight. Dinner was fantastic, beef so tender I did not use a knife, cauliflower soup, veggies, bread and cake. The red wine was one of the best I have ever had, and we were given an extra half litre to take to our room. Our host explained that it is the best wine. "The father of my husband, he has a litre every day. He is of the 89 years and has no trouble with the blood sugars or the badness (cholesterol). Here. Drink!"
I like this family. So I make sure to follow the “litre-a-day” advice.
Turns out she and her husband have ten kids. In summer they help with the farm, other times they hire help. His parents live in one house on the farm and still work, his mom is 87 and survived Ravensbrük camp (In fact I run into her out at the beehives the next morning, tending her bees. She showed me the sting marks when she gathered honey). The hell of Ravensbrük to here, a little slice of heaven. I can see why they never left.
What a fantastic day.