Caves and Tourist Trains

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Ok so we left the story at arriving in ljubljana (typing that has already become annoying) and yesterday harrison came up with a good idea of going to the caves near ljubljana.

We met him for some breakfast, and duly boarded a bus to Postojna, to visit the caves that are famous around these parts. After an hour or so we arrived and walked about a mile to reach them. It was a bit bizarre - lots of touristy stands outside the entrance, which were seemingly in the middle of knowhere-tourism is different to England.

We bought tickets to a tour of the caves, and to the Vivarium, which was a smaller cave housing different species of cave animals and insects in tanks. The only ones we managed to make out in the darkness were the proteus which are very much like slamanders, with no eyes and can only survive in the caves.

while queueing to get into the main cave we all had our picture taken which was quite a laugh cause we all pulled faces at the camera, and we were whizzed into a rather small and very yellow train. These were quite long, and resembled something from a children's ride at a theme park.
We rather cleverly managed to get ourselves in a large Korean tour group.

The whole tour was about 5km long, and the train initally took us about 2km into the belly of the cave. Health and safety in England would have shut this down a long time ago, as in quite a few parts you had to duck with very little warning so as not to bash your head on the overhanging rocks! This is where being slightly smaller than my brother counterpart was an advantage!!

We then walked up and down three levels of the caves, the oldest being the highest level, with the river still running through the lowest. At one point we were 500m below sea level. The tour guide explained all the different formations as we battled our way through many Korean tourists... Most holding hands.... Grrr.

At the end of the walking tour (ours was in English) we boarded another train and were whizzed out to the surface, passing along the way a cave which was adorned with chandeliers?? Apparently the caves here had electiricity in the 19th century before the capital, Ljubljana. (The tour guide was very proud in telling us)

In the biggest cave the echo is 7s long, and they apparently hold concerts down there in the winter. I can't see that they would be terribly easy to organise as the humidity is almost 100% and the temperature around 8 degrees C.

The photos were displayed on the way out, and were hilarious in the extreme. Harrison bought one of all three of us together (gurning as usual) so that he could remember us in years to come...

When we returned home we swapped hostels and had a rather nice dinner (a farewell dinner) in a restaurant called Juljia, which stands directly opposite Romeo!
The city is very lively at night, and we sat by the river with a drink for a while, before ice-creaming and saying our fond goodbyes. Harrison caught a train to Bled this morning, a beautiful little town by the lake about an hours train away from here. One to come back to?

Pete and I are about to go and explore the city on our last full day, sad times...

will see everyone shortly 😊

lisa and pete xxx

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