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Published: August 13th 2007
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Slovenia
The Castle August 6, 2007
Friends in Europe
We left Makarska early to avoid the crowds…after all it is August, we kept hearing! We were rolling along, singing the praises of the Croatian roads. Until…OMG…it stopped dead on the freeway…for 3 hours! We thought for sure there was an accident. We were in the middle of no-where, people were getting out of their cars to pee behind bushes on the side of the road, women even, that is how desperate people were. After more than three hours of creeping along, we got going after the road took 3 lanes to 1! This whole nightmare was due to a merge. We stopped singing the praises of the great Croatian roads! We finally got under way to Slovenia. The 5 hour drive was now on its 10 hour when we finally arrived.
This was another one of those placed not on our list to visit. We originally were going to take a ferry from Dubrovnik to Bari, Italy for a trek through Southern Italy before our week in Tuscany. Well, the crowds combined with the ferry cost and some discussion lead us to Northern Italy and through Slovenia instead. What a GREAT
decision. As we entered, we were amazed at the beauty of Slovenia. We were blurry eyed by the 10 hour drive with no food, but still awe struck by our surroundings. We planned to visit the Karst region and do some caving. We stopped at the first hotel we saw…it was full but for the hostel room with 8 bunk beds…we’ll take it. We had wanted to stay at a farm recommended by our travel partner Rick Steves…but knew we could never find it in the dark after 10 hours of driving so the bunk beds it was!
The next morning we checked out of the youth hostel and took off for our first destination Predjama Castle. As we drove through the winding alpine roads towards the castle we still couldn’t get over the fresh air, and beauty of our surroundings. It was green and lush. We got to the castle before all the tour groups descended and were surprised to learn that the tour also included the caves under the castle. We each got a flash lights and took off with our guide. We saw stalagmites and stalactites that were so beautiful. It was wonderful…the boys loved it.
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Cool Cave formations They even saw some bats that slept in the cave during the day. The castle was not so interesting to them…more art than imagination so we took off after a quick walk through, thinking the cave was worth the whole trip.
We located our farm only to be told that they were full…it is August you know. As we were driving away, the owner ran after us to say that he just had a cancellation. Did we luck out! The place was amazing. This ranked the number one “hotel” for the kids. It included not only breakfast, but dinner too…all fresh from the farm ingredients. This was the place that broke our pizza in every country routine. We had to give it up for fresh spinach casserole, pot roast, homemade noodle soup, blueberry tart, and homemade bread…not to mention fresh homemade apple juice….the kids drank 2 pitchers before dinner even arrived. The farm also came equipped with a playground, trampoline and full size soccer field as well as sheep, cows, and pigs!
After settling at the farm we visited another cave system. This area of Slovenia is known for its cave systems, due to the mountains and great
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After a long Cave Hike rivers that run through it. There are 2 caves close by that offer tours. We chose the least popular, Skocjan Caves. It involved hiking up and down through the caves for about 2 miles with our guide, some points 50 meters above the river that was responsible for forming the caves, with its artistic stalagmites and stalactites. These caves as opposed to the ones we visited earlier under the castle were lit so we could see better. I can’t even describe it. They were so beautiful. The caverns were huge and the formations breathe taking. I wish I could have photographed it but it wasn’t allowed. Of course some yahoo exists in every group who takes pictures when not allowed…well our German guide didn’t let him get away with it…she confiscated his camera! It was great watching her scold him. I didn’t even pull mine out after that!
The best part of traveling for me is the people we meet. After a long day of hiking through caves and castles we settled down to a cold drink in the play yard watching the kids trampoline away and met a lovely Slovenian family just like us! They were neighbors of
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The farm where we stayed the farm and came over with their kids to play. Ingrid, the mom, struck up a conversation with me, thinking I was Dutch. She was blown away to learn I was American. She said Americans never visit Slovenia. Her English was as good as mine (she speaks seven languages fluently) …and certainly better than the US president’s…who by the way doesn’t even know where Slovenia is, as when talking to its president he called it Slovakia. Way to go George!!
Ingrid and her husband own a turkey farm in partnership with an Austrian company. They have three kids, similar ages to ours. The kids all played together and we talked with them for hours. We have new friends and I regret not getting their picture. I was so engrossed in our conversation and time together that it didn’t occur to me until they had driven away. Thankfully I have all her contact information. She asked us if we had friends in Europe and I said no…she replied now you do!
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Dave
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Glad to see the new postings, and that the prior ones have been recovered. Croatia and Slovenia looked great. Croatia, it seems, is becoming more of a popular destination especially the coast. From your description of the crowds it definitely appears to have been "discovered." Wouldn't traveling be great if everyone else would just stay home?