Castles and Caves

 



Today was an optional day. Most of the group opted to join the tour to Predjama Castle and Postojna Cave. We left the hotel at 8:30 and drove for an hour through the fog.  

We arrived at Predjama Castle at 9:30

and went for our guided tour of the castle with Damien. We were fortunate that it wasn’t very crowded at this time. It is the biggest cave castle in the world. It was built inside the cave for safety in the 12th century and finished in 1583. The tour was one hour and the guide was very good. 

We left there at 11:15 and drove to the Postojna Cave. There were far more people here. We entered the cave and got on a train that took us 2 km into the cave, then we walked 1.5 km and then rode the train another 2 km to exit the cave. We had a guide lead us through the cave and she gave us lots of information. The cave is a 24 km long karst cave system formed by the Pivka River. It was discovered in 1818. The stalagmites and stalactites grow about 1 cm per 100 years.  They are formed by calcium carbonate in the dripping water. We went as low as 120 m below the surface. There are  about 116 species of animals in the cave, mainly insects. They do have salamanders that eat cave shrimp, worms and plankton. They are blind and white in color and can live up to 100 years.  At the end is a “Concert hall”, it is 40 m high and can hold up to 5000 people. They used to hold concerts here but it is not good for the instruments so they occasionally hold vocal concerts. 

We left at 2:10 to drive back to Ljubljana. The fog had cleared so we could see the countryside that we missed this morning. 

We arrived back at the hotel at 3:00 pm and we had free time until it was time to leave for our farewell dinner at 6:45. 

We had a lovely farewell dinner and it is hard to believe that we are at the end of the main tour already!  Tonight we said goodbye to Linda and Glen, who are flying home tomorrow. We also said goodbye to Twyla, Fraser, Terry and Sheila but they are heading for a two week Croatian sailing trip, so we wish them “happy sails”! 🥰















 


















































































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