Sunday 5 January

Last day in Slovenia.
First whole days of rain…even yesterday it only rained in the afternoon , but today was full. Not bad since it is the first whole day of rain we have had since the beginning of our trip…and it is winter over here.

We leave our hotel for Italy but not before stopping at a couple of well recommended sights. The first Postojnska jama is the largest cave in Europe and the most visited. Like Jenolan caves back in the Blue Mountains, it is a series of limestone caverns and galleries but the difference is the size – 20km of tunnels. To accommodate the tourists and to facilitate the guided tours, there is a miniature train that takes the tourists the first 2km in. The train went so fast and the caverns went past so quickly we wondered whether we were going to be able to see anything. However, after two km’s the train stops far underground and everyone piles out. There is good signage indicating meeting areas for those of different linguistic backgrounds with the English group not being that big. Then we were lead at around the caverns and tunnels for the next km with adequate but not excessive commentary from our guide. The limestone is not as well lit up as in similar caves in Australia and only with white light. We actually felt the low lighting added to the effect, that is until … the lights went out altogether! I was okay because I was holding the hand rail when the lights went out but Lyndell had nothing to orientate herself so suddenly and with great determination she grasped my forearm … The fingernail marks are still there in my skin despite me wearing a coat at the time.

( you bet……I t was so dark, so wet and so cold…and I could not see anything at all. Of course I was going to grab the first thing beside me…and hope it was Marc. !!!. It was a bit startling as you did not expect it to happen..it just did…..we do not think it was intentional but it added to the effect. Marc tells me that after I let go of his arm,he could still feel the tingling of where I had applied a ,’little” pressure )

Speaking of coats, even when we were on the little train, we were constantly being dripped on. Lyndell makes quite a cute sound when a stream of cold water drops run down the back of her neck … Well cute may not be quite the right word but it is a memorable sound!
( cold water running down your neck and /or splotching on your back or head did not make for a good feeling…if course I reacted. It was not tiny drips either…imagine a drainpipe leaking…quite significant stamps if water from the roof of this monstrous cave…very wet and startling on your warm body!)

Since it had been raining outside, we were still wearing our raincoats and we could simply pull our hoods up to cover the drips. ( when I remembered )

The whole walking tour lasted 40minutes and included viewing of the salamander that lives in the caves. Each salamander can live up to 100 years and go for a whole year without food. On the train ride out we went through the part of the tunnels where the partisans had blown up a German fuel cache during WW2 leaving the walls blackened – a part of history.

(We saw the concert hall section within the cave where they hold concerts and they even had a huge Christmas tree fully lit inside this cave….we r not talking about a little tree or a little cave either! They also hold a Christmas advent concert in various sections of the cave, where I imagine you walk to the next point. Imagine hearing Ave Maria floating through this cave…in this lightly illuminated cave …how amazing it would be. Our guide told us we have to come back for Christmas in Slovenia next year)

Overall, we could see why the caves were such a tourist attraction. Well worth a visit even just for the enormity of the cave structures. Judging by the number of available car parking spots, this place could be VERY crowded over summer months. Glad we were here in winter since the crowd was quite ‘reasonable’.

Our ticket included entry into Predjama Castle. This is a castle built in the entrance of another limestone cave. It looked like it jutted out from the rock…and was attached . Definitely made it very distinctive in the way it was built but also distinctive because the place would never had been able to be made warm or dry. Very defendable but would have been miserable to live in. Even though they have fixed it up quite well and replaced roofs and walkways, only within rooms would you not get the occasional drip from above on your head but never could you conceive the rooms being warm. In the corridors, drips were fair game and the damp cold even more penetrating. (The stairwells were always wet and full of pools of water. )The whole structure was designed to be defendable with layers of fall-back positions back into the cave with the final position being high and deep in the cave with a set of steps that led through the hillside to open on the other side of the ridge away from the aggressors (a back door that allowed the castle owners in the past to survive sieges of up to a year!
Fascinating place to visit made even more interesting by the lack of any crowds so we could really explore at our own time. We could see its strategic advantages but would hated to have to live there. In fact, its previous owners had felt the same way so once the middle-ages had past, it was just used as a summer hunting lodge. It is a bit off the main road but would recommend this place to anyone in the area.

( in fact it was so cold and so wet we were feeling so cold inside the castle and were pleased when we finally made the appearance outside the castle…and that was cold and wet enough! I just could nit imagine myself living in these kind if conditions at all….I would be constantly running to the toilet with the sound of dripping…running water beside me all the time…I really had to pee when we left.)…Marc too!!!

And now digressing here…speaking of toilets…(.Laura….ah yes again..)..this was the first time I had to use a squat toilet.
Sounds easy??? For the male maybe..but females…and definitely not in winter.
Imagine trying to spread your legs over this square ceramic tray in the ground…..then as you are ready, pull up all the layers of winter clothing you are wearing while keeping your back pack and the back of your coat high so it does not get wet…no place to hang it anyway…., now try to relieve yourself….without hitting your foot..or the other one…or the ground in front,…but aiming in the square bowl..in the ground, then trying to clean yourself up…..and pull your layers up and presentable again….and walk out smiling.
(I have now had to do this twice)
Males you have it too easy sometimes !!

In some ways it has been quite an interesting aspect of my visit to Europe…the different toilets and their names…today ..no name..just a picture,,,this one had lipstick on the door,,,,at least I know that was female….( hopefully anyway) .

In fact, as we leave Slovenia, we would recommend tourists to base themselves at Ljubljana and just take day trips out since most of the interesting sightseeing spots all seem to be within easy day-trips from the capital negating the need to pack up each night and find new accommodation each afternoon.

The trip to Trieste was only remarkable due to the miserable raining weather. We thought we would have a brief look at the city centre but this time, our usual strategy of getting near the centre, parking the car somewhere safe and walking the rest did not pay off. We parked at the train and bus station and then started to walk in. One, this turned to be still some distance from the centre and two, the weather was miserable and a passing car sprayed us both with water as it drove through a puddle. ( sprayed ??? , storage he says….wrong…Slopped us well and truly up my legs into my backsides….veery cold and very wet would be the better word….I was not impressed and added to my feeling of I do not like this place).
We called it a day and went to our basic accommodation of a B and B ( very basic but dry!!!!) for the next two nights which is 40minutes away Trieste but only 5minutes from the airport (we have to be at the airport at 5am in to days time).